Using the MM5 Model for Wind Energy Resources Evaluation Over a Fuel-Poor Region, East China

For the sake of wind energy exploitation, the Fifth Generation Mesoscale Model (MM5) has been applied to downscale 2.5deg reanalysis data provided by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) onto a 3.3-km grid covering the fuel-poor Jiangsu Province for the three representative years, 1972, 1997, and 2000 respectively. The simulated 10-m above ground level (AGL) mean wind fields are compared with observations at 64 stations comprehensively, by using the analog deviation. This score shows that the simulated wind pattern agrees well with the observed. More local characteristics can be found in the high-resolution simulated wind atlas. The wind speed is higher along the eastern coast and around inland lakes, while lower in urban and mountainous areas. Wind energy calculations have shown that the vicinities of big water bodies, such as Luoma Lake, Hongze Lake, Gaoyou Lake, the mouth of the Yangtze River and Tai Lake, are regions with rich wind energy resources. The average wind power densities in these areas are above 140W/m
²
. The wind resources decrease steadily when moving away from the coast, and the wind power densities are between 80 and 90 W/m
²
. Mountainous and urban areas are short of wind energy resources. The average wind power densities in Zhangba Mountains and cities of Xuzhou, Huai'an and Nanjing are less than 60 W/m
²
. Moreover, it is indicated that there are significant seasonal variations in wind energy resources in Jiangsu Province. The wind power densities are larger in winter than in summer. The values in rich regions increase to 200 W/m
²
at 30-m-AGL and 320 W/m
²
at 60-m-AGL.