By the end of 2016, the state of Oregon had an installed wind generating power capacity of over 3 Gigawatts. Wind power, while clean and renewable, requires constant load balancing due to variable weather conditions. These conditions must be met with state of the art forecasting methods in order to maximize load balancing efficiency. New techniques in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) have been developed to better optimize load balancing. Visualizations of these new NWP simulations show how winds behave on the leeward side of Mt. Hood. These winds generate a wake that affects Oregon wind farms; causing swings in power that require dynamic load balancing.
Movies
Movie file (.mp4, 1896×942, 168 MB)
Images
Computational Modeling
Pedro Jimenez Munoz (NCAR)
Branko Kosovic (NCAR)
Visualization and Postproduction
Scott Pearse (NCAR)
Model Name
Weather Research and Forecasting Model for Large Eddy Simulations (WRF-LES)