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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">WESD</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>Wind Energy Science Discussions</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">WESD</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">2366-7621</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name></publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/wes-2026-92</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Wind resource assessment in flow-distorting terrain: Techno-economic comparison of fixed-wing UAVs &amp;amp; profiling LiDAR</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Nguyen</surname>
<given-names>Phuong Anh</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Vos</surname>
<given-names>Ewoud</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Hassani</surname>
<given-names>Danial</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5305-3793</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Hanze UAS, Entrance - Centre of Expertise Energy, Groningen, 9747 AA, The Netherlands</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Alveo AB, Stockholm, 138 33 Älta, Sweden</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>18</day>
<month>06</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>20</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Phuong Anh Nguyen et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://wes.copernicus.org/preprints/wes-2026-92/">This article is available from https://wes.copernicus.org/preprints/wes-2026-92/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://wes.copernicus.org/preprints/wes-2026-92/wes-2026-92.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://wes.copernicus.org/preprints/wes-2026-92/wes-2026-92.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>This study conducts a head-to-head techno-economic comparison of vertical profiling Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) deployments for wind resources assessment at a representative 120 MW onshore project in flow‑distorting terrain in Germany. A simplified energy yield model and a Monte Carlo framework propagate literature-based measurement and flow model uncertainties through different measurement scenarios to the exceedance levels (P50, P90) of Annual Energy Production (AEP), Net Present Value (NPV) and Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). The analysis shows that both technologies achieve similar point measurement uncertainties (&amp;plusmn;0.4&amp;ndash;0.5 m/s, &amp;plusmn;7&amp;ndash;10&amp;deg;). The dominant lever for reducing AEP uncertainty and improving P90 is increased direct spatial coverage, not marginal gains in instrument accuracy. Under consistent cost and financing assumptions, UAV-based deployments deliver the largest P90 uplift, higher NPV and lower LCOE than LiDAR configurations.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="20"/></counts>
</article-meta>
</front>
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