Assessing the wind energy potential of North Khorasan province in Iran

The positive effects of renewable energies have forced many countries to draw attention to clean environmentally friendly energy sources such as wind. However, the first step for harnessing the wind energy is to locate regions with good potential for turbine installation. The use of wind energy to provide steady and reliable supply of electricity is on the increase. In this work, Weibull probability density function was employed to analyze the wind speed data collected between 2007 and 2008 by the Iranian Renewable Energy Organization from two meteorological stations at north Khorasan province in Iran. The results obtained in this study demonstrated that for the city of Bojnoord, the wind power density at 30 and 40m heights were 200 and 250 W/m2, respectively, while for the city of Esfarayen, these were 200 and 300 W/m2. The study indicates that wind farm projects are feasible in both of these cities.