Atmospheric research into wind energy
New Zealand has extensive renewable energy in the form of hydro, wind and solar power. However, wind energy is only now starting to be fully exploited. In 2006, established wind farms represented less than 2% of total installed electricity generation capacity, and provided less than 1% of annual electricity production. It is hoped that at least 20% of the countries energy requirements will come from wind in the near future. There is therefore a lot of interest in establishing wind farms of varying size across the country.
The atmospheric research group has developed significant knowledge of airflow in complex terrain, as well as strong skills in the operation and application of computer modelling tools to wind mapping and prediction of the wind resource over New Zealand’s rugged landscape. We currently use four different advanced computer models to undertake wind energy prospecting, site evaluation, and detailed project analysis. The first three are high resolution mesoscale meteorological models that generate hourly wind data at selected horizontal grid resolutions (e.g. 200 m, 800 m, 1 km) and at numerous heights above ground level. Second, an industry-standard wind energy model uses these wind data to provide detailed wind and energy analyses for selected areas or specific wind farm sites. Research includes application of the same modelling and analysis tools to investigation of long term variability of the wind energy resource, including assessment of inter-regional correlation of wind within New Zealand. A short term forecasting system is currently being developed and tested for the wind energy industry based on application of these wind models. Most of this atmospheric modelling work is being conducted using the University of Canterbury’s supercomputer facilities.
Measurement and microscale modelling techniques are also being used to investigate the effects of turbulence generated in areas of difficult terrain on the siting of wind turbines and to optimise wind farm layout. This involves the use of a SODAR (Sound Detecting and Ranging) wind profiling device, instrumented towers and high resolution computational fluid dynamics models. The atmospheric research group has access to a wide range of instrumentation and technical support to help with deployment and maintenance of equipment.