Comparison Of Different Methods for Calculating Wind Energy Potential For Electricity Generation

Abstract

For the assessment of wind energy potential, we have adopted probability distribution function, namely Weibull & Rayleigh distribution. For the calculation of these two distributions we first calculated standard deviation, gamma function, mean wind speed, most probable wind speed, and maximum energy carrying wind speed. We selected districts of Uttarakhand for the calculation and comparison of Wind Potential using the statistics of 22-year period (January 1983 to December 2004) using the RETscreen climate data base. We found that although Weibull distribution is more accurate as compared to Rayleigh but Rayleigh is more convenient to calculate wind potential and the result of Rayleigh is as satisfactory as the 2 parameters Weibull distribution. Also, Rayleigh Distribution is derived from Weibull Distribution where one of the parameters is taken as constant.