Assessment of the wind energy potential of the territory of southern Russia

Abstract

The research was carried out in order to identify promising territories for the creation and operation of economically justified and environmentally friendly wind power plants in the south of Russia. The annual duration of winds with operating speeds in most of the studied area is 50-60 % of all winds, and only at the southernmost end of the territory the duration of winds with operating speeds decreases to 20-40 %. The predominant wind directions (52 %) in the Stavropol Territory are east and west. In the Rostov region, these directions dominate for 51% of the time of the year, in the Krasnodar region, 56 %. The prevailing wind direction in Kalmykia and the Astrakhan region is less pronounced. Here the east and west directions make up 30 %, southeast and northwest – 35 %. In the Volgograd region, all paired wind directions are equally probable and amount to 20-28 % in time. In almost 75-80 % of the territory, the specific power of the wind flow is 125-500 W/m2.