Spotting Suitable Onshore Wind Farm Sites From Space

Introduction

While there has been a great deal of study, research, and investment in helping onshore wind developers measure and model wind as a critical resource; there has been less attention on helping developers to automate assessment of the many other geographical, environmental, logistical etc. ‘non-wind resources’ required when screening for suitable onshore wind farm locations.

This breakthrough abstract, highlights the work of the innovative SEWISS (Space Enabled Wind Installation Site Screening) project, which has made recent progress in the use of multi-spectral satellite imagery (with resolutions of up to 30 cm), combined with other relevant data sets to automate the remote screening of these global ‘non-wind resources’ with a view to reducing both the cost and duration of the site screening and selection phase.

Approach

Technical and commercial viability of the SEWISS concept has been validated via a successful feasibility study co-funded by the European Space Agency within the program Integrated Application Promotion (IAP), which included proof of concept work on a number of trial locations around the globe with the involvement of onshore wind developers. On April 18 2016 the European Space Agency approved co-funding for a follow-on demonstration project during which all elements of the SEWISS service portfolio will be developed and the trailed on 24 global sites by involved onshore wind developers.

The SEWISS demonstration project kicked off 1 Sept 2016 and the team would like to thank Green Bear Corporation Poland Sp. z o.o., ENGIE, and all our involved developers for their input and support.

Main body of abstract

Our presentation will cover the following topics in colourful detail:

• Outline the current issues faced by developers screening for suitable sites, in particular when trying to break into new developing markets.
• Illustrate how the work of the SEWISS team addresses these issues by sharing feasibility study proof of concept work which illustrates our use of satellite imagery to automatically generate land cover, land roughness, building detection and building/tree height analyses.
• Share further feasibility study proof of concept work which demonstrates how the above analyses of satellite imagery can be combined with other data sets such as road, rail, elevation, environmental protection zones etc. to conduct automated, user defined, rule based greenfield analyses, resulting in an analysis of suitable locations for development including a turbine layout proposal.
• Provide an overview of the SEWISS analyses accuracy achieved during recent proof of concept work and anticipated accuracies upon completion of the SEWISS demonstration project.
• Outline the advantages of using satellite imagery. High resolution (up to 30 cm) multi-spectral data. Global coverage. No permit or deployment issues. Frequent revisit cycles.
• Review the barriers to direct use of satellite imagery by onshore wind developers and how the SEWISS demonstration project aims to remove these. Complexity of searching for and purchasing the right image. Need for in-house specialist remote sensing expertise and software.
• Share key feasibility study result that SEWISS has the potential to reduce the duration of the site screening and selection phase by 30%, and the cost by 10-15%.


Conclusion

The SEWISS team conclude that multi-spectral satellite imagery and data can provide accurate, up to date, global answers to many ‘non-wind resource’ assessment questions but that there are currently a number of barriers to developers using satellite imagery. The SEWISS demonstration project aims to reduce these barriers via the development of software to automate the analysis and remote selection of suitable sites for onshore wind development.


Learning objectives
Delegates will appreciate the potential for satellite imagery as a valuable, global data set, able to remotely answer many of their ‘non-wind resource’ assessment questions. They will be introduced to the innovative work of the SEWISS team, and we hope that delegates will be encouraged to engage with us, and ultimately shape the development of cheaper, quicker, automated ‘non-wind resource’ assessment.