Requirements

The level required for passing the exam has been set so high that the certified user on his/her own is able to use WAsP and the suite of WAsP utility programs correctly to produce the best possible estimate of the wind resource.

In addition to participation in a WAsP course, passing the exam requires as a minimum several months of practical experience in using WAsP and the suite of WAsP utility programs. This is so because the exam involves an individual application of WAsP to a hypothetical wind farm project, with only limited time to execute the WAsP analysis - an exercise somewhat more demanding than the WAsP Course case study.

All analyses must of course be carried out in accordance with theory and best practices as taught in the WAsP course, using WAsP and the WAsP utility programs. However, one cannot expect to be able to pass the examination on basis of a WAsP course alone – several months of practical experience before or after the course is also necessary to have a fair chance of passing.

The listing of WAsP and WAsP utility program topics below, which must be mastered, is meant as an indication of the level sought and should not be taken as exhaustive.

WAsP and WAsP tools functionality

• WAsP Climate Analyst
  
  • Import of wind data time series
  • Configuration of settings relating to measurement data characteristics
  • Assurance of wind data quality
  • Trimming of wind data time series
  • Generation of observed mean wind climate summary statistics

• WAsP Map Editor
  
  • Editing height and/or roughness information
  • Adding new height and/or roughness information
  • Use of background map, incl. scaling (geo-referencing) a background map

• Air Density calculator
  
  • Calculating air density for a site

• WAsP itself
  
  • Set-up of WAsP project, incl. appropriate hierarchy
  • Calculation of wind atlas / Generalized Wind Climate
  • Set-up and calculation of resource grid
  • Calculation of power production from a single turbine or a wind farm incl. wake effects
  • Specification of Wind Turbine Generator type (“power curve”), taking on-site climate into account.

Wind data quality control and selection

• Identification of contiguous time spans with erroneous or missing data
• Selection of data ensuring
  
  • unbiased seasonal representation, incl. consideration to missing or bad data;
  • maximum possible recovery rate
• Analysis
• Quality assurance by interpretation of observed mean wind climate summary statistics, i.e. the quality of Weibull-fit(s)
• Treatment of Short-term wind data issues.

Terrain data quality control and selection

• Assignment of terrain-surface roughness values
• Consistency of roughness-change lines:
  
  • Dead ends, cross points, LFR-errors
• Consistency of height contours
• Reasonable sequence of elevation between neighboring height contours
• Check for missing or erroneous data against background map image :
  
  • Height contours, spot heights
  • Roughness change line(s) representing roughness areas
• Addition of missing terrain features
• Correction of erroneous data
  
  • Elevation
  • Roughnesses
• Over-all quality assurance
• Representativeness of the terrain description

WAsP calculation of wind resources

• Generalized wind climate
• Climatological and geographical representativeness
• Wind farm layout, based on resource grid
• Wind farm power production incl. wake effects
• Quality assurance, incl. applicability, of turbine power- and thrust curves
• Met mast – turbines similarity analysis, incl. e.g. complex terrain issues
• Wind data representativeness
• Over-all quality assurance
• Rough estimation of uncertainty from the above
• Reporting

General theory

• Measurement issues on level as taught in WAsP course
• Knowledge of basic wind flow on level as taught in WAsP course

Roughness assignment

• Ability to assign proper, “sensible”, roughness length to common surface covers
• Knowledge of distinction between physical roughness length values – and the values specified to WAsP (via vector map).

Language

As the exam takes place in English a sufficiently high level is required: The oral presentation of the solution of the WAsP Certification Exercise as well as the answering of the questions will be in English. Thus, an applicant must be able to speak and understand English at a reasonably high level.

This level corresponds to what is required for participating in international university classes in natural science or technology with lectures and oral exams in English.

The organizers of the WAsP Certification Exam reserve the right to deny an applicant participation in a WAsP Certification Exam or to fail grade the participant if the language requirements are judged not to be fulfilled.