Wind speed characteristics and energy potential for selected sites in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The Saudi government has announced an ambitious plan to generate 54 GW (including 41 GW of solar power, geothermal, waste-to-energy and 9 GW of wind) of power from renewable energy sources by 2032with an investment amounting to $108.9 billion. Due to Saudi Arabia’s large land area and the vast variability of wind speed over regions and seasons, it is very important to accurately assess the potential of wind resources in the region so as to harness maximum power output. Wind data sourced from 12 meteorological stations across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) have been used to investigate the potential of wind power generation for different locations across the Kingdom. The mean wind speed of several sites in the northern, central and southern parts of KSA at a height of 10 m and 100 m have been used to calculate the Weibull parameters, plot the frequency distribution of the wind in the region, and to calculate the power density. The measured wind speed at 10 m is used to calculate the wind speed at other heights numerically. Moment, Least square and maximum likelihood estimation methods are used to obtain wind Weibull distribution parameters. The power density for all sites is then calculated using the standard wind power equation. In addition, the monthly and annual mean wind energy is calculated to assess the suitability of each sites for the installation of different types of wind turbines.

Keywords

• Renewable energy
• Energy efficiency
• Solar
• Wind
• Oil
• Sustainability