Global assessment of spatiotemporal changes of frequency of terrestrial wind speed

Wind energy, an important component of clean energy, is highly dictated by the disposable wind speed within the working regime of wind turbines (typically between 3 and 25 m s ^−1 at the hub height). Following a continuous reduction (‘stilling’) of global annual mean surface wind speed (SWS) since t...

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Main Authors: Yanan Zhao, Shijing Liang, Yi Liu, Tim R McVicar, Cesar Azorin-Molina, Lihong Zhou, Robert J H Dunn, Sonia Jerez, Yingzuo Qin, Xinrong Yang, Jiayu Xu, Zhenzhong Zeng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2023-01-01
Series:Environmental Research Letters
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acc9d5
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author Yanan Zhao
Shijing Liang
Yi Liu
Tim R McVicar
Cesar Azorin-Molina
Lihong Zhou
Robert J H Dunn
Sonia Jerez
Yingzuo Qin
Xinrong Yang
Jiayu Xu
Zhenzhong Zeng
author_facet Yanan Zhao
Shijing Liang
Yi Liu
Tim R McVicar
Cesar Azorin-Molina
Lihong Zhou
Robert J H Dunn
Sonia Jerez
Yingzuo Qin
Xinrong Yang
Jiayu Xu
Zhenzhong Zeng
author_sort Yanan Zhao
collection DOAJ
description Wind energy, an important component of clean energy, is highly dictated by the disposable wind speed within the working regime of wind turbines (typically between 3 and 25 m s ^−1 at the hub height). Following a continuous reduction (‘stilling’) of global annual mean surface wind speed (SWS) since the 1960s, recently, researchers have reported a ‘reversal’ since 2011. However, little attention has been paid to the evolution of the effective wind speed for wind turbines. Since wind speed at hub height increases with SWS through power law, we focus on the wind speed frequency variations at various ranges of SWS through hourly in-situ observations and quantify their contributions to the average SWS changes over 1981–2021. We found that during the stilling period (here 1981–2010), the strong SWS (⩾ 5.0 m s ^−1 , the 80th of global SWS) with decreasing frequency contributed 220.37% to the continuous weakening of mean SWS. During the reversal period of SWS (here 2011–2021), slight wind (0 m s ^−1 < SWS < 2.9 m s ^−1 ) contributed 64.07% to a strengthening of SWS. The strengthened strong wind (⩾ 5.0 m s ^−1 ) contributed 73.38% to the trend change of SWS from decrease to increase in 2010. Based on the synthetic capacity factor series calculated by considering commercial wind turbines (General Electric GE 2.5-120 model with rated power 2.5 MW) at the locations of the meteorological stations, the frequency changes resulted in a reduction of wind power energy (−10.02 TWh yr ^−1 , p < 0.001) from 1981 to 2010 and relatively weak recovery (2.67 TWh yr ^−1 , p < 0.05) during 2011–2021.
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spelling doaj-art-6a04332c8f7c4e3d9b7bf3f9089bf9a82024-12-17T14:36:08ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262023-01-0118404404810.1088/1748-9326/acc9d5Global assessment of spatiotemporal changes of frequency of terrestrial wind speedYanan Zhao0https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7766-6005Shijing Liang1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8136-484XYi Liu2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5515-8804Tim R McVicar3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0877-8285Cesar Azorin-Molina4https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5913-7026Lihong Zhou5Robert J H Dunn6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2469-5989Sonia Jerez7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2153-1658Yingzuo Qin8Xinrong Yang9https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9469-9884Jiayu Xu10Zhenzhong Zeng11School of Environmental Science and Engineering , Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of ChinaSchool of Environmental Science and Engineering , Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of ChinaSchool of Environmental Science and Engineering , Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of ChinaCSIRO Environment , Black Mountain, Canberra, ACT, AustraliaCentro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificación , Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CIDE, CSIC-UV-Generalitat Valenciana), Climate, Atmosphere and Ocean Laboratory (Climatoc-Lab), Moncada, Valencia, SpainSchool of Environmental Science and Engineering , Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of ChinaMet Office Hadley Centre , Exeter, United KingdomDepartment of Physics, University of Murcia , Murcia, SpainSchool of Environmental Science and Engineering , Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of ChinaSchool of Environmental Science and Engineering , Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of ChinaSchool of Environmental Science and Engineering , Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of ChinaSchool of Environmental Science and Engineering , Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of ChinaWind energy, an important component of clean energy, is highly dictated by the disposable wind speed within the working regime of wind turbines (typically between 3 and 25 m s ^−1 at the hub height). Following a continuous reduction (‘stilling’) of global annual mean surface wind speed (SWS) since the 1960s, recently, researchers have reported a ‘reversal’ since 2011. However, little attention has been paid to the evolution of the effective wind speed for wind turbines. Since wind speed at hub height increases with SWS through power law, we focus on the wind speed frequency variations at various ranges of SWS through hourly in-situ observations and quantify their contributions to the average SWS changes over 1981–2021. We found that during the stilling period (here 1981–2010), the strong SWS (⩾ 5.0 m s ^−1 , the 80th of global SWS) with decreasing frequency contributed 220.37% to the continuous weakening of mean SWS. During the reversal period of SWS (here 2011–2021), slight wind (0 m s ^−1 < SWS < 2.9 m s ^−1 ) contributed 64.07% to a strengthening of SWS. The strengthened strong wind (⩾ 5.0 m s ^−1 ) contributed 73.38% to the trend change of SWS from decrease to increase in 2010. Based on the synthetic capacity factor series calculated by considering commercial wind turbines (General Electric GE 2.5-120 model with rated power 2.5 MW) at the locations of the meteorological stations, the frequency changes resulted in a reduction of wind power energy (−10.02 TWh yr ^−1 , p < 0.001) from 1981 to 2010 and relatively weak recovery (2.67 TWh yr ^−1 , p < 0.05) during 2011–2021.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acc9d5wind speedfrequency changeswind energypower curvestrong winds
spellingShingle Yanan Zhao
Shijing Liang
Yi Liu
Tim R McVicar
Cesar Azorin-Molina
Lihong Zhou
Robert J H Dunn
Sonia Jerez
Yingzuo Qin
Xinrong Yang
Jiayu Xu
Zhenzhong Zeng
Global assessment of spatiotemporal changes of frequency of terrestrial wind speed
Environmental Research Letters
wind speed
frequency changes
wind energy
power curve
strong winds
title Global assessment of spatiotemporal changes of frequency of terrestrial wind speed
title_full Global assessment of spatiotemporal changes of frequency of terrestrial wind speed
title_fullStr Global assessment of spatiotemporal changes of frequency of terrestrial wind speed
title_full_unstemmed Global assessment of spatiotemporal changes of frequency of terrestrial wind speed
title_short Global assessment of spatiotemporal changes of frequency of terrestrial wind speed
title_sort global assessment of spatiotemporal changes of frequency of terrestrial wind speed
topic wind speed
frequency changes
wind energy
power curve
strong winds
url https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acc9d5
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