Wind speed prediction accuracy and expected errors of RANS equations in low relief inland terrain for wind resource assessment purposes

Authors:
Serozhah Milashuk;William A. Crane
Affiliations:
Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Taylor University, Upland, IN 46989, USA/Graduate School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA;Genesis Management Services, Inc., Warsaw, IN 46580, USA
Venue:
Environmental Modelling & Software
Year:
2011

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Abstract

The current trend of increasing number of wind turbine installations has led to the installation of wind farms in areas with lower energy winds and more uniform topography. This study documents the accuracy and competency of RANS (Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes) equations in transforming wind speeds from measurement (reference) station to other locations of interest in low relief inland terrain. Furthermore, this study documents a tendency of absolute wind speed prediction error to depend on the speed-up factor between the predictor and predicted station. It is shown that no such error dependence exists in the speed-up factor prediction expected error. This suggests that it is better to report and use expected error of the speed-up factors and not expected absolute wind speed prediction error. Finally, the utility of the Anderson-Darling normality test in the process of quality control of wind data predictions is analyzed.