Before energy operators build wind plants, they need confidence that they can supply a sufficient stream of clean, low-cost wind energy to business and home owners. For that confidence, they need a better idea of when the wind will blow, how strongly, and with what variability. Once a wind plant begins operation, operators also need accurate forecasts for managing their production relative to wind energy markets.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) supports several programs that are helping to give industry the confidence it needs. One such program is Atmosphere to Electrons (A2e), where a collective of researchers from DOE’s national laboratories, industry, and academia are providing a better understanding of the wind plant operating environment.

Resource characterization under the A2e program

PNNL provides expertise and leadership to the Wind Forecast Improvement Project 2 (WFIP-2), studying wind that courses through the hills and valleys of the Columbia Basin in Washington and Oregon. In the latter 2010s, the research team generated one of the most comprehensive data sets to date of wind in complex terrain, resulting in more accurate computer algorithms. Some of these algorithms have been included in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service forecast models.

A related project, A2e’s Mesoscale-Microscale Coupling project, works to identify the most accurate representation of wind flow into and through wind plants. This project is taking advantage of the data set from the WFIP-2 project to validate its modeling advances. PNNL is providing modeling and computational expertise to better connect how varying weather conditions affect the turbulent wake environment in which individual turbines operate within wind plants. A better understanding of these processes allows control systems to more efficiently operate wind power plants.

Also under the A2e program, PNNL is part of a group of national laboratories that will play a role in A2e’s American WAKE ExperimeNt—or AWAKEN—campaign. AWAKEN, which also engages multiple federal agencies as well as research groups outside the United States, is designed to gather observational and model data to address questions about wind turbine wake interactions and aerodynamics and to further understand wake behavior and validate wind plant models. The campaign is taking place in the nation’s Midwest, where wind plant growth is significant.The data resulting from these and other studies supported by WETO are stored and publicly available through PNNL’s Data Archive and Portal.

Resource characterization for other programs

WETO’s Tools Assessing Performance project is designed to improve resource characterization for the distributed wind industry, reducing uncertainty surrounding performance and costs as well as increasing customer confidence. PNNL is part of this newer collaborative effort that includes multiple national laboratories. The national laboratories and their industry and academic partners will pool computational and atmospheric expertise and tools to create an online portal that provides the industry with access to newly developed wind resource data.

Finally, PNNL is working with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, as well as DOE’s National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium to address technological barriers and lower costs and risks of offshore wind in the United States. This consortium is designed to facilitate development of the offshore wind industry by addressing wind resource and physical site characterization. In addition, the consortium investigates solutions for installation, operations, and the advancement of wind plant technology.