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Solar Energy, Vol.66, No.1, 57-64, 1999
Characterization of wind speed data according to wind direction
Knowledge of the wind speed distribution and the most frequent wind directions is important when choosing wind turbines and when locating them. For this reason wind evaluation and characterization are important when forecasting output power. The data used here were collected from eleven meteorological stations distributed in Navarre, Spain. We obtained data for the period extending from 1992 to 1995, with each datum encompassing 10 minutes of time. Wind speed data of each station were gathered in eight directional sectors, each one extended over 45 degrees according to the direction from which the wind blows. The stations were grouped in two blocks: those under the influence of the Ebro valley and those in mountainous areas. For each group the Weibull parameters were estimated, (according to the Weibull probability paper because the Weibull distribution gives the best fit in this region). Kurtosis and skewness coefficients were estimated as well. The Weibull parameters, especially the scale parameter c, depend strongly on the direction considered, and both Weibull parameters show an increasing trend as the direction considered moves to the more dominant direction, while both kurtosis and skewness show a corresponding decreasing trend.