Market-Driven Wind Resource Assessment

In open electricity markets, mechanisms of supply and demand set the hourly spot price. In markets with high penetration of wind energy, prices drop during high wind speed periods due to an oversupply of wind-generated electricity. The fluctuating nature of wind energy leads to price volatility. Due to increasing wind energy penetration and price volatility, wind farm operators in Denmark have experienced a 15% drop in revenue during the last 15 years, and the profitability of new projects is uncertain. But how can we accurately assess the electricity value of future wind farms?
This paper presents a new wind resource assessment method for estimating the market value of wind farm projects—considering the site-specific correlation between wind speed and electricity price. The study demonstrates the process by assessing the “value curve” at a site in Denmark over the past 24 years, and it proposes that traditional wind resource assessment methods adopt a similar approach.