Evaluation of wind speed estimates in  reanalyses for wind energy applications

Brune, Sebastian; Keller, Jan D.; Wahl, Sabrina

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-18-115-2021

Articles | Volume 18

https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-18-115-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-18-115-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18

30 Jul 2021

| 30 Jul 2021

Evaluation of wind speed estimates in reanalyses for wind energy applications

Sebastian Brune, Jan D. Keller, and Sabrina Wahl

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-18-115-2021-supplement

Data sets

The Tall Tower Dataset J. Ramon and L. Lledó https://b2share.eudat.eu/records/136ecdeee31a45a7906a773095656ddb

COSMO-REA6 regional reanalysis DWD/HErZ - Deutscher Wetterdienst - Climate Data Center/Hans-Ertel Centre for Weather Research https://opendata.dwd.de/climate_environment/REA/COSMO_REA6/

Short summary

Correct estimates of wind speed between 60 and 200 m above ground are of great interest for the renewable energy sector. Observed wind speeds are compared to three different reanalyses. ERA5 and COSMO-REA6 outperform MERRA-2 at offshore, flat and hilly sites. Over land, ERA5 models nighttime wind speed better than COSMO-REA6 due to better representation of the low level jet through higher vertical resolution, a more comprehensive data assimilation scheme, and/or the more recent model version.