Paper detail

Is the Weibull distribution really suited for wind statistics modeling and wind power evaluation?

Wind speed statistics is generally modeled using the Weibull distribution. This distribution is convenient since it fully characterizes analytically with only two parameters (the shape and scale parameters) the shape of distribution and the different moments of the wind speed (mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis). This distribution is broadly used in the wind energy sector to produce maps of wind energy potential. However, the Weibull distribution is based on empirical rather than physical justification and might display strong limitations for its applications. The philosophy of this article is based on the modeling of the wind components instead of the wind speed itself. This provides more physical insights on the validity domain of the Weibull distribution as a possible relevant model for wind statistics and the quantification of the error made by using such a distribution. We thereby propose alternative expressions of more suited wind speed distribution.