Comparative analysis of three numerical methods for estimating the onshore wind power in a coastal area

Although there are many studies concerning the estimation of wind potential in different locations of Iran,
an adequate evaluation of wind power for onshore locations of this country has not been investigated
yet. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the potential of onshore wind in the south of Iran along
the Gulf of Oman by comparing three Weibull numerical methods. In the first step, it became clear that the
maximum likelihood method (MLM) compared to other methods represented the actual wind data with the
lowest error rate and therefore it was selected as an accurate statistical distribution to model the wind speed
of the investigated location. Using the MLM, the estimation of wind speed characteristics as well as the
techno-economic evaluation of different wind turbines has been investigated. It was concluded that both
technically and economically the studied area does not have sufficient wind power for the development of
large-scale or grid-connected wind turbines. However, it may have enough power for non-grid-connected
mechanical applications, such as wind generators for water pumping. Therefore, in the last part of this
paper, an investigation of water pumping potential of the studied site by using adequate and modern
wind turbines with lower start-up wind speed was recommended for future studies. Furthermore, it was
suggested that the current methodology used in this research could be employed and extended in future
studies to evaluate the wind potential of all onshore locations of Iran including onshore locations along the
Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea.