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Energy
EnergyProcedia 138
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(2017)1061–1066
000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

2017 International Conference on Alternative Energy in Developing Countries and Emerging Economies
2017 AEDCEE, 25‐26 May 2017, Bangkok, Thailand

Wind Shear Coefficients

The 15th and theironEffect
International Symposium District on Energy
Heating Production
and Cooling

Assessing
Warit Werapun the feasibility
a,*
,Yutthanaof using the heat
Tirawanichakul b
, Jompobdemand-outdoor
Waewsakc
temperature
Faculty of function forTechnology,
Science and Industrial
a
a long-term district
Prince of Songkla heatCampus),Thailand
Universtiy(Suratthani demand forecast
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Prince of Songkla University(Hatyai Campus),Thailand
b
c
Research Center in Energy and Environment, Thanksin University(Phatthalung Campus),Thailand
I. Andrića,b,c*, A. Pinaa, P. Ferrãoa, J. Fournierb., B. Lacarrièrec, O. Le Correc
a
IN+ Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research - Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Abstract b
Veolia Recherche & Innovation, 291 Avenue Dreyfous Daniel, 78520 Limay, France
c
Département Systèmes Énergétiques et Environnement - IMT Atlantique, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, 44300 Nantes, France
Generally wind shear coefficient is used to estimate the wind speed at higher elevations, while the local meteorological
anemometers monitor one elevation. The well-known equation for estimating wind shear coefficients is a power law. This paper
assesses wind shear and its effects on annual energy production from wind speed data on Phangan island, collected from
Abstract 2011 to November 2012 at locations 65 and 120 m above ground level (agl). The annual, monthly, and diurnal
December
variations of wind shear coefficient were investigated. The annual energy production was assessed by using the wind turbine
District
power heating
curve. The networks are that
results show commonly addressed
the difference in the
between literature
wind energy as one of the
production frommost effective wind
extrapolated solutions
data for
anddecreasing
the measuredthe
greenhouse gas emissions from
energy production may be up to 35%. the building sector. These systems require high investments which are returned through the heat
sales. Due to the changed climate conditions and building renovation policies, heat demand in the future could decrease,
©prolonging the investment
2017 The Authors. return
Published byperiod.
Elsevier Ltd.
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review underofresponsibility
The main scope this paper is of the scientific
to assess committee
the feasibility of thethe
of using 2017heatInternational Conference
demand – outdoor on Alternative
temperature function Energy in demand
for heat
Peer-review
­D under responsibility
evelopingThe
Countries of the Organizing Committee of 2017 AEDCEE.
forecast. districtand
of Emerging
Alvalade, Economies.
located in Lisbon (Portugal), was used as a case study. The district is consisted of 665
buildings that vary in both construction period and typology. Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district
Keywords: Wind Shear Coefficients, wind speed, wind energy, power law, Phangan island;
renovation scenarios were developed (shallow, intermediate, deep). To estimate the error, obtained heat demand values were
compared with results from a dynamic heat demand model, previously developed and validated by the authors.
The results showed that when only weather change is considered, the margin of error could be acceptable for some applications
1. Introduction
(the error in annual demand was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation
scenarios, the error value increased up to 59.5% (depending on the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered).
TheThe modern
value wind
of slope turbinesincreased
coefficient have a very tall hub
on average height
within the while
range of most3.8%meteorological anemometers
up to 8% per decade, in developing
that corresponds to the
countries
decrease in the number of heating hours of 22-139h during the heating season (depending on the combination ofspeed
have only one position below 50 m above ground level (agl). In order to estimate the wind at the
weather and
higher position,
renovation a wind
scenarios shear coefficient
considered). is needed.
On the other This parameter
hand, function directly impacts
intercept increased the wind
for 7.8-12.7% energy (depending
per decade obtained, and it
on the
relates
coupledtoscenarios).
the wind Thespeed datasuggested
values from thecould
two positions,
be used to atmospheric stability,
modify the function and terrain
parameters type.
for the [1] The
scenarios wind shear
considered, and
improve the accuracy of heat demand estimations.

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +0-667-727-8880; fax: +0-667-735-5453.
Cooling.
E-mail address: waritw2000@yahoo.com
Keywords: Heat demand; Forecast; Climate change
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of 2017 AEDCEE.

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling.
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2017 International Conference on Alternative Energy in
­Developing Countries and Emerging Economies.
10.1016/j.egypro.2017.10.111
1062 Warit Werapun et al. / Energy Procedia 138 (2017) 1061–1066
2 Warit Werapun et al./ Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

coefficients were found to be higher during nighttime and smaller during daytime [ 2]. It was also found [3] that
estimates of wind speed at the higher position based on wind shear coefficient may differ from measured wind data
by up to around 50 percent. In general the value 0.143 for wind shear coefficient is used to predict the wind at the
higher elevation, which gives good results over smooth surfaces such as at sea [4]. The objective of this work was to
compare the energy production estimates from power law extrapolation of 65 m data to 120 m agl with the measured
data for 120 m agl.

2. Study area and data description

The wind speed at two positions above ground level, 65 m and 120 m agl, were obtained from the inland Phangan
station affected by complex terrain. Khao Ra is the highest peak with 627m elevation from sea level. The number
of data points is 52,192, recorded every 10 minuites from December2011 to November 2012, and they were used to
calculate the wind shear coefficient.

3. Methods

The vertical wind profile is widely assumed to follow a power law, as shown in the equation 1.

