Articles | Volume 11, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-11-217-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-11-217-2026
Research article
 | 
19 Jan 2026
Research article |  | 19 Jan 2026

Determining the ideal length of wind speed series for wind speed distribution and resource assessment

Lihong Zhou and Igor Esau

Data sets

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

Model code and software

Determining the ideal length of wind speed series for wind speed distribution and resource assessment Lihong Zhou https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17945145

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Short summary
How much hourly wind data are enough for reliable resource assessment? Using long-term station records and reconstructed datasets, we test sample sizes and sampling strategies. Means, variability, and Weibull scale converge within a sample size of 1 month of hours, but distribution shape needs far more. Random cross-year sampling reaches a given accuracy with far less data than continuous sampling.
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