The observational wind atlas methodology consists of an analysis part and an application part, which may be summarised as follows:
Wind atlas analysis
This procedure transforms the site-specific observed wind climate to a more or less site-independent or regional wind climate. The analysis procedure corresponds to the 'up-arrow' in the graphic to the right.
- time-series of wind speed and direction —> wind statistics = observed wind climate (OWC)
- observed wind climate + site descriptions —> wind atlas data sets = regional wind climate (RWC)
Wind atlas application
This procedure transforms the regional wind climate to a site-specific predicted wind climate. The application procedure corresponds to the 'down-arrow' in the graphic below.
- regional wind climate + site descriptions —> predicted wind climate (PWC)
- predicted wind climate + power curve —> annual energy production (AEP)
Wind farm production
- predicted wind climates + WTG characteristics + wind farm layout —> wind farm wake losses
- annual energy productions + wake losses —> net annual energy production of entire wind farm
The wind atlas methodology is described in much more detail in the European Wind Atlas. Several examples of wind atlases based on wind observations carried out in a network of meteorological stations are given in the Wind Atlas section.
