Abstract:

In recent years, the wind power of southern island was developed fast, and the wind resource rich area is mainly concentrated in mountainous areas. This paper has deeply analyzed the feature of wind energy resources of hills and mountains in Hubei Province by using the wholeyear observed data of twelve anemometer towers in different altitude at the height of 70 m or 80 m, and the results showed as follows. 1) The mean wind velocity is the maximum in spring while the minimum in summer and autumn in a year; the diurnal mean wind velocity is big during day and small at night, the variation amplitude of diurnal wind velocity is between 10 m/s and 27 m/s, and the variation range of diurnal mean wind velocity is bigger in low hill and middle hill regions. 2) Available wind speed frequency is between 79% and 92%, the wind speed frequency above 10 m/s is between 8% and 18%, the wind power frequency above 10 m/s is between 39% and 67%, and the appearance of destructive wind speed is low. 3) The average gustiness factor calculated by the extreme wind speed above 15 m/s is between 12 and 135, so the gustiness factor of hills and mountains is lower than 14 which is recommended by the international wind turbine design standards. 4) The wind direction frequency is concentrated at tow opposite direction that is south and north, and the wind energy direction frequency and wind direction frequency is mainly coincident. 5) The rule of wind velocity changed with height is complex, and wind velocity from 10 m to 30 m increases evidently, and wind velocity from 30 m to 80 m changes little or reduces with height in some areas. 6) The turbulence intensity of available wind speed interval and gale and dominant wind direction are all at middle level, and the variation characteristics of the turbulence intensity in different wind speed interval is basically consistent, namely turbulence intensity during 3-6 m/s decreases sharply with increasing wind speed, and turbulence intensity above 6 m/s is basically stable. Based on these results, it can be found that the high concentrated wind direction and wind energy, and low appearance of destructive wind speed and middle level turbulence intensity are all propitious to wind power generation. The wind energy resource of Hubei province is mainly concentrated in hills and mountains areas, so the particularity of wind in hills and mountains must be considered when we develop the wind resource. The particularity includes that the icecoating in winter significantly affect the wind power, and the selection of hub height of draught fan must fully consider the influence of wind shear exponent, furthermore, the changed character of season and diurnal wind speed is propitious to make use of wind and solar and water energy together. In summary, the research results help wind energy exploitation in Hubei Province, especially in south mountain areas