Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Wind Farm Analyst

🎯 Role Definition

A Wind Farm Analyst is a technically-oriented specialist who translates wind and turbine data into actionable insights that improve energy yield, availability, and operational efficiency. This role centers on SCADA and met-tower analysis, energy yield and power curve verification, wake and loss modeling, short- and long-term production forecasting, and cross-functional collaboration with operations, asset management, development and commercial teams. The Wind Farm Analyst drives data-driven decision making for O&M optimization, contract compliance, performance reporting, and investment due diligence.

Primary SEO / LLM keywords: Wind Farm Analyst, wind energy analyst, SCADA analysis, wind resource assessment, energy yield assessment (EYA), power curve analysis, wake loss modeling, wind farm performance, forecasting, WAsP, WindPRO, OpenWind, Python, SQL, GIS, asset management.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Junior Data Analyst (Renewables) with SCADA experience
Wind Resource Technician or Met Tower Technician
Graduate roles in Renewable Energy / Wind Energy analysis

Advancement To:

Senior Wind Farm Analyst / Lead Performance Analyst
Asset Performance Manager / Asset Manager (Wind)
Head of Wind Operations or Portfolio Performance Analyst

Lateral Moves:

Energy Forecasting Analyst (short-term/market)
Development / Resource Assessment Engineer
O&M Performance Engineer / Condition Monitoring Engineer

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Perform end-to-end SCADA data ingestion, cleaning, quality control and time-series analysis to quantify turbine and array-level performance, identify anomalies, and support continuous improvement of energy production forecasts.
Lead energy yield assessments (EYA) and produce Investment Grade Reports (IGR) that include AEP estimates, uncertainty analysis, P99/P90/P50 reporting, site-specific loss assumptions and sensitivity testing for acquisition and financing teams.
Conduct power curve analysis and verification, including blade pitch and converter behavior assessments, curtailment flagging, and normalization of power curves for wind speed, air density and turbulence intensity to detect degradation or deviation from expected turbine performance.
Quantify wake losses and array losses using WAsP, WindPRO, OpenWind, CFD or in-house models and translate results into actionable layout or operational mitigation strategies to recover lost production.
Develop and maintain short-term (hours-days) and long-term (weekly-seasonal) energy forecasts using statistical models, machine learning techniques, numerical weather prediction (NWP) outputs and ensemble approaches for trading, scheduling and bid management.
Produce monthly, quarterly and annual performance reports (AEP vs. actual, availability, downtime, lost production) for internal stakeholders and external owners; include root-cause analysis, trend detection and prioritized workback plans for improvement.
Monitor curtailment, grid events and balancing interactions; quantify curtailment losses, reconcile SCADA vs. market metering, and liaise with grid operators and commercial teams to minimize grid-related impacts on revenue.
Implement condition monitoring and alarm analytics, working with turbine OEMs and control/SCADA teams to triage events, automate root-cause classification and reduce mean time to repair (MTTR).
Perform statistical and machine learning analyses to detect early signs of component degradation (gearbox, generator, pitch system) from vibration, temperature and performance signatures and feed recommendations into O&M strategies.
Lead site suitability and wind resource assessments for early-stage development: analyze met mast and remote sensing data (lidar/sodar), create wind rose and shear models, and translate findings into site layout and energy production assumptions.
Maintain and curate the asset database, including turbine make/model, serial numbers, retrofit history, firmware versions, and configuration changes to support traceability and forensic investigations.
Reconcile project PPA, P50/P90 expectations and commercial guarantees; prepare technical evidence and variance explanations for contract negotiations and stakeholder reporting.
Coordinate with O&M, field technicians and service providers to prioritize corrective actions based on production impact, safety and cost trade-offs; translate analytical findings into clear work orders and acceptance tests.
Conduct power performance tests, met mast calibration checks, and validate remote sensing instruments and met-to-turbine correlations to ensure a robust basis for EYA and operational benchmarking.
Validate and maintain wake and micrositing inputs during project development and repowering studies, ensuring that modeling assumptions reflect revised topography, roughness and turbine specifications.
Manage data pipelines and ETL processes, ensuring high data availability and integrity from SCADA historians (OSIsoft PI, SOR), meteorological stations, met masts, SCADA APIs and third-party sources.
Apply IEC and industry best-practice standards (IEC 61400 series) in performance validation, noise/dispatch compliance and safety-related reporting; keep documentation audit-ready for insurers and lenders.
Support commercial and trading teams with modeled vs. actual production variance analysis, P&L impact assessments and scenario modeling to support hedging and merchant strategies.
Participate in repowering, retrofit and O&M contracting decisions by modeling expected yield and availability improvements against capital and operational costs.
Drive continuous improvement of analysis templates, KPI dashboards (Power BI, Tableau), automated alerts and reproducible analysis scripts to accelerate decision cycles for the portfolio.
Prepare supporting technical documentation and respond to technical due-diligence requests during asset sales, purchases or refinancing cycles.
Mentor and train junior analysts, field staff and cross-functional partners on data interpretation, standard operating procedures and analytical tooling to raise organizational capability.
Oversee third-party data quality and vendor deliverables (lidar, meteorology, satellite, wake model runs), ensuring contracts meet data, format and timeliness expectations for reliable analysis.
Conduct financial sensitivity and scenario studies to quantify how changes in availability, curtailment, wake losses or power curve shifts affect revenue and covenant metrics.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Maintain KPI dashboards and automated reports for portfolio-level visibility into energy production, availability and loss drivers.
Assist in the development of predictive maintenance algorithms and model validation for condition-based maintenance programs.
Support environmental and permitting monitoring activities by providing time-series meteorological and operational summaries as required.
Help coordinate outage plans and outage performance post-mortems to ensure planned downtime minimizes lost production.
Participate in cross-functional project teams for site expansions, repowering projects and technological upgrades, providing data-backed recommendations.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

