Offshore wind energy, is an energy strategy towards 2030 targets also in Mediterranean Sea.
Innovation and research trends in designing new and advanced turbines, and power plants, need the understanding and accurate analysis of wind condition in specific operating environments.
The goal is to increase the cost-effective turbine design for longer lifetime.
Lower and high-resolution meteorological models are the solution to compensate the lack of spatially distributed measurements and coastal high quality observations are needed to evaluate the accuracy of different boundary layer parameterization schemes in models to solve the effect of the sea- land coastal discontinuity.
Vertical wind profiles from wind lidars are now recognized as the new standards measurements for wind energy applications. Wind lidars have been shown to be functional for studying the evolution of the vertical wind structure in several orographic configuration including complex terrains.
Here, we present results from an unique dataset in the Mediterranean coastal area: a three-year observation program (July 2013- ongoing), of vertical profiles (10 m to 300 m) of wind speed U and direction Dir, recorded at a site located at the west coast of the peninsular Calabria region in Italy, in the Central Mediterranean area.
The analysis of this database shows 1- the occurrence of a west-east sea-land breeze system all year round, modulated by a synoptic flow from the west; and 2 - high occurrence of nights with the development of very stable layers with low level jets and gustiness episodes extending up to 200 m. Sea-land breeze system development and extension can have an impact on both onshore and offshore wind energy development; together with gustiness, sea breeze can have a potential impact on turbine structure when considering that, during breeze transition period, the wind direction reverse within minutes.Such long-term and accurate coastal dataset can help in classify wind regimes and characterize the wind profiles according to those and help evaluating models both in hindcast and in forecast mode for wind climatology and forecast applications.