Wind Resource Assessment using Weibull Function for Different Periods of the Day in the Yucatan Peninsula

Abstract

One of the most important variables in wind assessment as resource is Wind Power Density (WPD) which is finally the parameter that gives information about the site analyzed. To calculated WPD is strongly recommended to determine the two parameters of Weibull function, shape factor (k) and scale factor (c) to have a preliminary idea of how the wind resource is on the evaluated site. In this study has been analyzed wind speed as resource with Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2) data, these are re-analysis hourly data from 1980-2016 at 50m height, over the Yucatan Peninsula. An algorithm was designed to separate data in four periods of time for an average day (00:00-05:00; 06:00-11:00; 12:00-17:00; 18:00-23:00) in order to obtain a more accurate wind description according to the Weibull function, its parameters k and c, as well as the prevailing direction on every site. The aim of this study is comparing WPD to energy demand curve in the Yucatan Peninsula, according to the different periods of the day.