Abstract
Wind energy is one of the most promising renewable energy technologies worldwide; however, assessing potential sites for wind energy exploitation is a challenging task. This study presents a site suitability analysis to develop a small–scale wind farm in south–eastern Thailand. To this aim, the most recent available data from 2017 to 2019, recorded near the surface, at nine weather stations of the Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) were acquired. The analysis was conducted using standard wind–industry software WAsP. It was found that the mountain peaks and ridges are highly suitable for small–scale wind farm development. Nevertheless, the wind data analysis indicates that regions fall in low–to–moderate wind classes. The selected sites in south–eastern Thailand have mean wind speeds ranging from 5.1 m/s to 9.4 m/s. Moreover, annual energy production (AEP) of 102 MWh to 311 MWh could be generated using an Enercon E–18 wind turbine with a rated power of 80-kW at the hub height of 28.5 m. The Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) reveals that the development cost of a small–scale wind farm is lowest in the Songkhla and Yala provinces of Thailand, therefore these two locations from the investigated study region are financially most suitable. The findings could encourage researchers to further investigate low–speed wind energy mechanisms in tropical regions, and the demonstrated approach could be reused for other regions.
Highlights
Energy is one of the leading impacts on the advancement of any nation
Wind speed is the basic parameter in wind resource assessment for energy production utilizing wind turbines
The average wind speed is lower in the months from May to October, while it is higher from November to April due to the northeast monsoon that brings cold and dry air from the South China Sea, causing strong winds in the Gulf of Thailand and coastal regions of south–eastern Thailand
Summary
Energy is one of the leading impacts on the advancement of any nation. The prosperity of a nation largely depends on its stability of energy use [1]. Global renewable energy exploitation has increased over time, due to the urgency to meet global climate commitments that discourage the use of fossil fuels as energy sources [2,3]. Wind energy is replenishable at the human timescale and is a cost–effective energy option in the long run. Because of these advantages, wind energy is frequently discussed and deployed by various nations [6]. A glimpse at the energy statistics reveals that the globally installed wind–generation capacity reached 651 GW in 2019 [4], and even during the pandemic, significant growth was noted in the wind energy production capacity worldwide, whereby it is expected to reach 817 GW before the year 2021 ends [7]
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