Abstract
Wind resource potential is strongly influenced by the exposure, orientation of the terrain and the wind direction. In Pakistan, the northern areas have very attractive sites for wind power plants. However, due to non-standardized masts installed, the collected data are not reliable. Due to the unreliable nature of available data, the investors normally avoid the investing in the wind power projects. Various software and tools have been used so far for the feasibility analysis but due to unreliable data, the proper feasibility analysis is still out of sight. To overcome this deficiency, a feasibility study of a wind power project in the Hunza Valley of Pakistan using reliable data is presented in this paper. For this purpose, the RETScreen is used by exploiting the standard NASA’s (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) database. Since the developing countries are facing problems in the development of wind projects, it is envisaged that this approach will give an easy way to launch new clean energy projects.
Highlights
The geodesic lines show that Pakistan is situated at a minimum latitude of 23.69o, the maximum latitude of 37.09o, minimum longitude of 60.88o and maximum longitude of 77.84o [1]
The oil and gas power plants are normally used to fulfil the country’s energy demand
Wind power projects use huge land space but due to high pole heights of windmills, the below land can be used for agriculture
Summary
The geodesic lines show that Pakistan is situated at a minimum latitude of 23.69o, the maximum latitude of 37.09o, minimum longitude of 60.88o and maximum longitude of 77.84o [1]. The oil and gas power plants (which are around 58.9%) are normally used to fulfil the country’s energy demand. The production of energy through such conventional methods leads to the deficiency of fossil fuels and prove hazardous from an environmental point of view as well To cope with such forthcoming situations, it is needed to look for renewable sources of energy which are cheaper, reliable and environment-friendly. There is another problem with aero profiles of wind in mountainous areas due to the unbalance nature of the land. This results in a false collection of wind data which leads to the unreliable feasibility report. RETScreen is very popular software by NASA which can perform an economic and technical analysis of PV Systems, Wind system and other hybrid clean energy projects through this tool [10]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
