Long-Term Wind Speed Evaluation for Romanian Wind Farms

The chapter presents an evaluation on long-term range of the wind energy availability in existing Romanian wind farms. The necessity of increasing the renewable energy sources in the global energy portfolio of Romania leads to the development of several wind farms around the country. Although these farms’ establishment is based on some previous assessments of wind energy potential, there are no references on the future long-term evolution of the wind speed in these locations. Taking into account that the main parameter in wind turbine efficiency is the wind speed and the permanent climate changes, wind speed changes occur too. Knowing that the estimated lifetime of a wind turbine is around 20 years, an analysis of the predicted wind speed for the 30-year period 2020–2050, based on RCP4.5/8.5 scenarios, allowed to evaluate the opportunity to maintain and develop the wind farms in the same areas or start new investigation in order to find new appropriate places for the future wind energy extraction.