Wind Energy Potential Assessment of Coastal States in South-South Nigeria Based on the Weibull Distribution Model

Abstract

Energy has since become the global index for assessment of standard of living for socio-economic and industrial development. Worldwide, energy demand is rising with increasing population. Conventional energy sources such as fossil fuels are unsustainable and environmentally-unfriendly. Alternative sources of energy such as the sun, the wind etc. that are sustainable and less harmful to the environment need be exploited to meet the ever rising demand for energy, to avoid energy deficit. This paper investigated the wind energy potential of three locations in south-south Nigeria. Wind speed data measured at 10-metres height over the period 2013-2017 obtained from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) for Yenagoa, Calabar and Port Harcourt were evaluated using the Weibull two-parameter probability distribution model to ascertain the wind energy potential of the respective locations. The study outcome shows that during the study period, the monthly mean wind speed varied between 1.2 m/s in November and 2.3 m/s in February for Yenagoa. The same varied between 2.2 m/s in July and 3.7 m/s in February for Calabar but ranged between 1.0 m/s in July to 1.6 m/s in February for Port Harcourt. The annual mean wind speeds for Yenagoa, Calabar and Port Harcourt were 1.74 m/s, 2.85 m/s and 1.38 m/s respectively. The annual mean power densities for Yenagoa, Calabar and Port Harcourt were found to be 4.64 W/m2, 7.06 W/m2 and 3.08 W/m2 respectively while the corresponding values of the annual mean energy densities were 3.24 KW/m2, 4.93 KW/m2 and 2.14 KW/m2 respectively. The study reveal that though wind energy in the study areas is sufficient only for standalone power generating systems, water pumping and applications requiring less power, higher value of wind energy is possible if wind speed data were collected at heights above the 10m implemented in the study. Â