WINDPOWER RESOURCES OF CENTRAL REGIONS OF THE ALTAI REPUBLIC

Abstract

The relevance. Among the most urgent problems attracting human interest are the problems of energy. They affect directly or indirectly on human society and the environment. The human activity is associated with permanent use of natural energy resources for supplying people with vital functions: heat and light in houses, food, transportation, clothes, etc. At present, in many parts of Siberia there is still no centralized energy service. An important feature of mountainous countries is considerable dispersion of consumers requiring electric and thermal energy, uneven workload during the year and the lack of centralized sources of energy. The main energy sources in mountainous areas are diesel power plants. The cost of the energy produced is very high, particularly in remote areas. Due to the concept of mountain regions development with using renewable energy sources it is possible to solve the energy problem. The aim of the research is to evaluate the possible contribution of wind energy to resource conservation and ecology in mountains regions of the Altai Republic in the frames of intensive development of tourism and recreational activities. The objects of the research are the wind regime in lower troposphere over the southern part of Siberia; orographic conditions and their influence on the wind regime; wind-power potential of mountain areas of the Altai Republic. The methods of the research are the upper-air atmosphere sounding; the construction of a mathematical model of the wind velocity field in different altitude levels; assessment and analysis of influence of different topography on wind speed. Results. It is shown that the wind velocity is not enough for wind-power engineering in conditions of intermountain basins and wide valleys. The analysis of air-climatological indicators of wind velocity and the data of high-mountain meteorological stations on the tops and watersheds have shown that in terms of openness of the horizon the wind-power potential is sufficient for effective operation of wind power plants of different capacity. For the watershed areas higher than 1500 m, the power density fluctuates from 150 to 850 W/m that makes it possible to use wind energy plants of low and medium power. The regions with wind power density of more than 500 W/m2 can be considered as the areas of high energy. Such zones can be marked in the central part of the Altai Mountains, rising from 2200 m.

Keywords

• wind
• wind velocity
• energy
• wind energy potential
• altai
• wind turbine