“The Umbria Region Wind Atlas.”

Wind power distribution is characterized by a strong degree of variability both in temporal terms and in spatial terms in relationship to the orography, to the superficial roughness and the climatology conditions. For this reason an analysis of wind potential cannot exclude field measurements in the most meaningful points. A preliminary estimation of the distribution of the wind resource can be performed through a combined analysis of the orography and the observation of sign on the vegetation. Numerical modeling combined with field data collection can be useful for the definition of wind energy potential over wide territories. Present work is focused on the selection of the best methodology for the elaboration of the Umbria Region wind atlas; after choosing of the most reliable wind model and the input and output data, several simulations have been performed to calculate the regional wind energy potential. Results demonstrate the importance in using fluid dynamics wind models and digital terrain models at high resolution for domains preparation; this work has been used in the elaboration of the Umbria Region Energy Plan.