Abstract
Wind resource assessments are carried out for two sites in Tuvalu: Funafuti and Nukufetau. The wind speeds at 34 and 20 m above ground level were recorded for approximately 12 months and analyzed. The averages of each site are computed as the overall, daily, monthly, annual, and seasonal averages. The overall average wind speeds for Funafuti and Nukufetau at 34 m above ground level were estimated to be 6.19 and 5.36 m/s, respectively. The turbulence intensities at the two sites were also analyzed. The turbulence intensity is also computed for windy and low-wind days. Wind shear analysis was carried out and correlated with temperature variation. Ten different methods: median and quartiles method, the empirical method of Lysen, the empirical method of Justus, the moments method, the least squares method, the maximum likelihood method, the modified maximum likelihood method, the energy pattern factor method, method of multi-objective moments, and the wind atlas analysis and application program method were used to find the Weibull parameters. From these methods, the best method is used to determine the wind power density for the site. The wind power density for Funafuti is 228.18 W/m2 and for Nukufetau is 145.1 W/m2. The site maps were digitized and with the WAsP software, five potential locations were selected for each site from the wind resource map. The annual energy production for the sites was computed using wind atlas analysis and application program to be 2921.34 and 1848.49 MWh. The payback periods of installing the turbines for each site are calculated by performing an economic analysis, which showed payback periods of between 3.13 and 4.21 years for Funafuti and between 4.83 to 6.72 years for Nukufetau.
Highlights
Energy is one of the major requirements for the development of a nation
Zhang (2015) used equation (2) to find the mean wind speed where U is the average wind speed and Ui is the wind speed recorded at constant intervals, i.e. 10 min averages for the data under study and n represents the number of observations and i is the interval at which the data were recorded
The mean turbulence intensity (TI) at the Funafuti and Nukufetau sites were estimated to be 9.07% and 11.76%, respectively, at 34 m above ground level (AGL), which are below the allowable levels for wind turbines
Summary
The use of accessible clean energy has become a matter of paramount importance This is because of the extensive use of non-renewable fossil fuels, which leads to the emission of harmful gases like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide into the atmosphere, causing global warming which leads to sea level rise. These fossil fuels are causing pollution, but are creating economic issues in the society and for the governments in Pacific Island Countries (PICs). Research on how to harvest the renewable energy will be an effective way to know when and where the energy can be harvested efficiently and effectively
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