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Masdar and Irena officials at the wind atlas launch cermony in Abu Dhabi.

UAE launches region’s first public wind atlas

ABU DHABI, January 20, 2015

UAE-based Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, an independent, research-driven graduate-level university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, has launched the region’s first public wind atlas to support wind energy projects.

The UAE Wind Atlas is aimed at accurately characterizing the UAE’s wind resources and ultimately supporting investments in wind energy projects, said senior officials of Masdar during the launch at the World Future Energy Summit 2015 in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

"This is one more excellent achievement from the Research Center for Renewable Energy Mapping and Assessment at Masdar Institute. The UAE Wind Atlas demonstrates another key aspect of our contribution to advancing clean energy projects in the UAE," remarked Dr Fred Moavenzadeh, the president of Masdar Institute.

With this launch, the UAE has become the first country in the region to develop its own publicly available wind atlas, which has been integrated into the Global Atlas for Renewable Energy platform of the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) as a contribution from the UAE Government.

"With the support of the UAE’s leadership, Masdar Institute remains in the forefront of research and innovation for clean energy adoption, creating new tools and techniques for the benefit of the wider community. We foresee that the launch and inclusion of the UAE Wind Atlas in IRENA’s Global Wind Atlas highlights our role in the creation of technical knowledge for sustainability," noted Dr Moavenzadeh.

Irena director-general Adnan Z. Amin described the launch as another key milestone in its efforts to bring a comprehensive clean energy resource map to the global community.

"The support provided by Masdar Institute’s Research Centre for Renewable Energy Mapping and Assessment and 3TIER has been critical to help developers of clean energy projects find valuable information to assist in their investment decisions," he stated.

Masdar said an interactive portal with a wide range of end-user applications will be hosted on a dedicated server at ReCrema, located within Masdar Institute, under its director Dr Hosni Ghedira.

Dr Taha BMJ Ouarda, the head of the Institute Center for Water and Environment (iWater), was closely involved in the creation of the wind atlas, the company added.

"The wind atlas is fairly different from the solar atlas in a number of ways, although some of the maps may seem similar: Wind has to be generated at a number of heights and a whole altitude profile needs to be produced as different turbine technologies work at different heights," said Dr Ghedira.

"Also, solar irradiance is a fairly regional variable because irradiance at a given location is not very different from irradiance at a location 100 meters away," he added.

The scientific work to produce the wind atlas included climate simulations and was carried out in collaboration with 3TIER, a global leader in renewable energy risk analysis, data, assessment, and forecasting for wind, solar, and hydro power projects based in Seattle, US.

At the request of the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ReCrema developed the UAE solar and wind atlases to make them available to the general public through Irena’s global atlas platform.

The UAE Wind Atlas application and interactive portal are hosted in the state-of-the-art Data Center facilities at Masdar Institute.-TradeArabia News Service




Tags: UAE | Masdar | Irena | wind atlas |

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