Releasing wind farm equity via post-construction yield analysis

During pre-construction yield analysis, an extrapolated site wind regime is applied to a site model in order to produce estimated yield figures. However, once the site has been operational, many of the uncertainties involved in this modelling, such as electrical losses, wake losses, turbulence and power performance, may be resolved into measured operational parameters. This means that off-site anemometry may be directly related to power production on the site. In a post-construction yield analysis, the pre-construction figures are refined using actual operational data. This allows: a) The initial yield report figures to be reassessed in the light of wind farm performance, and b) The uncertainties associated with annual yield figures to be reduced and understood more fully. This increasing reduction in uncertainty allows improvements in financial modelling to take place over the operational life of the wind farm, releasing equity from the wind farm investmen