##       mean   sd median  min   max range
## WSPD  6.60 4.24   5.70 0.00 21.60 21.60
## GST   8.19 5.12   7.10 0.00 27.70 27.70
## WVHT  2.13 1.21   1.81 0.44  9.94  9.50
## DPD  10.42 3.03  10.00 3.03 21.05 18.02
## APD   6.67 1.26   6.60 3.76 11.46  7.70

The standard deviation of wind speed is 3-4 times higher than that of wave height. Note that wave power is proportional to wave height squared, and wind power is proportional to wind speed cubed(https://www.windpowerengineering.com/construction/calculate-wind-power-output/). Thus, power generated by wind turbines is substantially more variable than wave power.

Wave Power in the Gulf of Alaska

The red line shows the 10th percentile of wave height (`r round(quantile(data$WVHT,.1),2).

Wind Power in the Gulf of Alaska

Most wind turbines start generating electricity at wind speeds of around 3.6 meters per second (m/s), (8 miles per hour) (DOE, EERE ‘How do Wind Turbines Survive Severe Storms?’)

The NDBC data include wind speed (m/s) averaged over an eight-minute period for buoys reported Hourly.

For a cut-in speed of 3.6 m/s the wind turbine does not generate power for 27.6% of the year. In September, the wind turbine does not generate power 59.7% of the time.

Wind speeds are frequently below the cut-in speed for periods for 3 days in a row in August and September.

Peak Wind Gust Speeds

The cut-out speed of a typical wind turbine is 25 m/s or above (DOE, EERE ‘How do Wind Turbines Survive Severe Storms?’). The plot below shows the gust speed to show the instances when the wind gusts require the turbine to shut down. In the data, the gust speed is defined as the peak 5 or 8 second gust speed (m/s) measured during the eight-minute or two-minute period.

The wind gust speed exceeds typical cutout speed for 15 hours in a year or 0.173% of the year.

In the given climate wind turbine would generates energy for 71.3% of the year.