ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the major quantitative regional and national wind integration studies from the United States. Wind integration studies generally follow a similar format. After defining a set of research questions, wind data are collected for a set of potentially viable plant locations using a combination of meteorological models, anemometer measurements, and historical wind plant output. Gathering representative data for potential future wind plants is one of the most significant challenges to a successful wind integration study. Three types of wind data were used in the reviewed studies: historical wind plant output data, wind speed measurements from anemometers or LIDAR systems, and mesoscale numerical weather prediction (NWP) model data. Data from each of these sources offer tradeoffs in terms of quality, time resolution, generalizability, and availability. Data availability is particularly challenging because historical wind plant performance data are almost always proprietary. Efforts to release data more openly substantially advance wind integration research.
