California State Polytechnic University Pomona

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

ECE 4875 Wind and Solar Power Systems - Fall 2018

Homework 1
Wind speed data analysis and wind power estimation

Presentation: On the first page, write the homework number, your name, course number, and the due date.
Present your solutions from page 2 onward; write problem number first, then the corresponding solution. Neat
and clear presentation is strongly encouraged. Please staple your homework.

Problem 1
Estimate the maximum annual energy production of a 18-m diameter horizontal axis wind turbine
operating at standard atmospheric conditions ( = 1.225 kg/m3) in a 9.2 m/s average wind speed
regime.

Problem 2
In Site A, a measured wind speed at 10-m elevation is 8.5 m/s.
1) Use two methods, Log law and Power law, to estimate the wind speed and power density at
30-m and 50-m elevation. Assume that the surface roughness length z0 = 0.1m (terrain with
few trees). Use =1/7 and  = 1.225 kg/m3. Record the results in Table 1.
2) Compare the power density at 30m and 50m with that at 10m.
3) Based on power density, determine the wind power class for Site A.
4) Which of the two methods do you believe is more accurate for calculating U and P/A?

Table 1 Results for Problem 2

Method U 30m, U P/A at P/A at Change in Change in Wind

m/s 50m, 30m, 50m, P/A at 30m, P/A at power
m/s W/m2 W/m2 % 50m, % class for
Site A
1 Log law
2 Power law

Problem 3
Given a set of wind speed data (WindSpeedDataF16.xlsx), which contains one month of data (31
days, or 744 hours) from a wind site named Wind10.
1) Based on the wind speed data, calculate: a) Average wind speed and, b) Standard deviation.
2) Using the Method of Bins, determine: a) Average wind speed, b) Standard deviation, c) Power
density, d) Average power, and e) Energy production for the month (i.e. 744 hours) for a 25-kW
wind turbine. The WT power curve is given in the data sheet. Suggested bin width is 1 m/s.
Present results in Table 2.

Cal Poly Pomona ECE 4875 Wind and Solar Power Systems - Instructor Dr. Ha Thu Le 1
 3) Provide the result for frequency of occurrence (fj) versus bins of the obtained histogram in
Table 3.
4) Plot the histogram.

Table 2 Results for Problem 3

Item Method of bins

1 Average U, m/s
2 Standard dev
3 Power density, W / m2
4 Average P, kW
5 Energy, kWh

Table 3 Result for Histogram

Bin # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
fj
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Problem 4
1) From the histogram data obtained in Problem 3, determine a velocity-duration curve and plot
the curve.
2) From the above velocity-duration curve, develop a power-duration curve for a given 25-kW
wind turbine and plot the curve.
3) From the power duration curve, determine the energy that would be produced during the
month in kWh.

Problem 5
Using the same velocity data and results from the previous problems, determine the Weibull and
Rayleigh pdf of wind speed. Then, superimpose their plots on normalized histogram of Problem 3 (i.e.
plot the normalized histogram and the two pdf in the same figure).
Note: Normalized histogram is obtained by dividing the frequency of occurrence fj by the total number
of wind speed data points (4464) (i.e. obtaining probability of wind speed occurrence). The normalized
histogram plots probability versus bins.

Problem 6 (Optional, Extra credit, 10 points)

Find a polynomial (e.g. 4th or 5th order) to fit the given power curve of 25-kW wind turbine. Plot the
polynomial and the given power curve in the same figure to show the degree of fitting.

Note: The following files are available on Backboard

1) MS Excel file of wind speed data
2) MS Excel file of Power curve of 25-kW wind turbine.

Cal Poly Pomona ECE 4875 Wind and Solar Power Systems - Instructor Dr. Ha Thu Le 2