Wind resource assessment for an industrial city in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Papers presented to the 11th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 20-23 July 2015.

This study presents the wind resources assessment of Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia. The hourly mean wind speed measurements at 10, 50, and 90 m above ground level (AGL) for five years (2008 to 2012) are used for this study. The wind resources assessment includes annual, seasonal and diurnal wind speed statistics, wind roses, Weibull distribution parameters, local values of wind shear exponent (WSE) and energy output from a 2 MW rated wind turbine. At 10, 50, and 90 m AGL the mean wind speeds were found to be 3.34, 4.79 and 5.35 m/s respectively. The monthly wind speed variation showed that the wind speed was highest in month of June and lowest in October over the entire period of data collection. The annual mean wind speed showed a decreasing trend from 2008 to 2010 but again increased in 2011 and 2012. The most prevalent wind direction at all three heights was from north-west. Wind was found to be available around 76% of time above 3.5 m/s at 50 and 90 m AGL. The local wind shear exponent calculated using wind speed values at three heights was found to vary seasonally from 0.146 to 0.283. Wind shear exponent correlation is presented for wind speed extrapolation to required hub heights. The mean power density at 10, 50 and 90 m was 50.92, 116.03, and 168.46 W/m2. The annual energy production from a commercially available wind turbine was estimated to be 3,847 MWh/year with a plant capacity factor of 22%.