Renewable Energy, Vol.103, 128-142, 2017
How does El Nino Southern Oscillation impact the wind resource in Chile? A techno-economical assessment of the influence of El Nino and La Nina on the wind power
This paper assesses the impact of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on the wind speed, energy production, as well as its impact on the value of potential wind projects at different sites across Chile. The study applies cyclostationary empirical orthogonal function (CSEOF) analysis to isolate the ENSO influence on the wind speed, and therefore on the energy output of nearly all current and potential wind farms in Chile. Finally, a review of techno-economical parameters is made to assess the economic impact of an ENSO event occurring at different years in the lifetime of a wind energy project. The main contribution of this work is to establish the locations in Chile where this climatic oscillation is important for the system planning, the energy forecasting and the risk assessment. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords:Techno-economical assessment;Wind energy;El Nino Southern Oscillation;Wind resource;CSEOF analysis;Chile