Techno-economical evaluation of wind energy potential and analysis of power generation from wind at Gharo, Sindh Pakistan

Renewable sources of energy are more favorable these days because these are environment friendly with zero emissions as compared to conventional energy sources. Wind energy is most rapidly growing, among several renewable energy sources, worldwide. The prime objective of this paper is to analyze and evaluate the wind energy characteristics and wind power potential at Gharo Sindh Pakistan. Five years wind data from Jan 2003 to Dec 2007, measured at 30 m height, has been considered in this study. The mean wind speed is more than 5 m/s for every year. The most probable wind speed is 9.356 m/s while the wind speed carrying maximum energy is 11.43 m/s. the highest value of standard deviation is 3.561 m/s and the lowest value is determined as 1.587 m/s for wind speed data at Gharo. The Weibull shape and scale parameters in the ranges from 1.291 to 4.569 and from 2.377 m/s to 9.727 m/s respectively. The wind power and energy densities are more than 260 W/m2 and 2300 kW/m2 respectively. The comparison of wind power densities calculated though measured wind data and calculated using Weibull and Rayleigh functions is also carried in this study. The direction of wind at Gharo is westerly for almost all five year. The assessment for power generation, from wind data collected at Gharo, through wind turbines of different manufacturers has been carried out. The GE45.7 wind turbine generates high annual energy of 11.220 GWh with capacity factor of 0.56. The economic analysis using these wind turbines, for power generation, gave an estimated cost of US$0.0255 per kWh of energy from GE45.7 wind turbine. The technical and economic analysis of wind data collected at Gharo, Sindh shows that this site has apt wind energy potential and hence is suitable for development of wind power generation projects.