CSSP China CHN24_1.15 Wind Stilling and Wind Energy

CSSP China aims to accelerate climate science research and development programmes to underpin development of climate services that help build resilience to climate vulnerability.

The path to net-zero relies on our ability to harness energy from renewable resources, and wind power generation is a vital part of this zero-carbon energy mix. Although wind speed and direction observations have been made for centuries, they suffer from issues of quality and temporal homogeneity. This makes long-term analysis of trends and variability very difficult and limits our ability to quantify uncertainty in modelled future wind speeds. Decision makers require predictions and projections of future wind speeds and variability of wind conditions in order to inform plans for new wind power installations and to manage demand and supply.

This project seeks those with a keen interest in developing further understanding of the observational uncertainties and prediction capabilities of land and ocean wind speed and available wind power, including the atmospheric processes involved. We are looking for novel approaches to understanding past and future trends and variability in wind speed over the UK and China, and the potential for skilful predictions and projections of future wind power from seasons to decades ahead.

This work should synthesise existing research on global and regional wind trends, including global scale stilling, and assess the state of winds over the study regions as well as current predictions and projections. In particular, this work should seek to quantify: uncertainty in past and future trends and variability; and the capability for climate predictions and projections of wind power. Resulting output should be made available in a way that can be used downstream by policy makers and the wind energy sector to better plan for likely future changes. This work should also incorporate marine winds with a view to offshore wind energy production.