Assessing Global Ocean Wind Energy Resources Using Multiple Satellite Data

Abstract

Wind energy, as a vital renewable energy source, also plays a significant role in reducing carbon emissions and mitigating climate change. It is therefore of utmost necessity to evaluate ocean wind energy resources for electricity generation and environmental management. Ocean wind distribution around the globe can be obtained from satellite observations to compensate for limited in situ measurements. However, previous studies have largely ignored uncertainties in ocean wind energy resources assessment with multiple satellite data. It is against this background that the current study compares mean wind speeds (MWS) and wind power densities (WPD) retrieved from scatterometers (QuikSCAT, ASCAT) and radiometers (WindSAT) and their different combinations with National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoy measurements at heights of 10 m and 100 m (wind turbine hub height) above sea level. Our results show an improvement in the accuracy of wind resources estimation with the use of multiple satellite observations. This has implications for the acquisition of reliable data on ocean wind energy in support of management policies.

Current status and prospects of marine renewable energy applied in ocean robots

“…It can be found that regions with the highest wind speed are mainly located in the westerlies of the northern and southern hemispheres and value of wind speed decreases gradually to the lower latitude. Meanwhile, Indian Ocean and East China Sea also have higher wind speeds due to the monsoon …”

“…Meanwhile, Indian Ocean and East China Sea also have higher wind speeds due to the monsoon. 41 The ocean contains abundant wind power, and it has been widely applied in wind-power generation. In addition, wind power can also be harnessed and converted for power supply of ocean vehicles, such as autonomous sailboat.…”

Editorial for the Special Issue “Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Conditions for Wind Energy Applications”

“…Guo et al [34] analyzed the archive of satellite ocean wind speed products based on two scatterometers, ASCAT and QuikSCAT, and one passive polarimetric microwave, WindSat, satellite. Firstly, the wind products were compared to ocean buoy data during several years and differences in the biases between the products and buoy winds were noted.…”

Assessment of China’s Offshore Wind Resources Based on the Integration of Multiple Satellite Data and Meteorological Data

“…In situ wind measurements used for offshore wind energy resources assessment [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] are usually limited and sparse, involving coastal stations, buoys, ships, masts, and oil platforms. Due to the development of microwave remote sensing, previous studies revealed that sea surface wind data derived from satellite data have been applied to offshore and ocean wind resources assessment, including sea surface wind data derived from synthetic aperture radars (SAR) [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24], scatterometers [3,19,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40], and radiometers [39][40][41][42]. The low temporal resolution (3−7 images each month) of SAR leads to less overlapping of samples [24].…”

“…Ocean wind fields retrieved from scatterometers and radiometers have higher temporal resolution (two observations per day). Previous researches pointed out that the accuracy of wind resources estimation could be improved with the synergetic use of multiple satellite data due to the increasing number of observations and different equatorial crossing times [24,39,43].…”