Abstract:
This paper presents the wind characteristics and resource assessment of the largest
industrial base in the Middle East (Jubail industrial city) using measured hourly mean
wind speed data at 10, 50 and 90 m above ground level (AGL) from 2008 to 2012. At
respective heights, the mean wind speeds were found to be 3.34, 4.79 and 5.35 m/s. At
50 and 90 m AGL, the availability of wind speed above 3.5 m/s was more than 75%. The
prevailing wind direction was from the north-west. The local wind shear exponent
calculated using measured wind speed values at three heights was found to be 0.217.
The mean wind power density values at measurement heights were 50.92, 116.03 and
168.46 W/m2 respectively. The comparison of energy output from five commercially
selected wind turbines of rated power ranging from 1.8 – 3.3 MW showed that the most
efficient wind turbine is 3.0 MW rated power. The annual energy production from this
turbine was estimated to be 6,285 MWh with a plant capacity factor of 25%.
