Assessment of large-scale wind resource features in Algeria

This study presents an assessment of the wind potential over the whole Algerian territory, based for the first time on a reanalysis dataset. Thereby, 33 years (1981–2014) of 6-hourly wind components from ERA-Interim reanalysis are used for assessing the wind energy large-scale features over the largest country in Africa. The ERA-Interim data are validated against observational wind speeds from 42 sites across Algeria by using the two-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov and the Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney tests, while the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) theretical distribution is used to characterize wind speeds. Overall, the ERA-Interim dataset validation reveals good agreement with observations in the south and less near the coastline. The mean wind speed and prevailing wind direction are assessed on the annual, monthly and hourly timescales. Mean wind speeds ranging between 2.3 m s−1 in the North, and 5.3 m s−1 in the South are found. Furthermore, the windiest periods are the warmer months and during daytime over almost all of the country. The gridded wind energy outputs for a representative wind turbine (850 kW) are also assessed. These informations are of foremost relevance to decision-makers and to the energy production sector in Algeria, providing guidelines for new wind farms installations.