IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v63y2014icp18-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determination of wind energy potential in the Mwingi-Kitui plateau of Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Mukulo, B.M.
  • Ngaruiya, J.M.
  • Kamau, J.N.

Abstract

Wind energy can be used to enhance access to affordable energy to the rural poor owing to its cost effectiveness, enormity of availability and non-polluting nature. Kenya is however yet to embrace this technology due to non-availability of the resource data for most parts of the country. This study endeavors to provide the missing data and investigate the feasibility of employing Small Wind Turbine Generators (SWTG) for provision of modular power to the arid rural Mwingi-Kitui plateau where access to electricity is very low yet the land is flat with visible effects of wind on trees such as tree flagging. The region lies between the earlier studied coast and north eastern parts of the country both of which have good wind potential, raising the prospects of finding sustainable quality wind in it. Ten-minute interval wind speed data was collected at 20 m and 40 m elevations above the ground for a period of one year and analyzed to portray the vertical wind shear exponent, mean wind speed (daily, monthly and annual) variations, wind gusts, probability distributions, directional data and wind power density over the study period. The study gave annual mean wind speed at the 20 m and 40 m heights above the ground as 4.24 m/s and 4.88 m/s respectively leading to vertical wind shear exponent (α) of 0.20. Wind speeds at 40 m hub height and above rated above 3.5 m/s cut-in speed with flow prevalently from south east direction for most of the year. The maximum available wind power densities at 60 m, 80 m and 100 m were 84.3 W/m2, 100.5 W/m2 and 115 W/m2 respectively. These findings reflect characteristics suitable for operation of small wind turbine electricity generators.

