Analytical methods for wind persistence: Their application in assessing the best site for a wind farm in the State of Veracruz, Mexico

The properties of wind persistence are an essential parameter in carrying out a complete analysis of possible sites for a wind farm. This parameter can be defined as a measure of the mean duration of wind speed within a given interval of values for a concrete site. In this study the persistence properties are evaluated from the methods based on the autocorrelation function, conditional probability and the curves of speed duration, used satisfactorily by other authors. The statistical analysis of the series of useful persistence is also carried out to validate the results obtained. These methods have been applied to hourly data of wind speed corresponding to five Weather Stations (WS) in the State of Veracruz, Mexico in the period 1995-2006. The results obtained indicate that the coastal areas have the best properties of wind speed persistence and are, therefore, the most indicated for the generation of electricity from this renewable energy source. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.