A Statistical Investigation on the Wind Energy Potential of Turkey's Geographical Regions

Abstract

Wind energy is one of the most significant and rapidly developing renewable energy sources in the world, and it provides a clean energy resource, which is a promising alternative in the short term in Turkey. The wind energy potential in various parts of Turkey is becoming economical due to reductions in wind turbine costs, and in fossil fuel atmospheric pollution. Because of this, it is necessary to make use of this resource immediately and start conducting the required technical and economical feasibility research. The aim of this study is to establish the potential and the feasibility basis for the wind energy resources in geographical regions of Turkey and provide suitable data for evaluating the potential wind power. For this purpose, the wind energy potential of Turkey's geographical regions is analyzed based on measured wind data over the 30-year periods by using 119 locations. The probability density distributions for all regions are derived from cumulative distribution functions. Two probability density functions are fitted to the measured probability distributions on a monthly, seasonally, and yearly basis for all regions. Based on these wind speed distributions, this study quantifies the available wind energy potential to provide practical information for the application of wind energy in this area. In addition to this, the wind energy potential of Turkey's geographical regions is studied based on the Weibull and the Rayleigh models for various hub heights.

Keywords:

• wind energy
• Weibull and Rayleigh function
• wind speed probability