A seasonal grade division of the global offshore wind energy resource

Abstract

Under the background of energy crisis, the development of renewable energy will significantly alleviate the energy and environmental crisis. On the basis of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) interim reanalysis (ERA-interim) wind data, the annual and seasonal grade divisions of the global offshore wind energy are investigated. The results show that the annual mean offshore wind energy has great potential. The wind energy over the westerly oceans of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres is graded as Class 7 (the highest), whereas that over most of the mid-low latitude oceans are higher than Class 4. The wind energy over the Arctic Ocean (Class 4) is more optimistic than the traditional evaluations. Seasonally, the westerly oceans of the Northern Hemisphere with a Class 7 wind energy are found to be largest in January, followed by April and October, and smallest in July. The area of the Class 7 wind energy over the westerly oceans of the Southern Hemisphere are found to be largest in July and slightly smaller in the other months. In July, the wind energy over the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal is graded as Class 7, which is obviously richer than that in other months. It is shown that in this data set in April and October, the majority of the northern Indian Ocean are regions of indigent wind energy resource.