A Two-Step Spatio-Temporal Framework for Turbine-Height Wind Estimation at Unmonitored Sites from Sparse Meteorological Data

TL;DR

This paper introduces a two-step spatio-temporal framework that estimates turbine-height wind speeds at unmonitored sites using sparse meteorological data, combining vertical extrapolation and spatial interpolation with uncertainty quantification.

Contribution

It presents a novel method that integrates non-parametric height extrapolation and Gaussian process spatial interpolation to estimate wind speeds at turbine heights using only open-access data.

Findings

Improved wind speed estimation accuracy over ERA5 reanalysis.

Capability to generate high-resolution, sub-hourly wind speed time series.

Validated on Irish wind farms with positive results.

Abstract

Accurate estimates of wind speeds at wind turbine hub heights are crucial for both wind resource assessment and day-to-day management of electricity grids with high renewable penetration. In the absence of direct measurements, parametric models are commonly used to extrapolate wind speeds from observed heights to turbine heights. Recent literature has proposed extensions to allow for spatially or temporally varying vertical wind gradients, that is, the rate at which wind speed changes with height. However, these approaches typically assume that reference height and hub height measurements are available at the same locations, which limits their applicability in operational settings where meteorological stations and wind farms are spatially separated. In this paper, we develop a two-step spatio-temporal framework to estimate turbine height wind speeds using only open-access observations from sparse meteorological stations. First, a non-parametric generalized additive model is trained on reanalysis data to perform vertical height extrapolation. Second, a spatial Gaussian process model interpolates these hub-height estimates to wind farm locations while explicitly propagating uncertainty from the height extrapolation stage. The proposed framework enables the construction of high-resolution, sub-hourly turbine-height wind speed time series and spatial wind maps using data available in real time, capabilities not provided by existing reanalysis products. We further provide calibrated uncertainty estimates that account for both vertical extrapolation and spatial interpolation errors. The approach is validated using hub-height measurements from seven operational wind farms in Ireland, demonstrating improved accuracy relative to ERA5 reanalysis while relying solely on real-time, open-access data.