Incorporating Exposure, Surface Roughness, and Elevation
In wind resource assessment, the conventional approach to meteorological (met) mast siting has emphasised distance, recommending maintaining a maximum separation distance between each met site and the proposed wind turbine locations. This industry-accepted method assumes that shorter distances translate to better representativeness. But is distance truly the metric that matters most?
By Liz Walls and Erin Roekle, One Power Company, USA
This article challenges this long-held belief. Using data from three wind farms, we explore the parameters that drive wind speed variability. The findings show that terrain exposure, surface roughness, and elevation are far more predictive of meteorological (met) site representativeness than simply proximity to turbines.
