Development and application of an integrated wind resource assessment tool for wind farm planning

An integrated wind resource assessment tool has been developed to help public operators and private investors in wind farm planning. The two-parameter Weibull probability density function is used to calculate wind speed frequency distribution. The system takes advantage of an integrated database including an updated list of more than 200 windgenerators manufactured by the most experienced worldwide companies. Main wind resource and turbine-converted energy indicators are computed, such as mean wind speed and power density, Weibull's scale and shape factors, Betz annual specific energy, availability and capacity factors, annual energy production, and full-load hours. A comprehensive energy report is eventually created for any site, including plots and tables such as wind rose and Joint Frequency Functions, Weibull's wind speed distribution and cumulated probability, annual energy production vs. turbine power curve. Thereby, the system is suitable for on-site pre-feasibility studies. Furthermore, it operates according to a point-by-point fashion, as it may be routinely run in an automated mode for a large number of points over the study area. This later enables main wind energy contouring maps to be plotted. The system has been applied to perform a wind turbine comparison aimed at detecting the site most efficient windgenerator within a number of works. As a benchmark, an extensive application of the developed system has been carried out to assess the large-scale wind potential of Tuscany region, Italy. Hourly wind estimates calculated by the coupled Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and CALMET models at a 2-Km resolution have been processed by the system over the region through a 4-year time period.