An assessment incorporating Weibull distribution method on wind energy prospective areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

The scope of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of potential wind energy resource for some windy locations of Bangladesh using Weibull distribution function. In this study, 20 years (1988 to 2007) data from Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) and some recent data from Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and Local Government Engineering Development (LGED) have been collected of 30 different spots throughout Bangladesh and among them five potential locations have been selected on the basis of the higher mean wind speed for the analysis. The selected windy locations are Cox's Bazar, Hatiya, Sydpur, Kuakata and Swandip. The data from the chosen stations have been processed as daily and monthly basis and examined by Weibull distribution function in order to compare between the observed and the calculated data. In our study, the data from March to August were taken into consideration because there is moderate wind speed at the above mentioned period in Bangladesh. Other necessary investigations i.e. mean wind speed, wind energy density (Wh/m2), wind power density (w/m2), velocity duration curves from the year of 2004 to 2007 for the mentioned locations have also been presented in order to examine the feasibility of these sites for wind energy extraction.