Study of different anemometer time intervals influence on wind speed probabilistic distribution parameters

Probabilistic distribution parameters of wind speed in wind farms are quite important to the wind energy statistical characteristics. Based on the rule that the probabilistic distribution of wind speed obeys the dual parameters Weibull distribution, three different methods including least-square method, average wind speed and standard deviation estimation, and average wind speed and maximum wind speed estimation are employed to estimate the parameters of wind speed probabilistic distribution via the various anemometer time intervals. On consequence, wind energy characteristic indices could be obtained. The result shows the method of average wind speed and standard deviation is the best if the time interval is short enough, but the least-square method is better when the time interval gets longer via the comparison between the wind energy characteristic indices calculated by the probabilistic distribution of wind speed and the indices obtained from the historical wind speed time series. In addition, the average wind speed and maximum wind speed estimation has a large randomness, so it should be not recommended usually. The study presented in the paper could provide important reference for the planning and design of wind farms.