1. FullView Initial Site
WIND Assessment
Yellowstone May 06, 2010
FOR CONTACT
Client ph: +1 206.325.1573
fax: +1 206.325.1618
info@3tier.com
www.3tier.com
2001 6th Avenue, Suite 2100
Seattle, WA 98121-2534
NOTICE
Copyright c 2010 3TIER, Inc. All rights reserved. 3TIER claims a copyright in all proprietary
and copyrightable text and graphics in this Report, the overall design of this Report, and the
selection, arrangement and presentation of all materials in this Report. This work may be
redistributed only in its entirety. Partial redistribution is prohibited without express written
permission from 3TIER. Requests for permission may be directed to info@3tier.com.
4. Yellowstone
Introduction For Client
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1 INTRODUCTION
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1.1 Overview
3TIER has been retained by Client to assess the wind resource over the Yellowstone region, and our analysis is presented
in this report. This summary section discusses the overall properties of the project. Following it, section 2 shows the mean
wind speed and capacity factor over the entire Yellowstone region, at 200m resolution, and displays turbine and reference
point locations. Section 3 contains mean wind speeds and wind and power roses at the 5 reference points provided by
Client. Project-wide monthly, hourly, and annual means for wind speed and capacity factor can be seen in section 4.
In section 5, tabular data for each turbine are available, including location, base elevation, mean wind speed (at hub
height), mean air density (also at hub height), and wind shear between 30m and 80m. The turbine power curve for the
SWT23 (with hub height 80m) is also provided, in Table 5. For overall project data and production statistics, see Table 1
directly below. These quantities are computed over every turbine location (see section 5), and do not include data from
the reference points.
Project mean wind speed 7.97 m/s
Average air density across turbines 0.89 kg/m3
Average turbine base elevation 3024 m
Project gross capacity factor 39.5 %
Project gross energy production 53.6 MW
Project net capacity factor 33.4 %
Project net energy production 45.3 MW
Table 1: Project statistics
Statistics for the turbines with the highest and lowest mean gross capacity factor can be seen below, in Table 2. Additional
information for these and all 59 turbines can be found in Section 5.
T055 (best) T007 (worst)
Mean wind speed 9.88 m/s Mean wind speed 6.43 m/s
Gross capacity factor 56.1 % Gross capacity factor 25.5 %
Gross energy production 1.3 MW Gross energy production 0.6 MW
Table 2: Statistics for the best and worst turbines
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5. Yellowstone
Introduction For Client
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1.2 Data provided by Client
Client has provided 3TIER with 59 turbine locations to be used in an analysis of the wind resource across the Yellow-
stone region (see section 2 for the locations of these turbines). At each of these turbine locations, timeseries data were
extracted from the model output and used to compute the capacity factor for that turbine. Detailed information for each
turbine can be seen in section 5, and the overall production statistics for the project can be seen on the previous page
in Table 1. Additionally, information on the best and worst performing turbines can be seen in Table 2. For reference
purposes, the power curve for the SWT23 turbine is provided in Table 5.
Client has also specified the loss factors listed in Table 3 below. These were used to compute the net production statistics,
which can be seen in Table 1 on the previous page, as well as in Figure 8 in section 4.
In addition to turbine locations, Client has provided 5 meteorological reference points, which are labeled on the maps in
section 2. Wind speed and direction timeseries were extracted at these points, and an analysis is presented in section 3,
which includes the overall mean wind speeds at each reference point, and wind and power roses showing the distribution
of wind direction. Section 3 is meant to provide an easily readable overview of the wind resource over the area.
Curtailment (low temp, utility, etc) 100.0 %
Wake from existing wind farms 100.0 %
Electrical efficiency 96.0 %
Wake effect 96.0 %
Substation maintenance 99.0 %
Icing and blade degradation 98.5 %
Turbine performance 100.0 %
Availability 94.0 %
Table 3: Loss factors
1.3 Deliverables
Supplementing this report, 3TIER will provide the following data files:
• Maps of the Yellowstone region with annual mean wind speed and capacity factor at 80m, in GeoTIFF format.
• 12x24 tables of mean wind speed and capacity factor (across all turbines), in CSV format.
• Detailed information for each turbine including location, elevation, wind speed and capacity factor, in CSV format.
• Details for each reference point, including location, elevation, and mean wind speed.
• Overall project statistics, in CSV format.
• Annual- and monthly-mean wind and power roses, computed for each reference point, in CSV and JPEG format.
