Assessment of Wind Energy Potential for City of Firoozkooh in Iran

There is increasing interest in wind energy investment by both public and private producers in Iran. However, the biggest challenge is the lack of up-to-date site specific data information on wind energy potential across the country. In this paper, the 10min period measured wind speed data for years 2002, 2003 at 10m, 30m and 40m heights were analyzed for Firoozkooh city in Iran County approximately 120km from Tehran. The wind speed distribution was modeled using the Weibull probability function, wind density and Monthly wind energy production are estimated. Results show that the monthly value of shape parameter (k) ranges from 1.1054 in October 2002 (h=40m) to 2.6847 in June 2002 (h=10m), while the monthly value of scale parameter (c) varies from 2.9083m/s in January 2002 (h=10m) to 9.4082m/s in June 2002 (h=40m). Values of 232.18 and 169.32w/m2 are estimated for annual mean power density at height of 30m for years 2002 and 2003 respectively and the wind class was found to be 2 which not being deemed suitable for large machines, although smaller wind turbines may be economical in this area where the value of the energy produced is higher.