Long-Term Freezing Temperatures Frequency Change Effect on Wind Energy Gain (Eurasia and North America, 1950–2019)

The persistent freezing conditions in cold regions are the cause of ice accretion on mechanical and instrumental elements of wind turbines. Consequently, remarkable Annual Energy Production (AEP) losses are prone to occur in those wind farms. Following global expansion of wind energy, these areas ha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability
Main Authors: Maddi Aizpurua-Etxezarreta, Sheila Carreno-Madinabeitia, Alain Ulazia, Jon Sáenz, Aitor Saenz-Aguirre
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022
Subjects:
wind energy potential
global warming
ice accretion
annual energy production
ERA5
temperature
Environmental effects of industries and plants
TD194-195
Renewable energy sources
TJ807-830
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Greenland
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095630
https://doaj.org/article/53fc40ef32154213b619d3ecf7d603e7
Description
Summary:The persistent freezing conditions in cold regions are the cause of ice accretion on mechanical and instrumental elements of wind turbines. Consequently, remarkable Annual Energy Production (AEP) losses are prone to occur in those wind farms. Following global expansion of wind energy, these areas have had increased study interest in recent years. The goal of these studies is an improved characterisation of the site for the installation of turbines, which could prevent unexpected high AEP losses due to ice accretion on them. In this context, this paper provides an estimation of the freezing temperatures frequency (FTF) at 100 m over latitudes and evaluates the changes during the last 70 years. To that end, hourly surface temperature data (2 m above surface) from the ERA5 reanalysis is used in the [50 <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msup><mrow></mrow><mo>∘</mo></msup></semantics></math> N, 75 <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msup><mrow></mrow><mo>∘</mo></msup></semantics></math> N] latitudinal belt for the period 1950–2019. The obtained results show an average reduction of FTF hours of 72.5 h/decade for all the domain, reaching a maximum decrease of 621 h/decade on the southeast coast of Greenland and a 60% annual reduction at a specific location in Scandinavia. In terms of AEP a maximum gain of more than 26% would be projected, as categorised by the the International Energy Agency.

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