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6. Yellowstone
Introduction For Client
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1.4 Methodology
3TIER used a numerical weather prediction model, the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF), to analyze the
wind resource across the Yellowstone region, and downscaled that dataset to 200m using our proprietary Time-Varying
Microscale (TVM) model. WRF enables a very sophisticated but computationally intensive simulation of the dynamical
and physical processes of the atmosphere, and the TVM model complements it by using diagnostic techniques to analyze
microscale processes without the prohibitive computational cost of running WRF at high resolution. Initial and lateral
boundary conditions for WRF were extracted from the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis data, a multi-decadal coarse-resolution
observational dataset sufficient to provide accurate representation of synoptic-scale processes. In this case, WRF was run
on a 5km grid from January 1999 through December 2008, then downscaled to a 200m grid using TVM.
After the spatial dataset was generated, the wind resource was analyzed at each reference point and turbine location (as
provided by Client), and the results are presented in this report. Additionally, several project-wide statistics are computed
(see Table 1 above).
Since no observational data were provided within the Yellowstone region, the data in this report represent raw model
output only.
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7. Yellowstone
Maps For Client
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2 WIND RESOURCE AND CAPACITY FACTOR MAPS AT 80M
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This section presents spatial maps of the average simulated wind speed and capacity factor at 80m across the Yellow-
stone region. All maps within this section represent the raw model output of the 200m resolution domain. The red box
denotes the valid study area.
110˚20'W 110˚15'W 110˚10'W 110˚05'W 110˚00'W 109˚55'W
R02
44˚25'N 44˚25'N
R03
44˚20'N 44˚20'N
R04
44˚15'N 44˚15'N
R05
R01
44˚10'N 44˚10'N
110˚20'W 110˚15'W 110˚10'W 110˚05'W 110˚00'W 109˚55'W
m/s
Reference points
Turbines 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0
80m wind speed
Figure 1: Mean wind speed at 80m.
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8. Yellowstone
Maps For Client
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110˚20'W 110˚15'W 110˚10'W 110˚05'W 110˚00'W 109˚55'W
R02
44˚25'N 44˚25'N
R03
44˚20'N 44˚20'N
R04
44˚15'N 44˚15'N
R05
R01
44˚10'N 44˚10'N
110˚20'W 110˚15'W 110˚10'W 110˚05'W 110˚00'W 109˚55'W
%
Reference points
Turbines 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0
80m capacity factor
Figure 2: Mean capacity factor for the SWT23 turbine at 80m.
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9. Yellowstone
Reference Point Analysis For Client
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3 REFERENCE POINT ANALYSIS
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The data presented in this section are derived from the 5 reference points provided by Client. In Table 4 below, location
information and mean wind speed are summarized for each reference point, and the following pages contain annual wind
and power roses for each reference point and monthly wind and power roses for the first reference point specified. In
addition to the coordinates given in this table, reference point locations are labeled on the maps in section 2.
ID Latitude Longitude Elevation Hub height Mean wind speed
(m) (m) (m)
s
R01 44.1812 -110.3082 2721 80 6.95
R02 44.4475 -109.9306 2223 80 6.33
R03 44.3790 -110.0725 3178 80 9.53
R04 44.3120 -109.9605 3345 80 9.79
R05 44.2027 -110.1900 2914 80 7.31
Table 4: Reference point information
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10. Yellowstone
Reference Point Analysis For Client
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3.1 Wind Roses
Point 1 N Point 2 N Point 3 N
W E W E W E
10 % 10 % 10 %
S S S
Point 4 N Point 5 N
W E W E
10 % 10 %
S S
