Wind Power Survey for Sustainable Development of Energy in Hamedan

The study of replacing fossil fuels with clean and renewable energies is growing over the world and exploitation of these sustainable energy sources is of special importance due to environmental necessities and diversify the sources of energy used. The present study aimed to determine wind energy potential and check if there are any possible optimal locations in order to exploit sustainable wind energy using statistics of synoptic stations in Hamadan province. In this study, initially, three-hour long-term data of wind speed and direction were evaluated using the synoptic stations statistics in Hamedan province during a five-year period. Then, Annual Wind Rose graph was drawn. After that, different distributions were tested for fitting wind data. Experimental probability of data was calculated using selected distribution. The results showed that in Hamedan station, Weibull and in Nojeh, Nahavand and Tuyserkan stations, inverse Gaussian distribution are the most accurate distributions in predicting the possibilities of wind speed. Also the wind power density at the maximum possible height for using wind power was calculated 15.24, 21.7, 10.8 and 6.3 watts per square meter in Hamadan, Nojeh, Skinheads and Tuyserkan stations respectively. According to the results, none of the obtained figures is desirable compared with the necessary standards for constructing wind power plants. Due to the number of wind blowing hours and necessary wind existence percentage between start and stop speeds of wind turbines, wind energy exploitation in of the surveyed stations is not cost-effective, therefore, they are not recommended
Extended Abstract
1-Introduction
The study of replacing fossil fuels with clean and renewable energies is growing over the world and exploitation of these sustainable energy sources is of special importance due to environmental necessities and diversify the sources of energy used. The present study aimed to determine wind energy potential and check if there are any possible optimal locations in order to exploit sustainable wind energy using statistics of synoptic stations in Hamadan province. One of the other objectives of this research is to survey the ability of different statistical distributions in predicting the possibilities of wind speed in the studied stations is. The present study can show an overview of wind energy status in the province synoptic stations and also evaluate the validity of the country's wind map that has been performed in the province, on the basis of preliminary evaluations, at the scale of 1: 250,000 with low accuracy.
2- Materials and Methods
In this study, the three-hour long-term data of the wind speed and direction were evaluated and classified in the province synoptic stations during a five-year statistical period. To detect the speed and direction of the prevailing wind, the wind rose of studied stations were plotted using WRPLOT software. Then, using "Easy fit" software, different statistical distributions for fitting to wind data were tested and experimental probability of the data was calculated using selected distribution. Finally based on wind speed classification, parameters such as rated speed, most probable wind speed; total hours of wind blowing in wind turbines operation area and exploitable wind energy at the maximum possible height to install wind turbines in each of studied stations were calculated and evaluated.
3- Results and Discussion
According to the results, despite of most of conducted researches especially in the interior, wind power metering using only Weibull distribution, is not correct and in each station various distributions should be tested and the best distribution in terms of accurately predicting wind probability should be selected. Results showed that in Hamedan station, Weibull and in Nojeh, Nahavand and Tuyserkan inverse Gaussian distribution is of the most accuracy in predicting the possibilities of wind speed. The rated wind speed i.e. the speed at which the maximum wind energy is generated over the year, in Hamedan, Nojeh, Nahavand and Tuyserkan stations is respectively 3.24, 3.45, 3.05 and 2.75 meters per second and the most probable wind speed in these stations was calculated, 0.78, 2.15, 1.45 and 1.35 meters per second respectively. According to these results, the rated wind speed and the most probable wind speed in all of studied stations were out of wind turbines start and stop speed range that is not desirable. In addition, in the mentioned stations, in 3, 4, 3 and 2 percent of the hours of wind existence, the wind speed was between 4 and 25 meters per second respectively. So the windy hours between these two speeds (4-25 m/s) in these stations- that are most of wind turbines start and stop speeds- was respectively calculated 193.41, 567.1, 315.41 and 222.6 hours, in year which is not satisfactory in any way. Besides, wind power density at the maximum possible height of wind power use in Hamadan, Nojeh, Nahavand and Tuyserkan stations is respectively calculated 15.24, 21.7, 10.8 and 6.3 watts per square meter in the figures are not significant with necessary standards as well as researches conducted by other researchers.
4-Conclusion
According to the obtained results, none of the obtained figures compared to necessary standards, was desirable enough to construct wind power plants. Due to the number of windy hours and the percentage of necessary wind existence between start and stop speeds of wind turbines and density of the generated energy at the maximum possible height for installing wind turbines, exploiting wind energy in any of the studied stations is not economical and recommended. As the number of stations that record hourly wind data with appropriate statistical period in the province is limited, to further scrutiny the issue, after conducting field survey and based on specialist's idea and discussing with local experts, setting up a station for automatically and momentary recording wind speed and direction data around Famenin and Asadabad near the city of Hamadan is recommended.