The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind and Water Power Technologies Office (WWPTO) activities in wind technologies for distributed wind applications address the performance and reliability challenges associated with wind turbines installed in the distributed wind market segment by focusing on technology development, testing, certification, and manufacturing. The WWPTO program goals in the distributed wind area are as follows: The Wind Program aims to maximize stakeholder confidence in turbine performance and safety and improve project performance while reducing installed cost in order to be competitive with retail electric rates and other forms of distributed generation. The Wind Program's goals fall under one or both of the following focus areas:

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We evaluate various classes of distributed wind turbine performance tools across two sites in the United States. The class of tools ranges from the simple mass conservation model to the coupled Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes model, all initiated by the WIND Toolkit data set. The resource estimation at the site is evaluated against measured data at the mast location. Taking a sample 100-kW wind turbine and constant losses, we evaluate Openwind, Continuum, and WindNinja tools and document annual energy production (AEP) and time-series statistics associated with the performance estimation of the wind turbine. Using a methodology that is consistent and unbiased across the three options currently available in the industry, we elaborate results at the two sample locations and discuss the probable sources of discrepancy in the AEP estimates. Two main sources of the discrepancy come from the input WIND Toolkit data and the spatial modeling techniques of the tools to capture atmospheric physics. The discussion includes additional values that these tools may bring into the energy assessment process to enhance the owners’ confidence over the distributed wind power systems.

Over the past several years, various efforts have highlighted the variability in project performance and accuracy of performance prediction methods for distributed wind projects. These include: • The 2016 and 2017 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) distributed wind market reports, which show capacity factors for distributed wind turbine installations ranging from ~1% to 49% • A total of 292 projects under the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), where an analysis of that data showed a 3-year average actual vs. predicted power production ranging from 62% to 134%, depending on project size. Note: Because of the federal funding application process, REAP projects have more strict requirements than distributed wind projects in general.