How much does the daily cycle of California wind power vary throughout the year?

In a post last week I showed the average daily cycle of wind farm output in California. However, averages over the entire year often mask important seasonal variations. So, let’s look at the daily cycle of wind power output in each month of the year.

Again I will use hourly CAISO wind farm output data.

Here is the main daily cycle of wind farm output in each month and for 2013 and 2014. This of course masks the fact that wind farm output varies massively from day to day. However, the main daily cycle is an important indicator because the closer this comes to the the daily cycle of electricity demand the better.

Clearly there is a very pronounced season cycle. In January, November and December there is arguably no daily cycle whatsoever. Wind farm output is almost flat all day round, on average.

This cannot be said for summer. In July wind farm output is roughly 3 times higher at midnight than it is in the middle of the day.

California therefore sees very pronounced seasonal and daily cycles of wind farm output.

If I can I will write a follow up post comparing the cycle of wind farm output and the cycle of electricity demand in California.