IEA Annex XVII Database on Wind Characteristics

Summary
The "Database on Wind Characteristics" has been operated as a project of the International Energy Agency, IEA Wind R&D Annex XVII and constitutes a valuable tool for a consistent and rational calibration of essential wind characteristics for wind turbine design. In addition, investigations of a more fundamental and phenomenological character can conveniently be supported by the large selection of full-scale wind field measurements contained in the database. The database may be accessed by Dutch parties as well as international parties. Conditions and access are discussed below.

History
In 1996 there was an urgency to initiate an international effort to collect, describe and store high-quality wind data measured by several wind energy related projects. The EU-DG XII (JOULE) project ‘Database on Wind Characteristics’ was started in 1996 and completed in 1998. The project resulted in a unique database of quality controlled and documented wind field time series supplemented with tools that enable easy access and a simple analysis through an internet connection. As a follow-up to the JOULE project, Sweden, Norway, United States, The Netherlands, Japan, and Denmark formulated Task

XVII, within the auspices of the IEA. The Annex XVII was initiated on 1st January 1999 for a period of four years until January 2003. During this period, all persons, institutes and industries in the participating countries had free and unlimited access to the database. ECN extended access to the database for Dutch parties even during 2004. At the end of 2004, the database has been distributed among the actively participating institutes that have contributed data to the database.

Content of the international database on wind characteristics
The database on wind characteristics consists of raw sampled time series (0.5 – 40 Hz) and statistics, which are organized in a MySQL database. The statistics database (7.4GB) contains a list of all time series, the derived statistics together with other parameters. The raw time series (74.6GB) consist of files of 10-minute periods in a common format. The accessibility of the database has been developed during the operational years of the database and is quite easy and comprehensive. The data that have been added by ECN to the international wind database are described in reports [1] and [2].

[1] http://www.ecn.nl/library/reports/2004/c04019.html

[2] http://www.ecn.nl/library/reports/2003/c03128.html

Access to the international database on wind characteristics
From numerous areas over the world, controlled and high quality data have been added to the database. Important data consists of wake measurements, three component offshore measurements, extreme complex terrain measurements and long term data sets covering time spans of at least 20 years.

In order to access the database contact ECN.
For a preview of the database follow this link: http://www.winddata.com/