Volkovaia O. Natural resource potential of the territory for placing wind aggregates: a topical level

A theoretical substantiation has been made and a method for choosing the optimal account for a complex of physiographic and environmental factors in estimating the wind energy potential at the topical level was proposed, which is necessary for determining and modeling the location of the wind farm at a certain point on the prospective site. The selection and improvement of the wind flow modeling and wind potential estimation method using MS-Micro/3 model for sites with complex orography and variegated landscape structure typical for the Left-Bank Forest-Steppe of Ukraine was substantiated. The chosen model under such conditions has the lowest error indices and ensures sufficient reliability of the results. A comparative analysis of the main models for predicting the average wind speed was conducted and the magnitude of the error of each model due to the orography and roughness of the terrain was estimated. The method of obtaining the parameters of the territory necessary for modeling the wind flow has been improved and tested through the integrated application of field landscape survey, statistical calculations and geoinformation technologies application. A method for choosing the location of the wind farm site by cartographic modeling and eliminating the restriction zones caused by settlement and infrastructure from further consideration was proposed. Corresponding maps of distribution of limiting factors were made. It was proved that on the territory adjacent to the test site in the Borovskiy district of the Kharkiv region, there are good prerequisites for the wind energy development. Key words: natural resources potential, wind power, topical level, wind speed, wind energy development strategy, wind power resources, GIS technology.