In a glance

This module calculates the wind energy supply potential in a selected area. Inputs to the module are a raster file with the average wind speed and the technical specification of the wind blade and turbine.

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Introduction

This module assess the wind energy that might be generated by a wind turbine with a yearly, monthly and hourly resolution. The module estimated the number of turbines that might be installed in a predefined area.

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Inputs and outputs

Input layers and parameters are:

• Wind hub setup costs (all inclusive) price €/kWp
• Distance among wind hubs m
• Maintenance and operation costs as a percentage of the total installation costs (default value: 2%)
• Wind turbine - peak power (default value: 800kW)
• Wind hub height (default value: 80m)
• Financing years (default value: 20year)
• Discount rate (default value: 4.0%)

Output layers and parameters are:

• the yearly wind total energy produced
• the wind total setup cost
• the number of wind systems installed
• Levelized cost of energy [€/kWh]

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Method

The methodology used by the CM is to used the area selected by the user. The default areas are the areas identified in the wind potential layers that considered only areas with low or sparse vegetation, and bare and burnt areas (classes from 3.2.1. to 3.2.4. and 3.3.3., 3.3.4. of Corine Land Cover - CLC), these areas has been further filtered based on the following excluding criteria:

• Areas above 2500 m.a.s.l.;
• A 1 km buffer from urban areas (classes from 1.1.1. to 1.4.2. of the CLC);
• Corridors for bird connectivity (Common Database on Designated Areas [148]);
• Exclusion of protected areas of the Nature 2000 network [149].

The CM use the user defined distance among the hubs to create a grid of potential hubs in the selected areas. Based on the number of wind turbine that might be potentially installed, based on the main characteristics of the wind system, height and technical specifications the module compute the energy that can be produced by the system.

The module obtain the monthly and hourly profile, computing the baricenter of the selected areas and query the RenewableNinja API, that provide the data from the MERRAv2 dataset.

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GitHub repository of this calculation module

Here you get the bleeding-edge development for this calculation module.

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Sample run

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How to cite

Pietro Zambelli, in Hotmaps-Wiki, CM-Heatsource-potential (September 2020)

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Authors and reviewers

Institute of Renewable Energy

viale Druso 1

39100 Bolzano

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