Evaluation of the wind patterns over the Yucatán Peninsula in México

Wind power is seen as one of the most effective means available to combat the twin crises of global climate change and energy security. The annual market growth has established wind power as the leading renewable energy technology. Due to the availability of sparsely populated and flat open terrain, the Yucatán Peninsula located in eastern México is a promising region from the perspective of wind energy development but no comprehensive assessment of wind resource has been previously published. A basic requirement when developing wind power projects is to study the main characteristic parameters of wind in relation to its geographical and temporal distribution. The analysis of diurnal and seasonal wind patterns are an important stage in the move towards commercial exploitation of wind power. The research developed during the PhD has comprehensively assessed the wind behaviour over the Yucatán Peninsula region covering long term patterns at three sites, a spatial study using short term data for nine sites, a vertical profile study on one inland site and an offshore study made on a pier at 6.65km from the North shore. Monthly trends, directional behaviours and frequency distributions were identified and discussed. The characteristics of the wind speed variation reflected their proximity to the coast and whether they were influenced by wind coming predominantly from over the land or predominantly from over the sea. The atmospheric stability over the eastern seas was also analysed to assess thermal effects for different wind directions. Diurnal wind speed variations are shown to be affected in particular by the differing wind conditions associated with fetches over two distinct offshore regions. Seasonal behaviour suggests some departure from the oscillations expected from temperature variation. The offshore wind is thermally driven suggesting largely unstable conditions and the potential development of a shallow Stable Internal Boundary Layer.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Evaluation of the wind patterns over the Yucatán Peninsula in México

Wind power is seen as one of the most effective means available to combat the twin crises of global climate change and energy security. The annual market growth has established wind power as the leading renewable energy technology. Due to the availability of sparsely populated and flat open terrain, the Yucatán Peninsula located in eastern México is a promising region from the perspective of wind energy development but no comprehensive assessment of wind resource has been previously published. A basic requirement when developing wind power projects is to study the main characteristic parameters of wind in relation to its geographical and temporal distribution. The analysis of diurnal and seasonal wind patterns are an important stage in the move towards commercial exploitation of wind power. The research developed during the PhD has comprehensively assessed the wind behaviour over the Yucatán Peninsula region covering long term patterns at three sites, a spatial study using short term data for nine sites, a vertical profile study on one inland site and an offshore study made on a pier at 6.65km from the North shore. Monthly trends, directional behaviours and frequency distributions were identified and discussed. The characteristics of the wind speed variation reflected their proximity to the coast and whether they were influenced by wind coming predominantly from over the land or predominantly from over the sea. The atmospheric stability over the eastern seas was also analysed to assess thermal effects for different wind directions. Diurnal wind speed variations are shown to be affected in particular by the differing wind conditions associated with fetches over two distinct offshore regions. Seasonal behaviour suggests some departure from the oscillations expected from temperature variation. The offshore wind is thermally driven suggesting largely unstable conditions and the potential development of a shallow Stable Internal Boundary Layer.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Correlation analysis between UK onshore and offshore wind speeds

The work presented in this paper is an analysis of the correlation between wind speeds at offshore and coastal/inland sites to determine the expected accuracy of long term correction techniques for offshore resource assessment such as measure-correlate-predict (MCP). In particular, data from offshore mast masts at three different heights and five different surface stations have been studied. Different coastal-offshore, inland-offshore and coastal-onshore combinations have been analysed. Correlations based on one half of the available data and prediction accuracy based on the second half of the data are presented. The correlation coefficient, the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) were used as metrics in this case. Although RMSE of predictions is greatest for offshore sites, the MAPE is lowest for two of the three regions studied. An MAPE of 25-30% may be expected in terms of wind speed prediction accuracy based on statistical (turbulent) variation

Preliminary assessment of the variability of UK offshore wind speed as a function of distance to the coast

In the UK, there is an interest in the expected offshore wind resource given ambitious national plans to expand offshore capacity. There is also an increasing interest in alternative datasets to evaluate wind seasonal and inter-annual cycles which can be very useful in the initial stages of the design of wind farms in order to identify prospective areas where local measurements can then be applied to determine small-scale variations in the marine wind climate. In this paper we analyse both MERRA2 reanalysis data and measured offshore mast data to determine patterns in wind speed variation and how they change as a function of the distance from the coast. We also identify an empirical expression to estimate wind speed based on the distance from the coast. From the analysis, it was found that the variations of the seasonal cycles seem to be almost independent of the distance to the nearest shore and that they are an order of magnitude larger than the variations of the diurnal cycles. It was concluded that the diurnal variations decreased to less than a half for places located more than 100km from the nearest shore and that the data from the MERRA2 reanalysis grid points give an under-prediction of the average values of wind speed for both the diurnal and seasonal cycles. Finally, even though the two offshore masts were almost the same nearest distance from the coast and were geographically relatively close, they exhibited significantly different behaviour in terms of the strength of their diurnal and seasonal cycles which may be due to the distance from the coast for the prevailing wind direction being quite different for the two sites

