About Wind Resources

Hi,
I am modeling a system that includes wind power; however, the weather data is not working as it does for solar. If my data is in a .csv format, SAM does not accept it and generates an error in the wind simulation step, even though I am using data from my computer. Could you please convert my data to the .srw format so it can be used in SAM? The files are attached. Thank you.

Regards,
Muhammad Irfan

Hi Muhammad,

The wind speed data in typical meteorological year (TMY) data designed for solar energy models is not appropriate for wind power models for the following reasons:

• The wind speed data is typically measured at either 2 meters or 10 meters, so does not represent the wind resource at or near the wind turbine hub height, which is typically at a minimum of 30 meters for small turbines or much higher for large turbines.
• TMY files for solar do not always include wind direction or atmospheric pressure data that is required by wind power models.
• Wind resource data usually includes wind speed and other data at multiple heights to make it possible to calculate wind shear.
• The method used to develop solar TMY data (one year) from historical data (many years) uses a weighting system to choose the months to include in the TMY file. This method is designed to ensure that the solar resource data (DNI, DHI, GHI) is "typical", not the wind data.

If you have one year of hourly or sub-hourly wind resource data (wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, atmopsheric pressure), you can use it with SAM's wind power model by converting it to the "SAM CSV for Wind" format described in Help: samrepo.nrelcloud.org/help/weather_format_csv_wind.html

Best regards,
Paul.
 

Hi,
But the problem is that how can I make my data to .srw? from the files I have like .epw?

Regards,
Muhammad Irfan

Hi Muhammad,

The SRW format is an older format that we no longer recommend using. If you have the required data elements, you can use a text editor, spreadsheet program or script to create a file in the newer SAM CSV format for Wind .

Best regards,
Paul.