Temporal assessment of wind energy resource in algerian highlands regions

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the monthly, seasonal and annual variation of the wind resource in term of wind energy potential using the wind speed data collected in the last decade for the meteorological stations at four locations situated in Algerian highlands from East to West boundaries. After the study of temporal Weibull parameters, the vertical extrapolation of Weibull parameters and mean wind speed at a height of 50 m was made and the analysis of annual energy efficiency, seasonal and monthly was made for wind energy conversion systems of 600 kW rated capacity. The results show that M’Sila has the highest wind potential among the studied sites with the annual mean wind speed V = 4 m/s and the annual wind energy production equal to 2.4GWh/year, while Kasr Chellala gives a good potential too but affected by an important rate of zero wind frequency. The study gives the regions situated in Algerian highland with an average wind potential, where the better wind energy potential is given in coldest months.