Multi-scale variability of southeastern Australian wind resources

Abstract

There is growing need to understand wind variability in various regions throughout the world, including in relation to wind energy resources. Here we examine wind variability in southeastern Australia in relation to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) as a dominant mode of atmospheric and oceanic variability for this region. The analysis covers variability from seasonal to diurnal timescales for both land and maritime regions of relevance to wind energy generation. Wind speeds were obtained from the 12 km grid length Bureau of Meteorology Atmospheric high-resolution Regional Reanalysis for Australia (BARRA) reanalysis, with a focus on wind at a typical hub-height of 100 m above the surfa..