Wind power assessment in the Caribbean region of Colombia, using ten-minute wind observations and ERA5 data

Samuel Andrés Gil Ruiz, Julio Eduardo Cañón Barriga and J. Alejandro Martínez

Renewable Energy, 2021, vol. 172, issue C, 158-176

Abstract: The Caribbean region of Colombia is a strategic source of wind energy for Colombia’s economic development. However, current estimates of wind energy potential for this region are based on low-resolution observations from a sparse set of weather stations that falls short of the temporal and spatial scales required by the wind energy sector. We present a novel characterization of the wind resource over the Colombian Caribbean, using 10-min average wind records from 13 meteorological stations and comparing the results with newer ERA5 reanalysis data to generate reliable information for the feasibility and operational stages of wind farms. According to the 10-min observations, average wind speeds in the region are in a 2.2 m s−1 to 8.3 m s− 1 range. Based on Weibull distributions and hourly Wind Power Density (WPD) calculations, we found several locations that offer commercial wind potential, with many having WPD above 800 W m−2. Furthermore, our estimates based on ERA5 show a wide offshore region in the Caribbean with a WPD over 800 W m−2 yearlong. Finally, we calculate the Annual Energy Production (AEP) for the stations with promising potential, obtaining capacity factors around 50%, comparable to those of the most productive wind farms worldwide.

Keywords: Renewable energy; Wind power; ERA5 wind power; Weibull wind distribution; Offshore wind power (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148121003876
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:172:y:2021:i:c:p:158-176

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2021.03.033

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().