Using different methods for comprehensive study of wind turbine utilization in Zarrineh, Iran

Fossil fuel pollution and reserve depletion in oil producing countries caused by increasing demands make wind energy an attractive source of energy in the future. The current study is an investigation study in order to estimate wind energy potential of the Zarrineh city in Iran. Another objective of this work is to find best method of calculating wind power between the standard deviation method and the power density method. Wind speed data measured from 2004 to 2009 in Zarrineh are selected as sample data to test the performance. The three-hourly period measured wind speed data at 10 m was analyzed. The obtained yearly mean wind speed and mean wind power at 10 m height are 4.07 m/s and 161.44 W/m(2), respectively. Base on hourly, monthly, seasonal and yearly values, power density method was found to be a better method of calculation in estimating wind energy potential. The results show that Zarrineh does not have an available potential for large turbines, but has sufficient wind for small scale wind turbines for different purposes. Clearly, the location investigated in this study can be evaluated as economically feasible location for electricity generation by small wind turbines. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.