Renewable energies (RE), such as solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind, are weather-driven and thus their outcome depends also on each location and time. Because of this, when evaluating the feasibility of a solar/wind plant, accurate information on local meteorological parameters is essential. In particular, local atmospheric measurements are valuable for two aspects: resource assessment and plant performance evaluation. Several kinds of projects are proposed within this module, mainly  on the topics of resource assessment, but also on the mechanics of wind turbines. Models that describe the aerodynamics of a wind turbine, allow to estimate its efficiency, or the behavior of its components (blade, mast) can be explored.

Resource assessment and performance evaluation can be addressed within the RE platform of SIRTA’s atmospheric observatory at Ecole Polytechnique’s Campus. The project will make use of this platform and of the rich time series of measurements available. The following questions apply:
-Which are the instruments available for resource assessment for solar and wind energy?
-What are the variability of solar and wind resources at intra-daily, daily, monthly and annual scales?
-When evaluating the outdoors performance of a PV module, what are the impacts of temperature, solar irradiance, spectral distribution, tilt and orientation angles, solar shading and soiling?
-When anticipating the performance of a wind turbine, what are the impacts of roughness of the ground, the assumption on wind profile and wind speed distribution?
-What indicators exist to evaluate the performance for PV modules and wind turbines and what are expected and real found values?

Langue du cours : Anglais

Credits ECTS : 4