Wind Energy Potential at Different Cities of Assam Using Statistical Models

Abstract

Energy is an important role in any country’s economy and infrastructure growth. Wind energy is renewable form of energy and environment friendly compared to conventional energy resources that pollute the environment. A proper analysis of wind speed data is an important parameter to estimate wind energy potential at a particular site. This article investigates the wind energy potential at three different cities of Assam viz. Dibrugarh, Guwahati and Tezpur of Assam, India by using statistical methods over a period of eight years from 2010-2017. The speed data revealed that the mean wind speed of Tezpur city was lower in-comparison to Dibrugarh and Guwahati. The average wind speed of Dibrugarh is highest i.e. 5.398 km/hr followed by Guwahati city 4.628 km/hr. The average monthly wind data shows that the mean wind speed for city Dibrugarh is highest in the month of April as 7.8625 km/hr. The mean test analysis between Dibrugarh and Guwahati shows that the mean speed different between two cities is significant as P0.05. Weibull probability distribution function revealed that higher occurrence of probability at higher wind velocities for each city. The probability distribution plot shows that the 99% probability of occurance of Wind speed is 7.45093 km/hr for city Dibrugarh. The data also revealed that the average wind power density for the city Dibrugarh is 0.897451 W/m2 followed by city Guwahati 0.578349 W/m2. The above analysis shows that there is a possibility of wind power generation in the city of Dibrugarh followed by city Guwahati at these low wind speed region and the vertical axis wind turbines can be installed for power generation in cities Dibrugarh and Guwahati.