Wind Resource Assessment Using Weather Research Forecasting (WRF) Tool Over a Complex Terrain: A Case Study on Southern Region of Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

Wind energy can play an important role in fulfilling the world’s energy needs. It is one of the renewable energy sources which is environmentally friendly, freely available, and sustainable in nature. Wind speed (WS) is the parameter based on the potential at a site is determined. It has a significant influence on wind energy output due to the cubic relationship between wind speed and power. Even a small variation in wind speed may have a huge impact on power generation. Therefore, it is necessary to measure wind speeds with high accuracy in order to assess the wind resources as accurately as possible for a given site. Various assessment methods are available in the literature; however, their accuracy is still under debate. The Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model is considered one of the efficient methods to estimate the renewable energy potential under atmospheric variables. However, this method has not been used to estimate the wind potential in Indian context. This study presents an investigation to assess the wind potential using NWP model for a selected study area in the Southern region of Andhra Pradesh in India. An NWP based model has been developed considering the wind power density, wind direction, and wind shear analysis in the range of wind speed considered for the area. Based on the simulations, it has been found that the average monthly wind power density varies from 43 to 510 W/m² correspond to monthly average WS of 6 m/s in the area. Based on wind rose diagrams analysis, the most likely wind direction is evaluated as Southwest. The results of the present study can be useful to determine the optimal design of wind farms in the study area.