Survey and Assessment of Wind-Speed and Windpower in Egypt, Including Air Density Variation

Abstract

Nearly 5 years of meteorological data were analysed from 18 stations throughout Egypt, classified as located in Mediterranean, Inland, and Red Sea zones. The national annual average wind speed was 5.8 m/s at 10 m height. The Hurguda station (Red Sea coast) has 5.8 m/s mean annual wind speed and the largest peak wind speed there was 13.8 m/s, with 98% of wind-speed records being in the range of 3 to 10 m/s. Dekhala station (Inland) has the least annual average wind speed of 2.3 m/s, with 98.5% of wind speed records in the range of 1 to 5 m/s. For Mediterranean stations, Port Said has the largest mean wind speed of 4.9 m/s. A general wind energy potential considering both wind speed and air density was derived. Comparison are made between Weibull, Rayleigh, and actual data distributions of wind speed and wind power of two years (2003 and 2004). A Weibull distribution is the best match to the actual probability distribution of wind speed data for most stations. The maximum wind energy potential was 373 W/m2 in June at El-Tor (Red Sea coast) where the annual mean value was 207 W/m2.