Wind Variation near the Black Sea Coastal Areas Reflected by the ERA5 Dataset

Abstract

In the context of the European Green Deal implementation, it is expected that there will be an increase in number of the wind farms located near the coastal areas in order to support this initiative. The Black Sea represents an important source of wind energy, and as a consequence, in the present work the regional wind resources (onshore and offshore) are evaluated by considering a total of 20 years of ERA5 wind data covering the 20-year time interval from January 2002 to December 2021. From a general perspective, it is clear that the offshore areas (100 km from the shoreline) are defined by much higher wind speed values than in the onshore, reaching an average of 8.75 m/s for the points located on the western sector. During the winter, these values can go up to 8.75 m/s, with the mention that the northern sectors from Ukraine and Russia may easily exceed 8 m/s. In terms of the wind turbines’ selection, for the offshore areas defined by consistent wind resources, generators will be considered that are defined by a rated wind speed of 11 m/s. Finally, we can mention that a theoretical offshore wind turbine of 20 MW can reach a capacity factor located between 20.9 and 48.3%, while a maximum annual electricity production of 84.6 GWh may be obtained from the sites located near the Romanian and Ukrainian sectors, respectively.

A Review of Perspectives on Developing Floating Wind Farms

“…Romania is a feasible candidate for floating wind implementation [83,84]. However, it lacks electrical infrastructures in the sea areas, which will make it necessary to implement floating wind Power-to-X technology that will do the job of transforming the produced electrical power mainly into hydrogen or compressed air, before accordingly transporting it through ships or other means to offshore or onshore customers.…”

Editorial Note for the Special Issue: Perspectives and Challenges in Doctoral Research—Selected Papers from the 10th Edition of the Scientific Conference of the Doctoral Schools from the “Dunărea de Jos”

“…Three articles in this Special Issue present findings in the field of mechanical and industrial engineering. Thus, articles [5,6] take wind energy as their main objects of research. The objective of article [5] was to provide a parallel assessment of the wind resources from the Black Sea's onshore and offshore regions, taking into account some significant local sites such as the harbors.…”