Comparison of wind profile estimation methods for calculating offshore wind potential for the Northeast region of Brazil

Over the years, the need for energy consumption has been increasing in all sectors of society. Consequently, discussions about renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, hydraulic and wave energy are increasingly being guided in all global environmental political discussions. More specifically, wind energy, mainly offshore, has been increasingly highlighted due to the large area to be explored. Thus, the objective of this work was to study the offshore wind profiles using five different estimation methodologies, verifying which is the best and worst scenario of wind potential. For this purpose, data from the SODAR of “Ômega Energia” located in the state of Maranhão, in the Northeast of Brazil were used; the data from the ERA5 Reanalysis and the data from the Wobben Windpower E-82 E4 wind turbine, with a nominal power of 3000 KW (3 MW). The results showed that the best method for estimating wind profiles both for this location and for the entire Northeast region of Brazil was the method using Taylor & Yelland [28] roughness estimate calculation, which considers a stable atmosphere. Comparatively, the best estimate scenario showed a gain of 0.65 MW of power generation when compared to the worst scenario.