92nd American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting (January 22-26, 2012)

Monday, 23 January 2012
El Niņo-Southern Oscillation Impacts on Wind Speeds and Wind Power in Southern California
Hall E (New Orleans Convention Center )
Neil Berg, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA; and A. Hall, S. Capps, and M. Hughes

Poster PDF (5.2 MB)

To the extent that the El Niņo-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) can be forecasted, there exists a potential to create long-term forecasts of wind fields and wind power for regional climates that are impacted by ENSO. The climate of Southern California is heavily influenced by ENSO and is isolated in this study. Using a long-term, high-resolution climate simulation of Southern California, we quantify shifts in hub height-level wind speeds and direction according to ENSO phase. These changes to hub height-level wind fields are translated into wind power fluctuations within a proposed hypothetical offshore wind farm near the coast of Los Angeles. We find that seasonal wind power output within the offshore wind farm can fluctuate on the order of 10% based on ENSO phase. This type of knowledge could help with the selection of sites for future wind farms and also help the private sector more appropriately set energy prices based on anticipated energy output.

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