Global Stilling: The importance of high-resolution wind speed data

Abstract: Global stilling is the worldwide observed reduction of wind speeds due to climate change. This is highly important as society is increasingly reliant on wind power which could be impacted by significant global stilling. Using the record of wind speed and wind power generation data from the Hazelrigg Meteorological Station and wind turbine, we performed trend analyses and assessed the rate of change. The 10-minute data for Lancaster shows decreasing wind speeds (0.2m s-1) and estimated wind power (20kW) in the last decade, similarly daily data suggests decreasing wind speeds and a total decrease in estimated wind power generation by approximately 350kW between 1985 and 2022. To assess the importance of high-resolution data in wind power analysis we transformed the 10-minute wind speed and daily run of wind data to estimated wind power generation. The opposing patterns shown by the 10-minute and daily data highlight the importance of using high resolution wind speed data for global stilling research due to the large spatial and temporal variability of wind speeds.

Biography: Kathryn Vest is an Environmental Science PhD student at Lancaster University. Kathryn will be presenting work from her undergraduate degree in Environmental Science at Lancaster University. This work used observed wind speed and wind power data from the Hazelrigg weather station to assess how wind speeds are changing. Global stilling was investigated on a local scale for Lancaster and one of the main considerations was the influence of high-resolution data when exploring wind speeds and power.