New research on wind behavior in complex terrain, led by NOAA and the U.S. Department of Energy, will improve forecasts for wind energy firms by 15-25 percent, and improve wind forecasts for the entire country, scientists said.
The Wind Forecast Improvement Project 2, or WFIP2, focused on improving NOAA’s short-term weather forecasts of wind speeds in areas such as mountains, canyons, and coastlines, landforms often associated with abundant wind energy potential. The project was based in the windswept Columbia River Gorge in Washington and Oregon, where wind farms can generate as much power as five 800-megawatt nuclear power plants.
Researchers collected 18 months of data to better understand how terrain and weather physics affect forecasts of wind speed and turbulence at the height of wind turbines, data that researchers then used to improve the High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) short-term weather model’s representation of low-level winds. The scope of the project was unprecedented, with more than 200 instruments deployed across 50,000 square kilometers.
“This is a comprehensive investigation of winds in complex terrain,” said Dave Turner, manager of the NOAA Global Systems Division’s Atmospheric Science for Renewable Energy Program. “It gives us a unique opportunity to evaluate how well the HRRR represents weather in challenging conditions, and has already led to improvements in our ability to forecast low-level winds. And we’re just scratching the surface - additional work will certainly lead to further forecast improvements.”
Continue reading at NOAA.
Image via NOAA.