Where Do Power Curves Come From?
True power curves come from lots of data taken at a real-world test facility. Data is matched with wind speeds taken from anemometers (wind measuring devices) placed at the hub height (center of rotor), and then binned to get lots of data for each wind speed. From the many data points, a line of best fit becomes the power curve. The standard for power curves is to use sea-level air density, so sometimes power curves are then corrected for air density differences. There are also power curves derived from calculations, wind tunnel tests, back of vehicle tests however because these dont provide the true variability in wind speeds and quality, the results are often very unrealistic when compared with of real world installations.
