Techno-economic analysis of wind energy potential in Kazakhstan

Abstract

The use of renewable energy as a future energy source is attracting considerable research interest globally. In particular, there is a significant growth in wind energy utilization during the last few years. This present study through a detailed and systematic literature survey assesses the wind energy potential of Kazakhstan for the first time. Using the Weibull distribution function and hourly wind speed data, the annual power and energy density of the sites are calculated. For the 50 sites considered in this study and at a height of 10 m above the ground, the annual average wind speed, the power density, and energy production of Kazakhstan range from 0.94–5.15 m/s, 4.50–169.34 W/m2 and 39.56–1502.50 kWh/m2/yr, respectively. It was found that Fort Sevcenko, Atbasar, and Akmola are the three best locations for wind turbine installation with wind power densities of 169.34, 135.30, and 111.51 W/m2, respectively. Fort Sevcenko demonstrates the highest potential for wind energy harvesting with an energy density of 1483.46 kWh/m2/yr. For the 15 commercial wind turbines, it was observed that the annual energy production of the selected turbines ranges between 3.8 GWh/yr in Petropavlovsk to 15.4 GWh/yr in Fort Sevcenko among the top six locations. The lowest and highest capacity factors correspond to the same sites with the values of 29.21% and 58.66%, respectively. Overall, it is the intention of this study to constitute a database for the users and developers of wind power in Kazakhstan.