Offshore wind farms boosted by England's rising wind speeds

Summer wind speeds in southern England are steadily increasing, according to new research, boosting the case for offshore windfarms in the area.

Renewable energy and environmental consultancy Atmos Consulting claims that its new software Windscan, which using data from NASA satellites tracks wind speed and direction, has shown wind speeds in northern England and Scotland are holding steady while wind in the south gets faster.
The data on the trends is currently unavailable to any Government developer or environmental agency, but shows that wind farm owners will have much more power to sell to the grid than they expected.
In additions, claims Atmos, if wind speeds in summer are higher this means that turbines will have a slightly flatter seasonal cycle, meaning more power will be produced and there will be less reliance on other forms of energy to make up any shortfalls.
What this means is wind power may actually produce more energy than previously anticipated in future in Southern England. This is good news for developers at such sites as the London Array, Greater Gabbard, Kentish Flats, Thanet and Gunfleet Sands, as they can expect increasing return on their investments as they will ultimately have more energy to sell to the grid than previously anticipated.
Windscan uses three different sensors on six satellites to provide site specific measurements of offshore wind speed and direction, with measurements every 6 hours for the last 20 years for any offshore site around the globe.

Source: The New Civil Engineer