The Full Picture

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Winds of change from space

Pierre-Philippe Mathieu, European Space Agency, ESA/ESRIN;

Charlotte Hasager, RISOE National Laboratory DTU

ind energy is entering a golden age, with the fastest

growth across the whole renewable energy industry.

Recent regulations and policy targets related to climate

change are driving a booming demand for wind power. The

currently installed wind power capacity in Europe generates about

6 per cent of electricity consumption and is predicted to grow to

25 per cent by 2030, in particular via offshore production.

How can Earth Observation (EO) satellites orbiting several hundreds

of kilometres above the Earth help in the building and operating of

wind farms? The answer lies in the unique ability of EO satellites to

deliver global and repetitive measurements of the state of the atmos-

phere (eg meteorological conditions), ocean (eg coastal wind and

wave conditions) and land (eg topography, vegetation cover, terrain

roughness). With EO this is even possible in the most remote areas,

where no survey data exist, or else are impossible to obtain.

Such global data set can help energy managers and investors to

perform technical and financial feasibility studies of prospective sites

by quantifying factors determining the revenue (eg wind resources

available over the plant life-time) as well as the cost (eg environ-

mental impact, access to turbines for maintenance and connection

to the grid network for distribution).

In spite of their potential utility, the operational use of EO data

within the wind industry remains rather limited because of signifi-

cant cultural and awareness barriers, but also due to the need to turn

raw data into useable information. Recently, new Virtual Globes tech-

nologies, such as Google Earth and Virtual Earth, have significantly

contributed to raise awareness about the potential of EO.

However, more efforts are still needed to make the

most of the data. In this context, several demonstration

projects have been started in the framework of the Earth

Observation Market Development programme

(www.esa.int/eomd) of the European Space Agency

(ESA). Their aim is to foster the use of EO within busi-

ness practices of the renewable energy industry by

building partnerships between small value-adding

companies (specialized in EO data processing) and large

downstream companies requiring geo-information, such

as Tractebel, BMT, Shell, Vestas, and Airtricity.

Improved wind modelling

Accurate modelling of the wind flow is critical to quan-

tify wind resources at hub height. It also helps to improve

the accuracy of short-term forecast, leading to more effi-

Value chain of Earth observation data

Raw data is converted into useful information through pre-processing (retrieval

of geophysical data) and integration with other data sources. It is then

delivered into user-friendly geographic information systems and software used

within the renewable energy industry

Source: RISOE and ESA

Coastal wind measured from space

High-resolution wind field (mainly originating from South West)

around the Horns Rev wind farm, off the coast of Denmark.

Data derived from the ASAR instrument onboard the ENVISAT

satellite on the 14 November 2005

Source: BOOST Technologies and ESA

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