Evaluating the accuracy of NEWA, ERA5 and NORA3 in predicting onshore wind conditions: a comparative study using ICOS meteorological mast data in Sweden

Abstract: The ECMWF Reanalysis v5 (ERA5), the New European Wind Atlas (NEWA), and the 3 km Norwegian Reanalysis (NORA3) are reference datasets that are available for industry and research. The resolution of 3km in both the NORA3 and NEWA datasets sets them apart, while ERA5, with its 31km resolution, continues to serve as a reliable data source that is widely used in the industry. The study offers a thorough analysis of three datasets from three research stations in Sweden, which are accessible through the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS). It has been discovered that all three reference datasets exhibit a strong alignment with the measured data. However, NORA3 and ERA5 outperform NEWA in wind speed and direction estimation. The computation of Annual Energy Production (AEP) using WindPro is performed. We examine the representativeness of the correlation coefficient between the Weibull scale and shape parameters, the agreement of wind rose distributions, and the estimated AEP.