Figure 3: Annual wind roses for all reference points
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Reference Point Analysis For Client
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N N March N
January February
W E W E W E
10 % 10 % 10 %
S S S
N N June N
April May
W E W E W E
10 % 10 % 10 %
S S S
N N N
July August September
W E W E W E
10 % 10 % 10 %
S S S
October N November N December N
W E W E W E
10 % 10 % 10 %
S S S
Figure 4: Monthly wind roses for reference point R01
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12. Yellowstone
Reference Point Analysis For Client
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3.2 Power Roses (for the SWT23 turbine)
Point 1 N Point 2 N Point 3 N
W E W E W E
10 % 10 % 10 %
S S S
Point 4 N Point 5 N
W E W E
10 % 10 %
S S
Figure 5: Annual power roses for all reference points
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13. Yellowstone
Reference Point Analysis For Client
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N N March N
January February
W E W E W E
10 % 10 % 10 %
S S S
N N June N
April May
W E W E W E
10 % 10 % 10 %
S S S
N N N
July August September
W E W E W E
10 % 10 % 10 %
S S S
October N November N December N
W E W E W E
10 % 10 % 10 %
S S S
Figure 6: Monthly power roses for reference point R01
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14. Yellowstone
12x24 Tables For Client
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4 12 BY 24 TABLES
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These tables contain the mean of each hour (0 through 23) from each month in the year. Each column, therefore, shows
that month’s mean diurnal cycle, and the annual mean diurnal cycle can be read down the rightmost column, which is
composed of the overall means of each hour. The bottom row contains each month’s mean, and in the bottom right cell
is the overall mean. These means are computed across all 59 turbine locations provided by Client, and do not include the
reference points.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jly Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Avg
0 9.03 8.63 8.59 8.67 9.69 9.73 8.06 7.79 8.15 8.48 8.63 8.71 8.68
1 8.99 8.66 8.41 8.09 9.15 9.25 7.47 7.09 7.48 8.24 8.57 8.63 8.33
2 8.94 8.58 8.32 7.76 8.28 8.14 6.45 6.34 7.02 8.03 8.48 8.59 7.91
3 8.92 8.51 8.21 7.60 7.82 7.52 5.91 5.90 6.60 7.87 8.45 8.59 7.65
4 8.96 8.50 8.19 7.56 7.45 7.14 5.50 5.64 6.38 7.79 8.50 8.64 7.51
5 9.05 8.54 8.21 7.59 7.23 6.89 5.30 5.66 6.34 7.79 8.53 8.71 7.48
6 9.14 8.59 8.25 7.62 7.14 6.83 5.30 5.78 6.40 7.80 8.57 8.80 7.51
7 9.21 8.65 8.26 7.61 7.09 6.82 5.36 5.87 6.43 7.81 8.60 8.87 7.54
8 9.21 8.62 8.28 7.55 7.03 6.81 5.41 5.94 6.47 7.83 8.60 8.88 7.55
9 9.17 8.58 8.26 7.46 6.95 6.78 5.41 5.96 6.48 7.81 8.58 8.83 7.52
Hour of Day (UTC)
10 9.11 8.54 8.16 7.40 6.86 6.71 5.36 5.92 6.41 7.72 8.54 8.74 7.45
11 9.06 8.47 8.10 7.35 6.79 6.68 5.36 5.90 6.35 7.64 8.51 8.71 7.40
12 8.96 8.39 8.03 7.33 6.76 6.65 5.39 5.90 6.32 7.59 8.47 8.69 7.37
13 8.89 8.30 7.98 7.28 6.70 6.42 5.29 5.89 6.31 7.52 8.45 8.67 7.30
14 8.83 8.25 7.95 7.07 6.37 6.21 4.78 5.44 6.21 7.49 8.45 8.64 7.13
15 8.78 8.20 7.79 6.88 6.86 7.05 5.54 5.36 5.94 7.40 8.46 8.65 7.24
16 8.74 8.03 7.64 7.20 7.85 7.97 6.58 6.37 6.35 7.27 8.43 8.67 7.59
17 8.66 7.90 7.89 7.75 8.61 8.64 7.33 7.19 7.20 7.65 8.31 8.60 7.98
18 8.64 8.09 8.37 8.33 9.17 9.19 7.87 7.74 7.88 8.25 8.45 8.53 8.38
19 8.72 8.35 8.77 8.75 9.54 9.56 8.29 8.10 8.33 8.75 8.65 8.57 8.70
20 8.85 8.64 9.08 9.07 9.80 9.80 8.54 8.32 8.64 9.09 8.82 8.66 8.94
21 8.90 8.74 9.21 9.18 9.98 9.92 8.59 8.35 8.74 9.21 8.87 8.69 9.03
22 8.88 8.64 9.17 9.15 10.01 9.93 8.53 8.26 8.71 9.16 8.76 8.70 8.99
23 8.94 8.48 8.92 8.95 9.96 9.88 8.34 8.08 8.54 8.92 8.65 8.78 8.87
Avg 8.94 8.45 8.33 7.88 8.05 7.94 6.50 6.62 7.07 8.05 8.56 8.69 7.92
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jly Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Avg
m/s
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Wind Speed
Figure 7: 12 month by 24 hour table of wind speed.
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