Wind resource assessment and energy potential of selected locations in Fiji

Kunal K. Dayal, John E. Cater, Michael J. Kingan, Gilles D. Bellon and Rajnish N. Sharma

Renewable Energy, 2021, vol. 172, issue C, 219-237

Abstract: This study summarizes an assessment of the wind resource at selected locations in Fiji for the potential of future utility-scale wind-power development. We use 2–8 years of near surface wind observations (2011–2018) from thirty automatic weather stations. The standard wind-industry software, WAsP is used to simulate the wind resource in terms of mean wind speed, dominant wind direction, power density and annual energy production (AEP) using a Vergnet 275-kW wind turbine. Our analysis identifies three sites: Rakiraki, Nabouwalu and Udu, which should be considered for a future comprehensive resource assessment for utility-scale wind-power development once further wind resource data is available. High-resolution resource maps for each wind resource parameter at a horizontal resolution of 50 m are produced for 6 km×6 km domains around these sites. Rakiraki, Nabouwalu and Udu have average wind speeds of 7.6 m/s, 7.1 m/s and 7.0 m/s, with an average power density of 401 W/m2, 512 W/m2 and 294 W/m2, and a potential average AEP of 0.91 GWh, 0.80 GWh and 0.72 GWh at 55 m AGL, respectively. The dominant wind direction is southeasterly. Modelling a 10 MW wind farm at each site yields a net AEP of 43 GWh, 42 GWh and 37 GWh for Rakiraki, Nabouwalu and Udu, respectively with capacity factors of 0.42–0.48 and wind farm efficiencies of 97–98%.

Keywords: Fiji; Wind resource assessment; Power density; Energy potential; WAsP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148121003888
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:219-237

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2021.03.034

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 ().