ENSO’s Effect on the Wind Energy Production Of South Dakota.pdfVIP

ENSO’s Effect on the Wind Energy Production Of South Dakota Bret Harper Academic Affiliation, Fall 2005: Graduate Student, University of California at Berkeley ® SOARS Summer 2005 Science Research Mentor: Robert Harriss Writing and Communication Mentor: David Gochis ABSTRACT An aging infrastructure, environmental concerns, and growing demand threaten to undermine the reliability and long-term sustainability of the current fossil fuel electricity supply and transmission system. It is widely agreed that renewable energy sources will become increasingly important in the evolution to a next-generation electric grid. In this study we investigated the use and value of climate information in determining the location and performance of wind power turbines in the Northern Great Plains of the United States. Fifty years of hourly wind speed data were used to evaluate the possible influence of seasonal and interannual climate variability on wind power production at four locations in South Dakota. The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a documented source of climate variability in the Northern Great Plains. Our results documented a dominant El Nino/La Nina influence on the probability of lull in wind speeds, with the stronger influence in the eastern half of the state. Information on wind speed lulls is important to the wind energy industry because these are periods when no energy is being produced All of the locations also showed a slight decrease in power production potential during El Nino events. Our preliminary results confirmed that information on climate variability and change can be of significant use and value to future wind power planning, siting, and performance. This work was done under the auspic