Suggested Citation

  • Mukulo, B.M. & Ngaruiya, J.M. & Kamau, J.N., 2014. "Determination of wind energy potential in the Mwingi-Kitui plateau of Kenya," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 18-22.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:63:y:2014:i:c:p:18-22
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2013.08.042
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148113004564
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2013.08.042?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lun, Isaac Y.F & Lam, Joseph C, 2000. "A study of Weibull parameters using long-term wind observations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 145-153.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Birgir Freyr Ragnarsson & Gudmundur V. Oddsson & Runar Unnthorsson & Birgir Hrafnkelsson, 2015. "Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis of a Wind Power Generation System at Búrfell in Iceland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-22, September.
    2. Bilal, Boudy & Adjallah, Kondo Hloindo & Yetilmezsoy, Kaan & Bahramian, Majid & Kıyan, Emel, 2021. "Determination of wind potential characteristics and techno-economic feasibility analysis of wind turbines for Northwest Africa," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    3. Watts, David & Oses, Nicolás & Pérez, Rodrigo, 2016. "Assessment of wind energy potential in Chile: A project-based regional wind supply function approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA), pages 738-755.
    4. Fazelpour, Farivar & Soltani, Nima & Soltani, Sina & Rosen, Marc A., 2015. "Assessment of wind energy potential and economics in the north-western Iranian cities of Tabriz and Ardabil," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 87-99.
    5. Wekesa, David Wafula & Wang, Cong & Wei, Yingjie, 2016. "Empirical and numerical analysis of small wind turbine aerodynamic performance at a plateau terrain in Kenya," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 377-385.
    6. Kumar, Rakesh & Raahemifar, Kaamran & Fung, Alan S., 2018. "A critical review of vertical axis wind turbines for urban applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 281-291.
    7. Li, Yi & Wu, Xiao-Peng & Li, Qiu-Sheng & Tee, Kong Fah, 2018. "Assessment of onshore wind energy potential under different geographical climate conditions in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 498-511.
    8. Amoah, Anthony & Ferrini, Silvia & Schaafsma, Marije, 2019. "Electricity outages in Ghana: Are contingent valuation estimates valid?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Islam, M.R. & Saidur, R. & Rahim, N.A., 2011. "Assessment of wind energy potentiality at Kudat and Labuan, Malaysia using Weibull distribution function," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 985-992.
    2. Farihan Mohamad & Jiashen Teh & Ching-Ming Lai & Liang-Rui Chen, 2018. "Development of Energy Storage Systems for Power Network Reliability: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-19, August.
    3. Morales, J.M. & Mínguez, R. & Conejo, A.J., 2010. "A methodology to generate statistically dependent wind speed scenarios," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 843-855, March.
    4. Dongbum Kang & Kyungnam Ko & Jongchul Huh, 2018. "Comparative Study of Different Methods for Estimating Weibull Parameters: A Case Study on Jeju Island, South Korea," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-19, February.
    5. El Alimi, Souheil & Maatallah, Taher & Dahmouni, Anouar Wajdi & Ben Nasrallah, Sassi, 2012. "Modeling and investigation of the wind resource in the gulf of Tunis, Tunisia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(8), pages 5466-5478.
    6. Santos, E.C.O. & Guedes, E.F. & Zebende, G.F. & da Silva Filho, A.M., 2022. "Autocorrelation of wind speed: A sliding window approach," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 607(C).
    7. Shu, Z.R. & Li, Q.S. & Chan, P.W., 2015. "Investigation of offshore wind energy potential in Hong Kong based on Weibull distribution function," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 362-373.
    8. Carta, J.A. & Ramírez, P. & Velázquez, S., 2009. "A review of wind speed probability distributions used in wind energy analysis: Case studies in the Canary Islands," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 933-955, June.
    9. Macleod, Alasdair, 2008. "Using the microclimate to optimise renewable energy installations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1804-1813.
    10. Olatayo, Kunle Ibukun & Wichers, J. Harry & Stoker, Piet W., 2018. "Energy and economic performance of small wind energy systems under different climatic conditions of South Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 376-392.
    11. Murthy, K.S.R. & Rahi, O.P., 2017. "A comprehensive review of wind resource assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1320-1342.
    12. Emilio Gómez-Lázaro & María C. Bueso & Mathieu Kessler & Sergio Martín-Martínez & Jie Zhang & Bri-Mathias Hodge & Angel Molina-García, 2016. "Probability Density Function Characterization for Aggregated Large-Scale Wind Power Based on Weibull Mixtures," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-15, February.
    13. He, J.Y. & Li, Q.S. & Chan, P.W. & Zhao, X.D., 2023. "Assessment of future wind resources under climate change using a multi-model and multi-method ensemble approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 329(C).
    14. Abul Kalam Azad & Mohammad Golam Rasul & Talal Yusaf, 2014. "Statistical Diagnosis of the Best Weibull Methods for Wind Power Assessment for Agricultural Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-30, May.
    15. Juan, Y.-H. & Wen, C.-Y. & Chen, W.-Y. & Yang, A.-S., 2021. "Numerical assessments of wind power potential and installation arrangements in realistic highly urbanized areas," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    16. Sant’Anna de Sousa Gomes, Mateus & Faulstich de Paiva, Jane Maria & Aparecida da Silva Moris, Virgínia & Nunes, Andréa Oliveira, 2019. "Proposal of a methodology to use offshore wind energy on the southeast coast of Brazil," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 327-336.
    17. Peillón, Manuel & Sánchez, Raúl & Tarquis, Ana M. & García-Fernández, José L., 2013. "The use of wind pumps for greenhouse microirrigation: A case study for tomato in Cuba," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 107-114.
    18. Chao Long & Mohamed Emad A. Farrag & Donald M. Hepburn & Chengke Zhou, 2014. "Point Estimate Method for Voltage Unbalance Evaluation in Residential Distribution Networks with High Penetration of Small Wind Turbines," Energies, MDPI, vol. 7(11), pages 1-15, November.
    19. Estefania Artigao & Antonio Vigueras-Rodríguez & Andrés Honrubia-Escribano & Sergio Martín-Martínez & Emilio Gómez-Lázaro, 2021. "Wind Resource and Wind Power Generation Assessment for Education in Engineering," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-27, February.
    20. Chaouachi, Aymen & Covrig, Catalin Felix & Ardelean, Mircea, 2017. "Multi-criteria selection of offshore wind farms: Case study for the Baltic States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 179-192.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:63:y:2014:i:c:p:18-22. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.