Summary: | Hywind-Scotland is a wind farm in Scotland that for many reasons is at the leading edge of technology and is located at a paradigmatic study area for offshore wind energy assessment. The objective of this paper is to compute the Capacity Factor (<inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mrow> <mi>C</mi> <mi>F</mi> </mrow> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula>) changes and instantaneous power generation changes due to seasonal and hourly fluctuations in air density. For that reason, the novel ERA5 reanalysis is used as a source of temperature, pressure, and wind speed data. Seasonal results for winter show that <inline-formula> <math display="inline"> <semantics> <mrow> <mi>C</mi> <mi>F</mi> </mrow> </semantics> </math> </inline-formula> values increase by 3% due to low temperatures and denser air, with economical profit consequences of tens of thousands (US$). Hourly results show variations of 7% in air density and of 26% in power generation via FAST simulations, emphasizing the need to include air density in short-term wind energy studying.
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