Samy Lakhal, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology

Renewable energies fluctuate due to the variability of their sources. For wind energy, atmospheric turbulence produces extreme power fluctuations, straining electrical infrastructures. A better understanding of these intermittent properties is a first essential step in the design and optimization of next-generation renewable systems.

I will introduce the concept of statistical intermittency from basic construction steps. I will then describe the correlation structure of wind power productions, here using the data sampled from a Texas wind farm of 80 turbines.

We find that extreme power events are spatially correlated, leading to the persistence of non-Gaussian fluctuations at the entire farm scale.