Urban Wind Resource Assessment: A Case Study on Cape Town

Matthew Gough, Mohamed Lotfi, Rui Castro, Amos Madhlopa, Azeem Khan and João P. S. Catalão
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Matthew Gough: Instituto Superior Técnico, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Mohamed Lotfi: Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto and INESC TEC, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Rui Castro: INESC-ID, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Amos Madhlopa: Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7701, South Africa
Azeem Khan: Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X3, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7701, South Africa
João P. S. Catalão: Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto and INESC TEC, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-20

Abstract: As the demand for renewable energy sources energy grows worldwide, small-scale urban wind energy (UWE) has drawn attention as having the potential to significantly contribute to urban electricity demand with environmental and socio-economic benefits. However, there is currently a lack of academic research surrounding realizable UWE potential, especially in the South African context. This study used high-resolution annual wind speed measurements from six locations spanning Cape Town to quantify and analyze the city’s UWE potential. Two-parameter Weibull distributions were constructed for each location, and the annual energy production (AEP) was calculated considering the power curves of four commonly used small-scale wind turbines (SWTs). The two Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) showed higher AEP and capacity factors than Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) ones. A diurnal analysis showed that, during summer, an SWT generates the majority of its electricity during the day, which resembles the typical South African electricity demand profile. However, during winter, the electricity is mainly generated in the early hours of the morning, which does not coincide with the typical load demand profile. Finally, the calculation of Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) showed that SWT generation is more expensive, given current electricity market conditions and SWT technology. The study provides a detailed, large-scale and complete assessment of UWE resources of Cape Town, South Africa, the first of its kind at the time of this work.

Keywords: wind energy; urban areas; wind speed; Weibull distribution; renewable energy sources; power generation planning; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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