An assessment of wind energy potential in the Caspian Sea

Abstract

At this time, there are plans to develop offshore wind projects in the Caspian Sea. The aim of the present work was to estimate the possible benefits coming from such a project. As a first step, the wind profile of this region was established by considering reanalysis data coming from the ERA-Interim project, the time interval covered being between January 1999 and December 2018. According to these results, significant resources have been noticed in the northern part where the wind speed frequently reached 8 m/s, being identified also as a hot-spot south of Olya site. In the second part, the performances of some offshore wind turbines were established. These were defined by rated capacities ranging from 3 MW to 8.8 MW. The downtime period of some generators can reach 90% in the central and southern sectors, while for the capacity factor, the authors expected a maximum of 33.07% for a turbine rated at 4.2 MW. From a financial point of view, the values of the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) indicated that the sites from the north and central parts of the Caspian Sea have been defined by an average LCOE of 0.25 USD/kWh. Thus, they can represent viable locations for wind farm projects.