EOSOLAR Project: Assessment of Wind Resources of a Coastal Equatorial Region of Brazil—Overview and Preliminary Results

Abstract

The EOSOLAR project was designed to investigate the structure of the atmospheric boundary layer in an equatorial coastal zone, where the discontinuity of surface conditions induces non-stationarity gradients of wind speeds and the development of internal boundary layers. The proposed methodology considers several aspects of the sea–land transition meteorology that are essential for precisely estimating wind–solar energy potential and assessment of structural loads on wind turbines. Infrared (LIDAR) and acoustic (SODAR) ground-based remote sensing instruments and micrometeorological towers were installed in a near-shore equatorial area of northeast Brazil, in order to provide a comprehensive view of meteorological processes. This paper reports a description of the project study area, methodology, and instrumentation used. Details of instruments configurations, a validation of micrometeorology towers, and a comparison between the LIDAR and SODAR are presented. Results of the first field campaign measuring the coastal flow, integrating the micrometeorological tower and LIDAR observations are described.

Characterization of Wind Resources of the East Coast of Maranhão, Brazil

“…The tower's instruments were also compared prior to field deployment. Biases and regression intercepts were very small for micrometeorology sensors and derived turbulent quantities [32]. Instruments' configuration and validation and a description of the power and communication systems are provided in Assireu et al (2022) [32].…”

“…Field surveys were conducted on the east coast of Maranhão state around 2 • 42 S of latitude and 42 • 33 W longitude [32]. The region is located southeast of Lençóis Maranhenses National Park and between Barreirinhas and Paulino Neves counties (Figure 1b).…”

“…Before the computation of turbulent quantities, velocity components were subject to coordinate rotation. The employed procedure is referred to as the double rotation (or tilt correction) method, which involves a first rotation around the z-axis, aligning u with the mean wind and a second rotation around the y axis, until the mean vertical wind speed disappears [32,53]. With these rotations, the anemometer coordinate system becomes aligned with the streamlines.…”

“…Maranhão's wind resources remain underexplored compared to other northeast states, although there are vast areas available for exploration in coastal and offshore areas (Figure 1b). This article explores a series of field campaigns conducted as part of Project EOSO-LAR, carried out for the assessment of wind and solar resources of Maranhão [32]. Two micrometeorological towers, a SODAR (Sound Detection and Ranging) and a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), recorded data from 14 September 2021 to 27 July 2022, between the municipalities of Barreirinhas and Paulino Neves.…”

“…That allowed the time monitoring of a fixed location and exploration of spatial changes due to terrain characteristics. Instrument validation and preliminary results of EOSOLAR were reported in Assireu et al (2022) [32] and Torres et al (2022) [33]. Wind maps derived from numerical atmospheric downscaling are available in the form of the web-based application Plataforma Interativa de Energias Renováveis (PIER, https://eosolar.equatorialenergia.com.br, accessed on 28 February 2023).…”