The urban wind energy potential for integrated roof wind energy systems based on local building height distributions

An Integrated Roof Wind Energy System (IRWES) is a roof mounted structure with an internal wind turbine that uses smart aerodynamics to catch and accelerate wind flow. It has been designed for application on (existing) buildings in the urban environment. To estimate the maximum total wind energy harvesting potential of cities, while using these kind of roof mounted units, a method has been developed. The method analyses actual height measurement data files, estimates surface roughness, and calculates wind energy potential for different building height categories. This wind energy potential is based on theoretical calculated additional building heights for these roof mounted systems, based on building strength and stiffness capacity estimations, local (average) wind velocities as well as the IRWES wind energy efficiency characteristics. The method has been applied to the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam as well as Eindhoven, Netherlands, but could also be applied to any City in the World. Results make it possible to compare Urban Wind Energy Potential of whole cities but also to compare height categories of buildings as well as to quickly estimate what an IRWES unit could provide for a single building.