Download Wind Data In Sam

hi want to download Wind Data Toolkit in specific location but i see this error:

how can i solve this problem?
Thanks for help.

Hi Admiral,

Downloads from the WIND Toolkit can be unreliable, so you may need to try a few times to get it to work. I tried this morning and was able to download a file.

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Paul, I have a similar problem with Wind data download as well. I noticed that the wind data is only available for 2007 - 2014 via the Wind Toolkit. However the NSF project I am working on needs me to model more recent years such as 2018. How can I go about this? Is there a separate database (perhaps not available online) that you can share with me that can help my work. or perhaps there is a contact you can share with me. I am sending an email to the sam team [sam.support@nrel.gov] right away to follow up on this question too. 

Another though was to combat this issue using the NSRDB weather files (since this have the more recent weather files). I know the weather files also have wind speeds and other weather information, is this possible for use as input into the wind modeller in SAM for modelling the more recent years?

I will appreciate your response. 

Best regards, 
Olukunle. 

Hi Olunkule,

I am not aware of another free source of nationwide wind resource data with more recent data than the WIND Toolkit. If you find data from another source, you can use a spreadsheet program or text editor to create files in SAM's SRW format. See SAM's Help system for a description of the format, or download the PDF here: sam.nrel.gov/weather-data/weather-data-publications

You are correct that the solar resource data from the NSRDB include wind speed and other meteorological data, but this data is not suitable for wind power modeling because the wind speed data is not measured at or near typical turbine hub heights. For example, the wind speed data is at 2 meters, the approximate height of a ground-mounted photovoltaic array, but much lower than the typical hub height of a modern wind turbine.

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Paul,

As you mentioned, weather data from NSRDB is not suitable for wind modelling because wind measurement is at 2m and not hub height.
Can you please suggest any source of historical wind speed and related data available for Canada?
Thank you

Hi Abbas,

Unfortunately, I am not aware of a source of free time series wind resource data other than the NREL WIND Toolkit data. There may be some data available from research institutions, universities, or other organizations. If you do find a source of data, please share it here so others can make use of it.

Best regards,
Paul.