Investigation of wind characteristics and wind energy potential at Ras Ghareb, Egypt

To study the structure of a coastal location "Ras Ghareb" on the Red Sea in Egypt, a measurement station with mast of 24.5 m has been established in a built-up area, near the seashore. First, a statistical analysis of the measured data over the period 2000-2005 was performed, including calculation of the wind speed power law index which was found to be 018 for Ras Ghareb area. Then, wind speed data was expressed at the height of (usually 10 m) which makes it directly related to the objective of those people working in the renewable energy sector. Therefore, the mean wind speeds, availability of data, seasonal variation and the distribution by the wind direction were studied to ascertain its potential for wind energy development. The annual wind speed over this site varies from 8.3 to 9.8 m/s at 10 and 24.5 m heights, respectively. Most of the time 73% the mean wind speed in the ranges 5-10 and 10-17 m/s at 10 m. Also, higher winds of the order 10 m/s and more observed during summer months. The main wind direction is north-northwest sector (330 degrees) for about 51% of the times during the year that makes it unique for installation of wind parks. Second, numerical estimations to determine the seasonal power law coefficient and Weibull parameters at different heights from 10 to 100 m were carried out. Finally, Rayleigh distribution and our method stated in Ref. [3] were adopted for defining the monthly wind power available at 10 m height for this region. It is emphasized that Rayleigh model is not appropriate and our method is more efficient for Ras Ghareb area. Where the expected mean of wind power density was found to quite high 360 W/m(2) per year at 10 m hub height, which makes this station likely candidates for wind power utilization. It is appear from our analysis that Ras Ghareb region can be explored for generating the electricity. Where the monthly and annual pattern of wind speed matches the electricity load pattern of the location. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.