Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
(WWEA
1
). The largest share of this has been erected in China (52.8 GW)
followed by USA (42.4 GW) and Germany (nearly 28 GW). Spain has an installed
capacity of 21.2 GW and India of 14.6 GW. China has more than doubled its
capacity since the end of 2009. These 215 GW deliver about 2.5 % of the global
energy demand (GWEC Global Wind Energy Outlook 2010
2
). In Europe this share
was 5.3 % at the end of 2010 (EWEA)
3
and 9.5 % of the net electric energy
consumption in Germany (Ender
2011
). Substantial increases in these shares are
planned for the next 20 years.
Offshore wind energy production is still in its infancy although gigantic plans
for this have been developed. In Germany, 0.21 GW have been installed at the end
of June 2011 (Ender
2011
), which is less than one percent of the total installed
capacity.
The globally installed capacity of 215 GW is already a considerable fraction of
the available wind energy of a few TW. The present growth rate of this installed
capacity by extrapolating the numbers for the first half of 2011 gives roughly 15 %
per year. This rate would lead to a doubling within 6 years and to a tenfold value in
nearly 18 years. A steady increase of the installed capacity with this rate of 15 % per
year would meet the estimated limits in
Sect. 1.4
in about 20-30 years. Thus, it
cannot be expected that the present growth rate will prevail for a longer time.
Therefore, the available wind energy should be extracted in a most efficient
way. Understanding the meteorological basics for the extraction of wind energy
gathered in this topic shall help to reach this efficiency.
1.6 Structure of This Topic
This publication is organized as follows.
Chapter 2
explains the origin of the large-
scale winds in our atmosphere and presents the main laws driving atmospheric
motion in the free atmosphere. Additionally, the determination of air density is
different surface types.
Chapter 3
reviews classical boundary layer meteorology over
flat natural homogeneous land surfaces. Emphasis is laid on the vertical extension of
wind profiles from the surface layer into the Ekman layer above, since large multi-
MW wind turbines reach well into this layer today. This includes the description of
nocturnal low-level jets, which lead to nocturnal maxima in wind energy conversion
with large turbines. Internal boundary layers forming at step changes of the surface
properties, forest boundary layers and urban boundary layers are shortly addressed at
(read Dec 14 2011)
Dec14 2011)
EWEA_Annual_Statistics_2010.pdf
(read Dec 14, 2011)
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