How does wind variability affect wind power reliability?
A wind turbine’s production is usually expressed as an annual average, masking its highly variable output. But because production falls off dramatically as the wind speed drops (by a factor of eight for every halving of the wind speed), most of the time the wind turbine is producing well below its average rate. The average rate of output or more is seen only about a third of the time.
A wind turbine’s production is usually expressed as an annual average, masking its highly variable output. But because production falls off dramatically as the wind speed drops (by a factor of eight for every halving of the wind speed), most of the time the wind turbine is producing well below its average rate. The average rate of output or more is seen only about 40% of the time.
