Onshore and Offshore Wind Speed Distributions at the Western Waters in Taiwan

Abstract

Wind speed data for 2010 at eight stations located in three coastal areas of Taiwan were used to fit three kinds of Weilbull distributions in this study. Bimodal Gamma-Weibull distribution is examined the best among three distributions for all wind speed data comparing three tests for goodness-of-fit. Key indicators for a bimodal distribution are the weighting parameter approaching 0.5, variation of peak speeds of monthly distribution and peak speed ratio. Topographical effect of high central mountains of Taiwan on offshore wind speeds at southern Taiwan is stronger than at northern Taiwan. It explains that the distribution of offshore wind speeds is bimodal at northern Taiwan and unimodal at southern Taiwan.