Wind Regime of the Geraldton Region - with respect to wind power

Matthew Rosser

This thesis investigates the Gcoast and Mumbida wind monitoring stations in order to assess their potential to act as sites for grid-connected wind farms. The data analysis meteorologically describes and evaluates the wind regime in the Geraldton area and identifies the forcings and other considerations which are relevant to their selection as viable wind farm sites. The north south movement of the "Sub-Tropical Ridge Axis" controls the general weather patterns of the region, giving rise to typical summer and winter synoptic weather patterns. Spectral analysis is used to investigate the distribution of energy over those periods that make up the synoptic and mesoscale flow. The sea/land breeze cycle is an important source of kinetic energy during summer, spring and autumn with a shift to the synoptic forcing in winter. The distribution of wind speeds is adequately described by the Weibull distribution and the WASP model finds the wind speeds measured at both sites to be regionally representative. Both the coastal and the inland plateau region are identified as potential wind farm sites, comparing favourably to an established wind farm and performing well under all flows. The coastal site is the preferred site as it performs better on average under the sea breeze flow - enabling it to better match the average load profile of the South West Interconnected Grid.

Wind Regime of the Geraldton Region - with respect to wind power

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