SCADA data analytics and time-series processing (OSIsoft PI, SCADA historians, custom APIs).
Wind resource assessment and energy yield modeling (WAsP, WindPRO, OpenWind, WindFarmer).
Power curve analysis and validation, including normalization for air density and turbulence intensity.
Wake loss modeling and micrositing analysis; experience with CFD a plus.
Short-term and long-term production forecasting using NWP products, ensemble methods and statistical/machine learning models.
Advanced scripting and data analysis in Python (pandas, numpy, scikit-learn), R, or MATLAB.
Database and query skills: SQL, time-series databases, and experience with ETL pipelines.
GIS skills for site analysis and mapping (ArcGIS, QGIS).
Experience with data visualization and dashboarding tools (Power BI, Tableau, Grafana).
Familiarity with IEC 61400 standards, grid codes, and industry best practices for performance assessment.
Experience with condition monitoring systems and diagnostic tools; vibration and thermal signature interpretation.
Exposure to asset management and CMMS tools (SAP, Maximo) and O&M contracting structures.
Knowledge of electrical systems and grid integration issues relevant to wind farms.
Experience with cloud environments and data platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and version control (Git).
Strong proficiency in Excel (advanced formulas, pivot tables, VBA or Office Scripts).

Soft Skills

Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills with an emphasis on root-cause analysis.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills for translating technical findings into business recommendations.
Ability to manage multiple priorities, deliverables and deadlines in fast-paced environments.
Stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration skills; able to guide O&M, commercial and development teams.
Attention to detail and data integrity mindset, ensuring reproducible and auditable analysis.
Problem-solving orientation with a pragmatic approach to balancing production, cost and safety.
Coaching and mentorship ability to upskill junior colleagues and field teams.
Adaptability to evolving tools, regulations, and market conditions.
Project management and planning skills, including scoping analytical tasks and tracking outcomes.
Proactive mindset for continuous improvement and automation of recurring analysis.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Renewable), Meteorology, Physics, Applied Mathematics, Data Science, or a closely related technical field.

Preferred Education:

Master's degree in Wind Energy, Renewable Energy Engineering, Atmospheric Science, or an MSc with a focus on energy analytics.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Wind Energy / Renewable Energy Engineering
Meteorology / Atmospheric Science
Mechanical or Electrical Engineering
Applied Mathematics, Statistics or Data Science
Environmental Science with exposure to wind resource analysis
Geospatial Science / GIS

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–5 years of directly relevant experience in wind farm analytics, SCADA analysis, or wind resource assessment.

Preferred:

3–7+ years of experience across operational wind farms, asset portfolios or wind development; demonstrated track record of improving AEP, reducing downtime, or contributing to successful transactions.
Prior exposure to asset-level commercial interactions (PPA, curtailment, dispatch) and experience supporting due diligence or financing processes.
Experience working with cross-functional stakeholders including O&M providers, OEMs, grid operators and commercial/trading teams.