Wind Turbine Output Estimator Tool

This tool window lets you estimate the annual energy production of a wind turbine in a wind regime that you describe with a few statistical parameters rather than with time series data.

Tip: To estimate the energy output of a wind turbine in a wind regime for which you have measured time series data, open the dataset using File > Open and open the Wind Turbine Output window.

Wind Resource Data

Use the radio button in the top left corner to choose whether to specify the wind resource data using an Annual mean value, Monthly means, or a Frequency histogram. You will need to enter the mean wind speed and the height at which the wind speed data apply. If you do not provide a frequency histogram, Windographer will use the Weibull k value to estimate the distribution of the wind speed.

The power law exponent defines the wind shear between the anemometer height and the wind turbine hub height. The air density and hub height wind speed are then used to estimate the power output of the wind turbine.

Wind Turbine Selection

Once you have described the wind resource, choose a wind turbine model and a hub height.

Before you choose Wind turbine, use the Turbine Group drop-down box to select a subset of turbines that you have created, or choose <All turbines>. Then use the Wind Turbine drop-down box to select a turbine.

When you choose a wind turbine model, Windographer displays its power curve, which is a graph of power output versus wind speed at hub height. A radio button to the right of the power curve lets you choose from the standard hub heights of the selected wind turbine. (These standard hub heights are properties of the wind turbine.) Choose one of the standard hub heights, or choose the last radio button and enter a custom hub height.

Losses

Enter the loss terms to account for losses due to downtime, icing, interference from other wind turbines, and so on. You can enter a single overall loss factor in the edit box, or use the ... button to open the loss calculator window where you can enter up to seven separate loss terms, which Windographer combines in a multiplicative fashion into the overall loss factor.

Output

Click the Calculate Output button. The tables in the bottom right corner will display the mean power output, the annual energy output, and the capacity factor before and after losses.

Right-click any graph or table to copy it to the clipboard or export it to a file.