Wind Resource and Energy Estimates - SF Zoo Measurement Site and Oceanside Areas

Renewable energy and the development of available solar and wind resources is a key element in future energy policy and activity. The wind resource in the City and County of San Francisco was evaluated in a Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program conducted in 2002-2004 and presented in PIER Final Report P500-04-066 City and County of San Francisco Wind Resource Assessment Project Task 5: Data Analysis and Reporting. As part of this study, wind speed and wind direction measurements were undertaken at five carefully selected locations in the city: Aquarium of the Bay, San Francisco Zoo, Treasure Island, Hunter’s Point, and Twin Peaks. The number of months of available wind speed and wind direction data for these sites were 5 months, 9 months, 12 months, 14 months, and 8 months, respectively.

Since the PIER report was published, the City and County of San Francisco continued to collect wind speed and wind direction data at the San Francisco Zoo site. A total of 22 months of data are now available for analysis. In addition, the staff at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) is interested in knowing the potential wind resource at four other city-owned parcels of land along the western boundary of the City of San Francisco. These locations include Lincoln Park, Sutro Heights Park, Beach Chalet, and Oceanside.


City and County of San Francisco Wind Resource Assessment Project
Task 5: Data Analysis and Reporting

The California Energy Commission’s (Commission) Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Renewables program element undertook an urban wind resource assessment project to help the City and County of San Francisco optimize its future investment in distributed wind energy generation.

Five prospective wind energy generation sites within the City and County were selected. Wind speed data were collected for periods ranging from 5 to 14 months. Sites included in the analysis are Twin Peaks, Treasure Island, Hunters Point, S.F. Zoo, and Pier 39. Wind data over an 11 year period from the S.F. International Airport (SFO) weather station were used in a normalization analysis for each of the monitored sites. For SFO and for each of the monitored sites, an 8,760-hour wind speed dataset was developed to represent typical, or "normal" wind energy resource. For each site annual energy production estimates were calculated for a generic 10 kW horizontal axis wind turbine on a 98-foot tower. Annual energy production estimates ranged from 7,371 kWh/yr for Hunters Point to 15,632 kWh/yr for Twin Peaks. With the exception of Twin Peaks the wind energy resource at the monitored sites appear to be quite modest relative to levels customarily associated with wind energy generation development. Stakeholders responsible for making decisions concerning investment in wind energy generation equipment at the five monitored sites should consider limitations of normalization analyses relying on short-term datasets when incorporating the results of this wind resource assessment into their turbine-specific performance, economic and financial analyses .

The findings of this project will help the City and County of San Francisco make better decisions regarding their future investments in small wind-based renewable energy distributed generation, thereby benefiting California.

Wind Resource Assessment for City-Owned Land in San Francisco County and Along the Hetch Hetchy Right-of-Way

The City and County of San Francisco are eager to embrace and implement renewable energy technologies. The City and County are examining various renewable technologies and "energy-light" configurations for their new headquarters building in the City of San Francisco. Staff is also actively measuring the solar potential at a large number of locations within the city itself. A recent CEC PIER Report (P500-04-066) analyzed the wind resource at a number of key locations within the city including Twin Peaks, Hunter’s Point, Treasure Island, Pier 39, and the San Francisco Zoo. Staff is now expanding this recent wind resource assessment to understand the potential along the Hetch Hetchy Right-of-Way, city-owned properties, and in the waters surrounding the city.