Analysis of the atmospheric electrical activity over wind farm in Argentina, in a Context of Climate Chang

CONSTANZA INÉS VILLAGRÁN ASIARES; MARÍA GABRIELA NICORA; DAIANA MARLENE, BAISSAC; FIORELLA, BERTONE; ELDO E. ÁVILA; AMALIA MEZA

Tel Aviv

Conferencia; 17th International Conference on Atmospheric Electricity.; 2022

International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) ,

Density of discharges and thunderstorm days (TD) are very important measures for studyingatmospheric electrical activity. In 2005, with the installation of the World-Wide LightningLocation Network (WWLLN) in Argentina, Nicora et al. 2014 made the first isoceraunic maps(equal number of TD) They used data from the National Meteorological Service and WWLLN,for the period 2005-2011. In addition to this work, Bertone 2020 elaborated isoceraunic maps,where they defined a TD as that day in which the WWLLN network detected at least one eventin a given area (observation radius of approximately 20 km). In this last work, they noted anincrease in the number of TDs in the country. Having data on thunderstorm days and dischargedensity over such a long period of time may provide us with evidence of changes in electricalactivity in a context of climate change. (Bertone 2020)In December 2015, the Paris Agreement was signed, which seeks to limit the global temperatureincrease to 2ºC or less by the year 2100 (4). One of its objectives is to reduce greenhouse gasemissions, which come mainly from non-renewable energy generation. (5). Because of this,Argentina passed laws to promote the participation of renewable energies in the national matrix.(5). The installation of these wind farms has two key aspects with respect to climate change. Onthe one hand, they reduce CO2 emissions "with an installed capacity of more than 800 GWworldwide, they help to avoid more than 1.1 billion tons of CO2 emissions per year, which isequivalent to the annual carbon emissions of all of Latin America" (6). But, on the other side, aswind turbines are tall structures in low areas, wind turbines are not only exposed to the pointcharge effect, where the charge tends to accumulate at the tips of tall towers, but also to theeffect generated by the movement of their blades. The rapid movement of turbine blades plays akey role in the initiation of unloading (Montanyà et al 2014).For this reason, the aim of this work is to study the changes that could be generated or mayoccur in the atmospheric electrical activity in Argentina, due to the installation of wind farms.In the center of the country, 11 strokes/km2/year were observed, while in the south 3 to 6strokes /km2/year were observed. Regarding the peak current of Cloud to Ground (CG)discharges, peak currents of 200 kA or more associated mainly with positive CG discharges(+CG) have been observed. In contrast to these, negative CG discharges (-CG) had highermultiplicities (greater than 5 on average), which is in agreement with the work of Zhu,Y et al2021. Finally, significant increases of 2.3 TD/decade were observed between 1970 and 2018(Bertone 2020). Therefore, the results show current values within the limits of the IEC 61400-24 (2019) standard, which demonstrates the importance of knowing the meteorological systemsin Argentina to be able to perform protection systems in wind turbines according to localcharacteristics.