Alpine Windharvest

EU-Interreg III b project, Work Package 7: Digital Relief Analysis
Meteotest, Bern, Switzerland, office@meteotest.ch

Links

Alpine
Windharvest

Work Package 6

Suisse Eole

Meteotest

last update:
04.05.2005

Introduction

This site displays the results of Work Package 7 "Digital Relief Analysis" of the Interreg IIIb project "Alpine Windharvest".

The objectives of Work Package 7 were:

• to give an overview of the wind potential of the whole Alpine Space
• to establish a methodology for regional Geographical Information System (GIS) analyses to identify promising sites for wind energy
• to develop CFD wind modeling for complex Alpine terrain
  

[summary of Work Package 7 3.2 MB]
[Zusammenfassung von Arbeitspaket 7 3.2 MB]
[German presentation (slides) of Work Packages 5, 6, 7 18.7 MB]

Wind Potential of the Alpine Space

A survey on methods to compile wind maps of a mesoscale region such as the Alpine Space was documented. In order to compile a wind map covering the whole Alpine Space, a statistical method that had shown good results for Switzerland was chosen. The resulting map shows mean wind speeds at 50, 70 and 100 m above ground for the whole Alpine Space. Wind speed was statistically modeled from terrain data and approx. 600 wind measurements.

[interactive map, survey and documentation 12.9 MB]
[Alpine Space wind map 5.3 MB]

GIS Analyses

A GIS methodology for identification of promising sites for wind energy was developed and documented in a workbook. The methodology was tested in four areas:

• GIS Aineck, Austria [interactive map, documentation Aineck and Brenner 5.1 MB]
• GIS Brenner, Austria and Italy [interactive map, documentation Aineck and Brenner 5.1 MB]
• GIS Franches Montagnes, Switzerland [interactive map, documentation 1.6 MB]
• GIS Menina planina, Slovenia [interactive map, documentation 2.4 MB]

[wind energy GIS analysis methodology and workbook 1.0 MB]

CFD Wind Modeling

Conventional wind energy modeling tools are not suitable for complex Alpine terrain. As an alternative, CFD modeling with the commercially available software WindSim was evaluated for four regions with seven wind energy projects. Results were validated with mast and SODAR measurements.

• CFD Lungnau, Austria
• CFD Brenner, Austria and Italy
• CFD Franches Montagnes, Switzerland
• CFD Menina Planina, Slovenia

[WindSim CFD evaluation 3.6 MB]