Abstract
The power spectral density of the output of wind turbines provides
information on the character of fluctuations in turbine output. Here
both 1-second and 1-hour samples are used to estimate the power spectrum
of several wind farms. The measured output power is found to follow
a Kolmogorov spectrum over more than four orders of magnitude, from
30 s to 2.6 days. This result is in sharp contrast to the only previous
study covering long time periods, published 50 years ago. The spectrum
defines the character of fill-in power that must be provided to compensate
for windâs fluctuations when wind is deployed at large scale. Installing
enough linear ramp rate generation (such as a gas generator) to fill
in fast fluctuations with amplitudes of 1% of the maximum fluctuation
would oversize the fill-in generation capacity by a factor of two
for slower fluctuations, greatly increasing capital costs. A wind
system that incorporates batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors,
or other fast-ramp-rate energy storage systems would match fluctuations
much better, and can provide an economic route for deployment of
energy storage systems when renewable portfolio standards require
large amounts of intermittent renewable generating sources.
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