High-resolution model-based wind atlas for Greece

In the frame of this paper a wind climatology has been built for Greece, based on high resolution model simulations performed for a typical year of wind conditions over the area. The methodology followed includes: (a) the development of a typical wind year, (b) the definition of a modeling strategy and the performance of the appropriate simulations, (c) the verification of the 10-m wind speed simulated by the model against observations, (d) the statistical analysis of the wind simulations for the construction of the wind atlas. The analysis is performed at 50 m and includes gridded wind speeds, the parameters of the respective Weibull distributions, and the potential power production. Finally a discussion on the effect of the topography height and slope on the wind distribution and consequently on the wind potential density is provided. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.