Atmospheric stability in wind resource assessment: Development of a new tool for an accurate wind profile estimate

The main objective of this paper is to investigate some key issues related to the atmospheric stability for the development of wind power projects, aiming to contribute to increase the reliability of this source and its safe insertion into the energy matrix. It is also important to note that the techniques and methodologies to be described were conceived taking into consideration one main premise: using information and data that is already available for a standard wind power project. The methodology presented here consists of solving an inverse problem using the Bayesian Inference in order to estimate the Monin Obukhov’s length. The only input required for the aforementioned methodology is one mean horizontal wind speed time series – this requirement is highly cost-efficient and can be widely used. Therefore, the proposed solution will require a very low additional investment for the project developer and it will improve the quality of the wind resource assessment designed by the wind power project developers.