Wind energy potential assessment of selected locations at two major cities in the Dominican Republic, toward energy matrix decarbonization, with resilience approach

Abstract

Climate changes pose big challenges to scientists, engineers, and decision makers to provide sustainable energy services to cities. Innovative energy solutions are required to fulfill the growing energy demand in a sustainable and resilient way, especially in developing countries. The implementation of small-scale energy systems integrated in urban sites such as wind and solar are a promising technological approach, in this direction urban wind energy can be a suitable resource. A preliminary assessment of urban wind energy is needed by turbine developers, investors, and decision makers. The present work aims to present an assessment of wind energy potential of selected locations at two major cities in the Dominican Republic, for this purpose was developed a robust framework to provide an assessment of the wind energy potential in a tropical area for roof-mounted turbines. The framework is based on six main steps: (1) site selection, (2) resource prospecting/analysis, (3) turbine selection, (4) estimation of currently produced energy, (5) environmental evaluation and (6) resilience assessment. The resilience metrics have been adopted to novel assess three scenarios of resilience in tropical areas. The methodology was applied in San Cristóbal and Santo Domingo, two major cities in the Dominican Republic. The urban wind energy potential was assessed considering the installation of 1,075 small two-blade Darrieus H-type Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) on the roofs of 275 high-rise buildings, with annual energy production of 317 MWh, represented a potential CO2 emissions reduction of 197 Ton/yr.