A computational model for estimating the performance of flat plane low concentration systems

The implementation of PV systems is one of the feasible alternatives to meet the energy supply in communities far from the conventional electric grid. Several studies have shown that a flat plane concentrator can produce better electrical behaviour in a PV system, due to the reduction of the effective panel surface needed for the operation of the system. As the cost of a PV system is strongly conditioned by the cost of the PV panels, it can lead to an increase of the PV market. This work describes the computational model developed to represent the concentration pattern over a collector, generated by a flat plane reflector. A useful 3D representation of the system has been programmed to visualize the concentration system. The computational model was developed in Mathematica Programming Language Environment. The simulation tool created shows that Mathematica is a quick and powerful tool to represent the low-concentrating photovoltaic systems

Study of the UK offshore wind resource: preliminary results from the first stage of the SUPERGEN Wind 2 project resource assessment

Rapid changes in wind direction can lead to turbine lifetime reduction or even failure. Also, large hub heights for wind turbines are approaching the top of the surface layer so the traditional logarithmic profile may not be wholly appropriate to parameterise variation of wind speed with height. The first steps undertaken as part of the UK EPSRC Supergen Wind II project to improve wind resource assessment and predict the temporal variations in the offshore wind are presented. Data from boundary-layer wind-profiling radar were analysed to extract the diurnal and vertical patterns of the wind speed close to an offshore site for future correlation with offshore mast data

Evaluation of the wind shear at a site in the North-West of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Extrapolations from 10m above the ground up to the wind turbine hub height are frequently made to the data available for wind power assessments. Because of its simplicity, the power law profile has been one of the most popular mathematical formulations to predict the vertical wind shear. This paper presents an analysis of wind speed and wind shear in terms of the directional, diurnal and seasonal patterns for a site at the Autonomous University of Yucatan which experiences the tropical conditions of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. This analysis takes a detailed look at frequency distributions to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the local climatic conditions. Diurnal wind speed variations are shown to be affected in particular by the differing wind conditions associated with fetches over two distinct offshore regions. Seasonal behaviour suggests some departure from the oscillations expected from temperature variation. In addition, the use of rate of change of temperature at one height is proposed as an alternative to vertical temperature gradient inferred from two heights as an indicator of atmospheric stability which will affect the wind shear. The work presented is part of a regionally funded research program to evaluate the onshore and offshore wind potential in the north of the Yucatan Peninsula

Study of the offshore wind and its propagation inland of the northern zone of the Yucatan Peninsula, Eastern Mexico

A preliminary study of the wind characteristics of the northern zone of the Yucatan Peninsula, Eastern Mexico was undertaken for offshore and coastal sites using data measured from three measurement sites. Ten minutes averages of wind speeds, wind directions and ambient temperatures at two different heights were recorded from data measured over a year. The usual wind statistics analysis was undertaken to evaluate the atmospheric stability and the relation between the offshore and onshore winds. The results were compared with the models previously proposed by Monin-Obukhov and by Hsu

Statistical assessment of the offshore wind and temperature profiles at the North of the Yucatan Peninsula - Mexico

Using a telecommunication tower installed on a pier approximately 7km from the coastline, a set of ultrasonic sensors were installed at 10m and 25m height. Sea Surface Temperature (SST) values were also derived from Geostationary Satellite Imagers with a spatial resolution of approximately 6km and hourly data sets. Then, the SST hourly data from the GEOS satellite was synchronized in space and time with the onsite measured data from the offshore tower. The evaluation process showed the persistent of a shallow stable boundary layer conditioned by a highly directional wind patterns which blow almost parallel to the coastline

Preliminary results of a statistical wind resources analysis in offshore conditions in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico

A statistical analysis of the wind resources has been undertaken by mean of data measured on a communication tower installed on a pier which extends 6.65km from the coastline. A set of wind and temperature sensors were installed to record the ten minute averages over approximately two years. As a complement, hourly values of Sea Surface Temperature, extracted from GEOS satellite measurements over the study region, were also included in the research presented. The results have confirmed that the offshore wind is thermally driven by differential heating of land and sea producing sea breezes which veer to blow parallel to the coast in the late afternoon under the action of the Coriolis force. Air temperature and sea surface temperature profiles suggested largely unstable conditions and the potentially development of a shallow Stable Internal Boundary Layer