Complex terrain experiments in the New European Wind Atlas

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2017-03-06

Authors

José Laginha Palma (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences

Vol. 375

Initial page: 2091

ISSN: 1364-503X

Publisher: The Royal Society

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 29 Citations

Scopus - 68 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00M-KQ8

DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2016.0101

Abstract (EN): The New European Wind Atlas project will create a freely accessible wind atlas covering Europe and Turkey, develop the model chain to create the atlas and perform a series of experiments on flow in many different kinds of complex terrain to validate the models. This paper describes the experiments of which some are nearly completed while others are in the planning stage. All experiments focus on the flow properties that are relevant for wind turbines, so the main focus is the mean flow and the turbulence at heights between 40 and 300 m. Also extreme winds, wind shear and veer, and diurnal and seasonal variations of the wind are of interest. Common to all the experiments is the use of Doppler lidar systems to supplement and in some cases replace completely meteorological towers. Many of the lidars will be equipped with scan heads that will allow for arbitrary scan patterns by several synchronized systems. Two pilot experiments, one in Portugal and one in Germany, show the value of using multiple synchronized, scanning lidar, both in terms of the accuracy of the measurements and the atmospheric physical processes that can be studied. The experimental data will be used for validation of atmospheric flow models and will by the end of the project be freely available. This article is part of the themed issue 'Wind energy in complex terrains'.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 23