Articles | Volume 22
https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-22-69-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/asr-22-69-2025
14 Nov 2025
 | 14 Nov 2025

Evaluation of ERA5, COSMO-REA6 and CERRA in simulating wind speed along the French coastline for wind energy applications

Anindita Patra, Boutheina Oueslati, Tessa Chevallier, Paul Renaud, Youen Kervella, and Laurent Dubus

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Cited articles

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Bollmeyer, C., Keller, J. D., Ohlwein, C., Wahl, S., Crewell, S., Friederichs, P., Hense, A., Keune, J., Kneifel, S., Pscheidt, I., Redl, S., and Steinke, S.: Towards a high-resolution regional re-analysis for the European CORDEX domain, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 141, 1–15, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.2486, 2015. 
Cañadillas, B., Wang, S., Ahlert, Y., Djath, B., Barekzai, M., Foreman, R., and Lampert, A.: Coastal horizontal wind speed gradients in the North Sea based on observations and ERA5 reanalysis data, Meteorologische Zeitschrift, 32, 207–228, https://doi.org/10.1127/metz/2022/1166, 2023. 
Cannon, D. J., Brayshaw, D. J., Methven, J., Coker, P. J., and Lenaghan, D.: Using reanalysis data to quantify extreme wind power generation statistics: A 33-year case study in Great Britain, Renewable Energy, 75, 767–778, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2014.10.024, 2015. 
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Short summary
In this study, the quality of 10 and 100 m wind speeds from three different reanalyses (global and regional) are evaluated along the different coasts of France. The evaluation show that Copernicus Regional Reanalysis for Europe (CERRA) has a high skill for surface wind speed on the three French seafronts, as well as for offshore wind speed at 100 m. Thus, CERRA appears to be the optimal reanalysis to use as a reference for offshore wind studies over the French maritime zone.
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