Answers to commonly asked questions about wind resources and wind energy in general..
Why is a wind study needed?
With continued growth in the wind market and increasing need to control project cost, wind farm stakeholders must be sure of the economic feasibility of each opportunity. A detailed understanding of the expected return on investment will drive the right business decisions. The cornerstone of that analysis is an accurate assessment of the wind, the fuel for the plant. And energy production is related to the cube of the wind speed, so any variance in wind speed measurement impacts the projected output.
What is normalization and why is it important?
Normalization refers to a scientifically based analysis of the long-term wind resource at the study point by combining detailed modeling of one year of data with 40 years of the WindLogics reference information. This analysis is particularly useful for understanding the inter-annual variability which impacts project cash flow risk, and therefore project financing.
What is a P-value and why is it important?
The prediction level values (P90, P95, etc.) are probability values, in percent, that indicate the likelihood of a given event happening. The P values in wind analysis reports are the lower interval bounds, in the units of the measured data (wind speed in m/s, GW/yr, etc.). They are important because they quantify the inter-annual variability of wind speeds and gross energy production to help in making key project financial decisions.
What is a Virtual Tower?
A Virtual Tower is WindLogics nomenclature for a hub-height point of reference on a project site. From this point, which can be virtually anywhere on the site, WindLogics can extract hourly wind speed data for a full year (8760 time steps) for further detailed analysis. The results are comparable to having a met tower erected and collecting data for a full year, except of course the WindLogics approach takes only a few weeks to complete.