α
v2  h2 
= 
v1  h1 
(1)

Here v1 [m/s] and v2 [m/s] are the measured wind speeds at elevations h1 [m] and h2 [m], respectively. α is the
wind shear coefficient. The wind shear coefficient can be calculated if wind speed measurements at the two
elevations are available by fitting the data with equation 2. [5]

ln ( v2 ) − ln ( v1 ) (2)
α=
ln ( h2 ) − ln ( h1 )

4. Results and discussion

4.1. Frequency distribution

The wind speed data were sorted from minimum to maximum and binned into 1 m/s intervals. The frequency
distribution of wind speed in Fig. 1 shows that speeds exceeding 3 m/s occur about 54 and 67 % of the time at 65 m
and 120 m agl elevation respectively.
 Warit Werapun/ Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 3
Warit Werapun et al. / Energy Procedia 138 (2017) 1061–1066 1063

Fig. 1. Annual wind speed frequency distribution measured by the Phangan station at 65 m and 120 m elevations.

4.2. Wind shear characteristics

Based on the wind speed data from Phangan island, the wind shear coefficient was calculated using equation 2
for the 65 and 120 m agl elevations. The average wind shear coefficient in one year (Dec2011-Nov2012) was 0.355,
much higher than the generic 0.143 due to complex terrain. The monthly variations of wind shear coefficient at the
positions (65,90m) and (90,120m) are shown in Fig 2. No clear pattern was observed for this site, while normally
the wind shear coefficient is higher in the winter season because of air mixing above the ground level [2,4,6-7]. The
diurnal wind shear coefficient variation is show in Fig. 3. The wind shear coefficient was nearly constant from 0.00
to 5.00h, then fluctuated from 5.00 to 8.00h. From 8.00 to 11.00 h the wind shear coefficient decreased due to
heating of the ground surface by the sun. The value remained almost constant from 11.00 until 16.00h. After 17.00
h, the wind shear coefficient increased because of surface cooling, and after 20.00h the value came back to the early
morning level again. This pattern is in agreement with various findings in the literature [2, 4, 6-7].

4.3. Wind energy yield estimation and comparison

In order to estimate the wind energy yield, the power curve of 2MW GamesaG114 turbine [7] and frequency
distribution of wind speed were used to estimate the wind energy yield. The wind resource and wind energy yield
are shown in Table 1. When extrapolated from 65m to 120 m agl, using α = 0.143 , the annual energy yield (AEY),
capacity factor (CF), and power density are underestimated from their actual measured values at 120m agl. The
difference between measured and estimated values may be up to 35 %. The wind shear coefficient needs to be
carefully estimated if wind measurements at a different elevation are available only for one local position.
4 Warit Werapun et al./ Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000
1064 Warit Werapun et al. / Energy Procedia 138 (2017) 1061–1066

Fig. 2. Monthly wind shear coefficient variations for the elevations 65 and 120 m , and 90 and120 m agl, at the Phangan station (Dec2011-
Nov2012)

Fig. 3. Diurnal variation of wind shear coefficient for the elevations 65 and 120 m agl at the Phangan station (Dec 2011-Nov2012)
 Warit Werapun/ Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 5
Warit Werapun et al. / Energy Procedia 138 (2017) 1061–1066 1065

Table 1. Wind resource and energy yield parameters calculated at 120 m by using a single 2 MW rated Gamesa G114 wind turbine

Parameter Wind data

Measured at 120 m Extrapolated from Extrapolated from
65 m using α =0.143 65 m using α =0.355
Wind resource
No.valid data 51,968 51,968 51,968
Valid data (%) 98.87 98.87 98.87
Mean wind speed (m/s) 4.12 3.49 3.97
C (m/s) 4.64 3.90 4.45
k 1.88 1.69 1.69
Power density (W/m2) 87.43 59.92 88.49

Turbine-convert energy
AEY (MWh/year) 2,486.04 1,605.91 2,476.40
CF(%) 14.19 9.17 14.14

5. Conclusions

Based on one year of wind speed data from a station on Phangan island, Thailand, the wind shear coefficient had
large monthly and diurnal variations. For this location the coefficient α =0.355 gave the overall best estimates of wind
speed when extrapolated from 65 m to 120 m agl. However, this study concerned only one site, demonstrating a
large difference from a generic “rule of thumb” wind shear coefficient. It does not provide insights of wide
generality, but suggests that caution is necessary and the wind shear can strongly depend on the atmospheric
conditions, surface roughness, and other local factors. Neglecting these can incur large errors in estimates of wind
power yield.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Associate Prof. Seppo Karrila for helpful suggestions to improve a draft
manuscript; the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT) for providing wind speed data; and the Prince of
Songkla University, Suratthani Campus for financial support.

References

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[3] Fırtın E., Güler O., Akdag Seyit A. Investigation of wind shear coefficients and their effect on electrical energy generation Appl Energy
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[4] Farrugia R.N. The wind shear exponent in a Mediterranean island climate Renew Energy 2003; 28:647-653
[5] Jaramillo OA, Borja MA. Wind speed analysis in La Ventosa, Mexico: a bimodal probability distribution case. Renew Energy2004; 29:1,613-
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[6] Rehman S, Al-Abbai M. N. Wind shear coefficients and energy yield for Dhahran, Saudi Arabia Renew Energy 2007;32:738-49.
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[8] Data sheet of 2MWG114, http://en.wind-turbine-models.com/turbines/428-gamesa-g114-2.0mw (accessed 7/04/2017)