Offshore reanalysis wind speed assessment  across the wind turbine rotor layer  off the United States Pacific coast

Sheridan, Lindsay M.; Krishnamurthy, Raghu; García Medina, Gabriel; Gaudet, Brian J.; Gustafson Jr., William I.; Mahon, Alicia M.; Shaw, William J.; Newsom, Rob K.; Pekour, Mikhail; Yang, Zhaoqing

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2059-2022

Articles | Volume 7, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2059-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-2059-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 7, issue 5

Research article

|

19 Oct 2022

Research article |

| 19 Oct 2022

Offshore reanalysis wind speed assessment across the wind turbine rotor layer off the United States Pacific coast

Lindsay M. Sheridan, Raghu Krishnamurthy, Gabriel García Medina, Brian J. Gaudet, William I. Gustafson Jr., Alicia M. Mahon, William J. Shaw, Rob K. Newsom, Mikhail Pekour, and Zhaoqing Yang

Data sets

California - Quality-controlled Reanalysis and Observational Data for Buoy (120), Humboldt / Derived Data L. Sheridan https://doi.org/10.21947/1839076

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Data Buoy Center NDBC https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/

Buoy - California - Processed Data U.S. Department of Energy https://doi.org/10.21947/1783807

Lidar - California - Processed Data U.S. Department of Energy https://doi.org/10.21947/1783809

Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 NASA https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/reanalysis/MERRA-2/data_access/

Wind-Wave-Altimetry-DM00 A. Ribal and I. R. Young http://thredds.aodn.org.au/thredds/catalog/IMOS/SRS/Surface-Waves/Wave-Wind-Altimetry-DM00/catalog.html

Model code and software

Buoy - California - Quality-Controlled Reanalysis and Observational Data - Derived Data U.S. Department of Energy https://doi.org/10.21947/1839076

Short summary

Using observations from lidar buoys, five reanalysis and analysis models that support the wind energy community are validated offshore and at rotor-level heights along the California Pacific coast. The models are found to underestimate the observed wind resource. Occasions of large model error occur in conjunction with stable atmospheric conditions, wind speeds associated with peak turbine power production, and mischaracterization of the diurnal wind speed cycle in summer months.