Wind energy resource assessment in Ngaoundere locality

In order to secure future energy and protect the environment, it is important to consider the possibilities of wind as a resource for electrical energy supply. To carry out this study in Cameroon, we chose the locality of Ngaoundere, in which an assessment of the wind energy resource was made. Different kinds of data have been collected about climate, topography, and roughness. The Observed Wind Climate of the meteorological station has been made. The Wind Atlas and the resource grid have been calculated, especially in the high wind resource areas. Annual Energy Production of one hypothetical wind farm consisting of four 1.65 MW turbines was estimated using the Weibull-representative wind data for a total of 12 months. The computed Annual Energy Production is 5,985 MWh and according to the International Energy Agency statistics, this production could enable the reduction of CO2 emission by 1200 tons per year. It was found that there is a good correlation between our calculation results and those of the Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program (WAsP). (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.