Wind performance map of Europe shows variability of weather, value of hedging

A couple of weeks ago we wrote about renewable energy risk analysis firm 3TIER® who published a wind performance map for the U.S. in 2011 which showed that generally wind speeds across the U.S. were above average across the year. Now 3Tier have published a wind performance map for Europe and again it shows that there was a general departure from the norm in average wind speeds across the continent.

The wind performance map for Europe shows that generally wind speeds were 5-10% above normal in northern Europe and up to 10% below normal in southern Europe. They’ve also published quarterly maps which show the change throughout the year, which is quite pronounced in Europe.

This helps to show the potential for weather hedging, as it demonstrates where wind speeds could have been hedged with derivatives. This kind of data could be used for performance contracts related to wind energy plants, or any other industry affected by wind speeds. Given the departure from average 2011 could have been a good year to have a wind speed weather hedge in place.

Read the full press release from 3Tier.

2011 European wind variance from average