Is it time to rethink wind farm siting? Could geographical diversity, not just wind speed, be the key to optimising renewable energy?

While the current approach to wind farm siting, focused on high wind speed areas, may minimise the cost of energy production, it overlooks the potentially higher costs associated with integrating this variable power into the broader electricity system. Pearre and Swan (2023) suggest addressing this challenge by identifying geographical areas with wind regimes more compatible with grid integration. And they investigate new siting metrics that reduce integration costs.

When the wind power exceeds the total system demand, its value is low and needs to be curtailed. Pearre and Swan (2023), therefore, define siting metrics that ensure that new wind farms have production profiles with a low correlation to existing renewable production and with a high correlation to the electricity demand. Five different metrics are defined and illustrated on a map of the Canadian Maritimes, and the authors suggest incorporating such metrics into future wind farm tenders.

Pearre, Nathaniel S., and Lukas G. Swan. 2023. “Adding Wind Power to a Wind‐rich Grid: Evaluating Secondary Suitability Metrics.” Wind Energy 26 (5): 446–57. https://doi.org/10.1002/we.2809.