The Estimation of Wind Lull and Consumption Factor Influence on Autonomous Wind Energy System

Due to the stochastic output of wind generators, some kind of storage device will be necessary to ensure a constant energy supply by an autonomous energy system. The necessary storage capacity depends on wind data and consumption factor. The latter describes the ratio between average production capacity and average usage capacity. In addition to average wind speed, the frequency and duration of windless periods must be considered as well. The concept of energy lulls has been outlined to describe the influence of duration, frequency and distribution of windless periods on a wind energy system. Location has strong influence on energy lull length; the difference in average duration between a coastal area and inland is more than two fold. Weibull distribution can be used to describe the probability of energy lulls.