Predicting Small Wind Turbine Performance Using Remote Wind Data

Wind maps are typically used to predict the performance of small wind turbine systems such as 10 kW units which are sized for single rural residences. The general nature of the wind maps may negatively impact the reliability of wind turbine performance predictions. Multi-million dollar wind farms rely on multi-year siting studies to characterize wind velocity. However such siting studies are probably cost-prohibitive compared to the cost of a small wind turbine system which is on the order of $50,000 installed. The use of non site-specific wind velocity data such as that available from a regional database may be a cost effective means for predicting wind turbine performance. Regional climate databases collect wind velocity from widely-scattered weather stations, and an obvious drawback to engineers interested in using this data is that it is likely that the weather stations will not be co-located with the desired wind turbine location. Monte Carlo models were developed to compare wind turbine performance predictions calculated using remote wind velocity data downloaded from a regional climate database to actual wind turbine performance at a Nebraska Superfund site.