- The South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) hosted an online seminar on Monday 4 October 2021 to announce the completion of the latest phase of its wind atlas project, WASA 3.
Ms Nomawethu Qase, the DMRE’s director for new and renewable energy, said that WASA 3 used new and improved software which increased the speed of processing while reducing computer power requirements. The 19 sites, covering 75% of South Africa’s land area, where observable readings were taken have provided wind data that has been used to validate the WASA wind resource modelling for the entire country.
Nineteen masts were erected over a period of ten years to collect data about wind resources.
In addition to the data collected from the 19 masts, further data has been supplied by the South African Weather Service (SAWS). SAWS has 111 weather stations which hold 50 years’ worth of wind data.
A time series of the mesoscale datais is also pubblicly available through the platform. This data consists of 2-meter temperature, wind speed and direction at 20, 60, 100 and 120m, at 30 minute intervals at each grid cell for the full 30 year period
The generation of a wind atlas for South Africa is a joint undertaking between the CSIR, SAWS, CSAG and international collaborators at Risoe, part of the Danish Technical University. The project has been made possible by the Royal Danish Embassy, the United Nations Development Programme, the South African Wind Energy Programme and the South African National Energy Research Institute.
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Author: Bryan Groenendaal
