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Risø offers consulting services for regional wind climate mapping and project-related wind resource assessment according to the wind atlas methodology.
Background
Risø has developed the wind atlas methodology and with that the WAsP computer program, which is considered the industry standard in wind turbine and wind farm energy production estimation (please visit www.windatlas.dk and www.wasp.dk). Risø has a long track record as a consultant in wind resource assessment and siting, which since 1980 has been part of the services in most wind energy projects, carried out around the world. The many Risø wind studies have all been done using WAsP.
Clients
The following is a sample of our most recent clients: Vestas (DK), NEG Micon (DK), Siemens (DK), DP Energy (GB), ING Bank (NL), Tomen Corp (UK), Electricité de France EDF (FR), Equity Bank (IE), Enron (US), EU-programmes and donor agencies. Studies and services funded by donor agencies - like Danida, Danced, UNDP, and UNEP - have been carried out in many, particularly African and Asian, countries in close collaboration with authorities, institutions and other stakeholders.
The services
Basically, a study estimates the wind climate or the potential annual energy production of a wind turbine or a wind farm in a region or at a proposed site. The wind climate and energy production estimates are calculated using WAsP.
The entire study may be provided as consulting services from Risø, as part of a feasibility study, a technical due diligence, a micro-siting exercise or as a wind atlas project or for mapping regional wind resources. For the experienced WAsP user, Risø can offer to review the data and results of a wind resource assessment project in order to assure the quality of the work. This transfers the latest knowledge and further builds the capacity of your company.
The study will involve at least the following main elements:
- collection of data and information, i.e. generation of all necessary inputs to the analyses, which requires a site visit by an expert from Risø
- analyses and reporting, which most often will be done home-office at Risø
Inputs needed
A wind resource assessment study needs high-quality input information in order to be able to provide accurate and reliable wind resource estimates. The client will facilitate or provide the input data. Briefly, the inputs needed are
- Meteorological station position and measuring heights
- Observed Wind Climate - data of wind speed and direction from long-term reference stations and/or from on-site measurements
- Topography description - digital elevation and terrain surface roughness map(s)
- Obstacle list and specifications
- Layout of wind farm as well as power and thrust coefficient curve(s), hub height and rotor diameter of the wind turbines
Results
The study report will contain a full documentation of the background, data and inputs used for the analyses. The resulting wind atlas will be a representation of the wind climate of the region, containing information regarding estimated wind conditions, power density in the flow, and potential annual energy production for a user-specified wind turbine. Finally, the actual expected energy productions of the individual wind turbines in a wind farm are given, taking into account the interaction between wind turbines, i.e. the wind farm array efficiency or wake losses. The report will include an estimation of the uncertainties of results. Selected results will be shown in colour maps.
WAsP
The WAsP program is considered the industry-standard wind atlas analysis and application program for Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7. The graphical user interface is illustrated below. For more information, please visit www.wasp.dk.
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