The New European Wind Atlas Model Chain

Abstract

The New European Wind Atlas (NEWA), the largest European project on wind resource assessment technology, has developed mesoscale-to-microscale wind atlas and site assessment methodologies alongside a validation strategy that leverages data from large field experiments as well as wind resource campaigns from industry through a formal verification and validation process. A probabilistic wind atlas approach, based on a multi-physics ensemble, provides means to quantify the uncertainty associated to the mesoscale configuration. Offline meso-micro coupling has been adopted to provide a modular approach for microscale models of different fidelities to share common mesoscale input data. An open-source model chain based on WRF and OpenFOAM codes has been released as reference for future model development and validation activities in connection to wind assessment best practices and standards.