Meteorological Observations for Renewable Energy Applications at Site 300 Page: 3 of 21
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Meteorological observations for renewable energy applications at Site 300
Project team: Sonia Wharton, Maureen Alai, Cary Gellner, Katie Myers, Jeff Mirocha, John van Fossen
1. Overview
In early October 2010, two Laser and Detection Ranging (LIDAR) units (LIDAR-96 and LIDAR-97),
a 3 m tall flux tower, and a 3 m tall meteorological tower were installed in the northern section of Site
300 (Figure 1) as a first step in development of a renewable energy testbed facility. This section of the
SMS project is aimed at supporting that effort with continuous maintenance of atmospheric monitoring
instruments capable of measuring vertical profiles of wind speed and wind direction at heights
encountered by future wind power turbines. In addition, fluxes of energy are monitored to estimate
atmospheric mixing and its effects on wind flow properties at turbine rotor disk heights. Together, these
measurements are critical for providing an accurate wind resource characterization and for validating
LLNL atmospheric prediction codes for future renewable energy projects at Site 300.
Accurate, high-resolution meteorological measurements of wind flow in the planetary boundary
layer (PBL) and surface-atmosphere energy exchange are required for understanding the properties and
quality of available wind power at Site 300. Wind speeds at heights found in a typical wind turbine rotor
disk (~ 40- 140 m) are driven by the synergistic impacts of atmospheric stability, orography, and land-
surface characteristics on the mean wind flow in the PBL and related turbulence structures. This section
of the report details the maintenance and labor required in FY11 to optimize the meteorological
instruments and ensure high accuracy of their measurements. A detailed look at the observations from
FY11 is also presented. This portion of the project met the following milestones:
Milestone 1: successful maintenance and data collection of LIDAR and flux tower instruments
Milestone 2: successful installation of solar power for the LIDAR units
Milestone 3: successful implementation of remote data transmission for the LIDAR unitsI ...4'{ Flux tower and 2 m
I tall met townr
'" i '\ ' aDO .. 52mn tall
\ f/ meteorological to.
* LlDAR-96(@ ta
Y 4 a met, tower)
- -
- 8j
I ----
Ar00. is~ 20.. nnfl5Figure 1: Topographical map of Site
300 showing the locations of the
flux tower and 3 m meteorological
tower (37.675, -121.531, 323 m
AGL), LIDAR-97 (37.674, -121.540,
398 m AGL), LIDAR-96 (37.675, -
121.541, 387 m AGL), and the
existing 52 m tall meteorological
tower (37.675, -121.541, 387 m
AGL). Also shown are the
dominant ridge lines (dashed lines)
which run northwest-to-southeast
across Site 300. The flux tower and
LIDARs are separated by a distance
of 1 km; the LIDARs are separated
by a distance of 150 m.
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Wharton, S; Alai, M & Myers, K. Meteorological Observations for Renewable Energy Applications at Site 300, report, October 26, 2011; Livermore, California. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc839434/m1/3/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.