Offshore wind shear estimations for wind power assesment

Appropriate wind shear estimates are extremely important when assessing any regions' wind power resource. Wind shear is used not only to estimate wind velocity at wind turbine hub heights other than the data collection height, but also as a siting tool to compare the wind resources in different locations when wind data are not available at a consistent height. Models for wind shear over land, as well as simple modeis for wind shear over open water have been found to correlate poorly with offshore wind data. This is thought to be partially due to the effect of changing wave conditions on wind shear as well as differences in thermal effects over bodies of water. In this study, offshore wind data from the South Atlantic Bight region is used to estimate the offshore wind shear conditions in this area. Data sets include collocated 10 m and 50 m meteorological data as well as wave data, all taken over a three and a half year time period. Offshore wind shear assessments from other studies are analyzed and compared to the current study as well.