The Wind Atlas of Spain was presented last week by IDAE and uses Metosim’s Truewind technology to offer “an unprecedented level of detail”, enabling “users to make a preliminary assessment of wind resources available throughout Spain and off the Spanish coast, and will help public authorities with wind farm planning", explains IDAE.
Using free-access GIS, the Atlas shows the annual average wind speed and other technical parameters such as wind speed at the different heights normally reached by wind turbines (60, 80 and 100 metres) and even at the height of smaller turbines (30 metres) at “as yet unseen levels of resolution of 100 metres between nodes".
Essential tool for preparing new national renewable plans
The Atlas has been prepared for several target audiences, “especially the Spanish Government, which could use it to evaluate wind resources in Spain prior to developing new renewable energy plans", emphasises IDAE, which is one of the main parties involved in preparing Spain’s new 2010-2020 Renewable Energy Plan.
IDAE also envisages that the Atlas will become an invaluable tool to the wind energy sector during preliminary wind resource surveys anywhere in Spain; “thereby helping to avoid time wasting and unnecessary costs”. Users can download maps of Spain or of each autonomous region or specific city in pdf format.
As well as providing data on wind speeds, the tool, which has with an intuitive user interface, offers complementary data such as cartographic and topographic information, environmental data and maritime zones. The Atlas was prepared using a long-term meteorological simulation and wind resource prospecting model which analyses how wind speeds are affected by Spain’s topography ”without having to conduct costly field measurements”. Actual historical data obtained from weather stations have been used to confirm the accuracy of the model.
The image accompanying this article is taken from the Atlas and shows wind speeds around the Canary Islands.
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