Assessment of renewable wind resources in UK urban areas

Abstract

Renewable wind resources in UK urban areas are analysed in this paper based on the available wind speed measurements and wind turbine manufacturers' data. Power curves of selected wind turbines and measured/fitted wind speed distributions for considered UK urban sites are used for the estimation of wind turbines maximum annual energy outputs. These results are then compared with the energy outputs obtained when commonly assumed UK mean wind speed values and Rayleigh distribution of average wind speeds are used instead of the measurements. The paper concludes that standard assumptions for UK mean wind speeds and Rayleigh distribution cannot be used for the correct assessment of UK urban wind resources, while Weibull distribution can be used if corresponding factors k and λ are determined from the measured wind speed data.