New methods to assess wind resources in terms of wind speed, load, power and direction

The 2-parameter Weibull distribution is widely used, accepted, and recommended as probability law to describe and evaluate the wind speed frequency, which is especially useful for assessing wind resources. In this study, six popular parameter estimation methods are reviewed and compared with a new method that we call Modified Energy Pattern Factor (MEPF) method. The advantage of MEPF is that it is free from binning, linear least square problems or iterative procedures. All methods are compared via a thorough Monte Carlo simulation study with sample sizes varying from 100 to 100,000. The results indicate that the MEPF is a suitable alternative and comparable with the relatively best estimator of the Weibull parameters at each sample size. Consequently, we have used the MEPF to estimate the Weibull parameters of wind data from three regions in India, and we explain how to use these insights for the calculation and prediction of wind energy production. In particular, for harnessing the wind energy, both wind speed and direction are important. For the wind direction assessment, we have compared the conventional von Mises distribution to the new 4-parameter Kato-Jones distribution, and found that the latter approach provides better results.