Wind Resource Mapping

There are typically two objectives of a wind resource mapping:

A: To analyse and present the resource for a region e.g. a municipality or an entire country to be used in spatial plans or energy planning.
B: Mapping of a smaller area within a region in order to optimise the layout of a wind farm.

The calculation of large wind resource maps is a field, where EMD had unsurpassed experience. In 1999 EMD completed a detailed mapping of the Danish Wind Resource. WindPRO handled more than 8 million advanced WAsP calculations. For 4 hub heights in a grid resolution of 200 m all Denmark were calculated in just 12 calculation runs. The calculation method was verified using production data from more than 1400 existing wind turbines. The actual production for more than 80% of the turbines was within ±10% of the amount predicted using the wind resource map. These existing turbines are fairly equally distributed over the country.

The methods developed in order to calculate the detailed wind resource map of Denmark can be used almost anywhere in the world. A more detailed report of the Danish Wind Resource Map can be supplied upon request or downloaded in pdf-format here . The Danish Wind Resource Map still represents state of the art in terms of detail, level of verification and graphic interface even though it is more than 4 years old.

A wind resource map calculation is normally divided into the following stages:

1. Planning phase:
During the planning phase items like level of detail in the resource map, requested interface options, available data, possible local coorporation and time schedule are settled.

2. Data collection:
Digital maps (vector format) of land-use (for roughness) and height contours are the basis for the calculation. Wind data for each region, around 50 km radius, much depending of terrain complexity) will be needed. If existing meteorological measurements not are god enough, meso scale calculations can be an alternative method for establishment of the needed wind data – or a valuable supplement.

3. Data evaluation and site inspection:
One of the very important phases is test runs of selected smaller regions, where a good knowledge of the wind climate is available, e.g. from an existing wind farms. The results of these are used to test, calibrate and refine the whole calculation set-up. 

4: Calculation of the resource map:
When all data are ready and tested, the calculation is pure computer work.

5: Presentation of the resource map:
The calculated resource map is converted for integration in the users preferred GIS tool (e.g. Arc Info) or an independent interface is programmed for presentation and evaluation of the resource data. Maps will be produced in graphic format ready for poster print.

To get a price idea for large wind resource maps, the Danish Wind Resource map (43.000 km2) did cost around 300.000 € to produce – around 1 year of effective work period. Local maps typically cost around 8.000 €.

Please contact us for further information

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EMD International A/S  Niels Jernesvej 10  9220 Aalborg Ø Denmark  
Tel.: +45 9635 4444  Fax: +45 9635 4446  E-mail: emd@emd.dk