DOI: https://doi.org/10.14710/ijred.2024.56476

Site suitability analysis of wind energy resources in different regions of Algeria’s southwestern highland

Laboratory of Renewable Energies and Electrical Systems, Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, Mostaganem University, Mostaganem 27000, Algeria

Received: 15 Jul 2023; Revised: 1 Nov 2023; Accepted: 11 Nov 2023; Available online: 22 Nov 2023; Published: 1 Jan 2024.
Editor(s): H Hadiyanto
Open Access Copyright (c) 2024 The Author(s). Published by Centre of Biomass and Renewable Energy (CBIORE)
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

This paper presents a site suitability analysis for a 20 MW wind farm project in western Algeria’s highlands. The aim is to improve the quality of the electricity grid’s service and increase Algeria’s renewable energy utilization. The wind potential of three regions, Mecheria, El Kheiter, and Naâma, was evaluated using the Weibull function and the wind atlas analysis and application program (WAsP) with a ten-year database (2011-2021) at 10 m hub height. The assessment encompassed a comprehensive analysis of various wind resource parameters, including mean wind speed, prevailing direction, and power densities. In comparison to other sites, the Mecheria region has the best wind potential, with a mean annual wind speed of 6.31 m/s, a power density of 283 W/m2, and Weibull parameters A = 7.1 m/s and k = 2.02. These promising results prompted us to design a wind farm in this region using Power Wind 90/2000 kW turbine technology facing the predominant wind directions of the site, producing 103.91 GWh of total annual gross energy produced (gross AEP) and 103.75 GWh of total annual net energy produced (net AEP). Finally, it appears that the wind resources in the selected region are well-suited for electricity generation, offering a promising opportunity to reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels.

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Keywords: Wind energy ; Wind potential; Weibull distribution; Cost of energy (COE); Greenhouse gas emission (GHG).

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Section: Original Research Article
Language : EN
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