Course: Wind Energy

Data Analysis

1. Introduction

Increasing negative effects of fossil fuel combustion on the environment in addition to its limited
stock have forced many countries to explore and change to environmentally friendly alternatives
that are renewable to sustain the increasing energy demand. The renewable energy resources
include solar, wind, wave, geothermal and bio-energy. Currently, the wind energy is one of the
fastest developing renewable energy source technologies across the globe. Wind energy is an
alternative clean energy source compared to fossil fuel, Nowadays, wind analysis gives remarkable
information to researchers involved in renewable energy studies. The use of wind energy can
significantly reduce the combustion of fossil fuel and the consequent emission of carbon dioxide.
Supplementing our energy base with clean and renewable sources of energy has become
imperative due to the present days' energy crisis and growing environmental consciousness.
Knowledge of the statistical properties of the wind speed is essential for predicting the energy
output of a wind energy conversion system. Because of the high variability in space and time of
wind energy, it is important to verify that the analyzing method used for the measuring wind data
will yield the estimated energy collected that is close to the actual energy collected. In recent years
many efforts have been made to construct an adequate model for the wind speed frequency
distribution. The wind speed distribution, one of the wind characteristics, is of great importance
for not only for structural and environmental design and analysis, but also for the assessment of
the wind energy potential and the performance of wind energy conversion system as well.

Methodology

After collection of data of wind speed in Dakhla city for a duration of 5 years, we used excel to
arrange the data for only for year 2011 and 2012. We Calculated the standard deviation using the
following formula:

∑𝑵 (𝑾𝒊 − 𝑾𝒂𝒗𝒆)^𝟐
𝝈 = √ 𝒊=𝟏
𝑵
Where:

𝝈 : Standard deviation (Sigma)

Wi: Wind speed at specific hour

Wave: Wind average speed of each month

Wave = ∑𝑵
𝒊=𝟏 𝑾𝒊/𝑵
N: Number of hours, (cases)

Results

2. Tables

Wind speed data

From the meteorological station, the wind speed data in hourly time series format over five years
from 2011 to 2015 have been collected. For the geographical location Dakhla city, a coast city.

Average
Year 2011
and Year Sigma Sigma
Year 2011 Year 2012 2012 Year 2011 Year 2012
 January 6.25 7.44 6.85 4.27 4.30
February 8.06 8.35 8.20 3.48 4.53
March 7.14 7.41 7.28 6.64 4.95
April 6.69 7.31 7.00 7.12 6.53
May 6.82 8.19 7.51 4.48 2.88
June 8.45 9.31 8.88 2.79 4.67
July 9.13 9.02 9.07 5.50 7.91
August 9.15 8.24 8.70 4.25 5.89
September 8.64 6.71 7.68 2.24 4.73
October 7.31 6.24 6.77 5.79 5.61
November 6.87 6.69 6.78 4.24 6.56
December 8.66 7.63 8.15 1.71 3.87
Figure 1.Table of Monthly variation of Wind speed (m/s) and standard deviation

3. Graphs

Wind Speed
10.00
9.00
8.00
7.00
6.00
5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
0.00

Year 2011 Year 2012 Average

Figure 2. Monthly variation of Wind speed (m/s)

 Standard Deviation
9.00
8.00
7.00
6.00
5.00
4.00
3.00
2.00
1.00
0.00
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Sigma Year 2011 Sigma Year 2012

Figure 3. Monthly variation of Standard deviation

5. Conclusion

It was noticed that highest speed was recorded between June and September ant the lowest value was
recorded in October which was around 6m/s in average and the maximum value that was noticed was
around 9.5 average speed in the month of June

And in comparison, we notice that the distribution was almost the same in year 2011 and year 2012.