The round robin site assessment method: A new approach to wind energy site assessment

Portability is one of the many potential advantages of utilizing ground-based measurement devices such as SODARs and LIDARs instead of meteorological towers for wind resource assessment. This paper investigates the use of a monitoring strategy that leverages the portability of ground-based devices, dubbed the “round robin site assessment method.” The premise is to measure the wind resource at multiple sites in a single year using a single portable device, but to discontinuously distribute the measurement time at each site over the whole year, so that the total measurement period comprises smaller segments of measured data. This measured data set is then utilized in the measure-correlate-predict (MCP) process to predict the long-term wind resource at the site. This method aims to increase the number of sites assessed in a single year, without the sacrifice in accuracy and precision that usually accompanies shorter measurement periods. The performance of the round robin site assessment method was compared to the standard method, in which the measured data are continuous. The results demonstrate that the round robin site assessment method is an effective monitoring strategy that improves the accuracy and reduces the uncertainty of MCP predictions for measurement periods less than 1 year. In fact, the round robin site assessment method compares favorably to the accuracy and uncertainty of a full year of resource assessment. While there are some tradeoffs to be made by using the round robin site assessment method, it is potentially a very useful strategy for wind resource assessment.