A new method to estimate Weibull parameters for wind energy applications

In recent years, Weibull distribution has been commonly used, accepted and recommended distribution in literature to express the wind speed frequency distribution. In this study, a new method is developed to estimate Weibull distribution parameters for wind energy applications. This new method is called power density (PD) method. In literature most frequently used methods, that are graphic, maximum likelihood and moment methods, are revisited and a comparison between these methods and PD method is carried out. Suitability of these methods is judged based on different goodness of fit tests for different geographical locations. Also to demonstrate the accuracy of PD method, comparisons are carried out based on power density and mean wind estimation results of previous studies. Results of this study indicate that PD method is an adequate method to estimate Weibull parameters and it might have better suitability than other methods. Some superiority of the new PD method are that, it has simple formulation, it does not require binning and solving linear least square problem or iterative procedure. If power density and mean wind speed are available it is very simple to estimate Weibull parameters. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.