WIND AND SOLAR RESOURCE ASSESSMENT AND FEASIBILITY STUDY OF LARGE SCALE

OFF- GRID HYBRID SYSTEM FOR REMOTE DISTRICTS OF WERDER ZONE – ETHIOPIA
2012

Figure 3-12 Wind speed daily profile for Boh district

Figure 3-13 Wind speed daily profile for Danot district

3.3.2. Wind Power Density Distributions and Mean Power Density

The monthly average wind speed using Weibull distributions is determined as in Eq.3-4:

= 1+

The power of the wind per unit area is given as:

1
= 3 8
2

38
 WIND AND SOLAR RESOURCE ASSESSMENT AND FEASIBILITY STUDY OF LARGE SCALE
OFF- GRID HYBRID SYSTEM FOR REMOTE DISTRICTS OF WERDER ZONE – ETHIOPIA
2012

The average power density for each month is calculated using actual probability density
distribution for the specified month, which is calculated using Eq.3-8, and is given as:

( )

Where, the subscript m stands for the month and n is the number of records for the
specified month.
The average power density using Weibull probability distribution is calculated as follows:

1 3
= 1+ (3 9)
2

1
= 1+

is the gamma function and given as:

From Eq. 3-5 for k=2 and 1+ = =

The air density varies with the altitude and therefore the formula that governs this is:

.
= = 1.194 10 (3 10)

Finally power density for each month is calculated using the following equation.

1 3
= (3 11)
2 4

From equation 3-10 and 3-11, the wind power density values of each month for the four
districts of Werder zone in Somali region is calculated and listed in table 3-3 and 3-4
below.

39
 WIND AND SOLAR RESOURCE ASSESSMENT AND FEASIBILITY STUDY OF LARGE SCALE
OFF- GRID HYBRID SYSTEM FOR REMOTE DISTRICTS OF WERDER ZONE – ETHIOPIA
2012

Table 3-3 Wind power density for Geladin and Danot districts

Geladin District Danot District

Monthly Scale Power Monthly Scale Power
Av.wind factor density (W/m2) Av.wind factor density (W/m2)
speed(m/s) [Elev.=378m] speed(m/s) [Elev.=668m]
Jan 6.17 6.96 264.33 6.10 6.88 247.83
Feb 5.84 6.59 224.37 5.74 6.47 206.11
Mar 4.75 5.36 120.73 4.69 5.29 112.66
Apr 3.59 4.05 52.08 3.50 3.95 46.90
May 5.9 6.66 231.60 5.47 6.17 178.75
Jun 8.72 9.84 746.97 8.65 9.76 707.51
Jul 8.91 10.05 795.82 8.86 10.00 761.00
Aug 8.35 9.42 655.34 8.24 9.29 610.14
Sep 6.68 7.54 336.07 6.53 7.37 304.64
Oct 4.37 4.93 93.94 4.09 4.61 74.56
Nov 4.17 4.71 81.92 4.57 5.15 103.95
Dec 5.69 6.42 207.45 5.76 6.50 209.00
Monthly 6.1 6.88 255.32 6.02 6.79 238.23
Annual Av.

Table 3-4 Wind power density for Werder and Boh districts
Werder District Boh District
Monthly Scale Power Monthly Scale Power
Av.wind factor density (W/m2) Av.wind factor Density(W/m2)
speed(m/s) [Elev.=480m] speed(m/s) [Elev.=484m]
Jan 6.08 6.86 250.67 6.08 6.86 250.53
Feb 5.79 6.53 216.44 5.67 6.40 203.44
Mar 4.69 5.29 115.03 4.63 5.22 110.38
Apr 3.62 4.09 52.91 3.56 4.02 50.42
May 5.97 6.74 237.21 5.50 6.21 185.85
Jun 8.56 9.66 699.41 8.89 10.03 783.05
Jul 8.73 9.85 741.95 9.25 10.44 883.06
Aug 8.22 9.28 619.23 8.52 9.61 688.75
Sep 6.66 7.52 329.40 6.53 7.37 310.66
Oct 4.34 4.90 91.14 4.28 4.83 87.44
Nov 4.15 4.68 79.71 4.36 4.92 92.42
Dec 5.61 6.33 196.85 5.56 6.27 191.29
Monthly 6.04 6.83 245.66 6.08 6.86 249.44
Annual Aver.

40
 WIND AND SOLAR RESOURCE ASSESSMENT AND FEASIBILITY STUDY OF LARGE SCALE
OFF- GRID HYBRID SYSTEM FOR REMOTE DISTRICTS OF WERDER ZONE – ETHIOPIA
2012

It is clearly indicated that the figures inside table 3-3 and 3-4, the wind power density in all
the four districts of the Werder zone is not fairly constant and shows a large month to
month variation. The minimum power densities occur in April with values 46.9 W/m2, 50.4
W/m2, 52.91 W/m2 and 52.08W/m2 for Danot, Boh, Werder and Geladin districts
respectively. It is interesting to note that the highest power density values occur in the
summer months of June, July and August, with the maximum value of 761.0 W/m2, 883.06
W/m2, 741.95 W/m2 and 795.82W/m2 in July for Danot, Boh, Werder and Geladin districts
respectively. The power densities in the remaining months vary between the above two
limits. The power density also varies with monthly average wind speed. Monthly average
wind speed of Boh and Geladin districts are a bit higher than that of Werder and Danot.
Estimates of wind power density are presented as wind class, ranging from 1 to 7. The
speeds are average wind speeds over the course of a year, although the frequency
distribution of wind speed can provide different power densities for the same average wind
speed. See table 3.5 below.

Table 3-5 Classification of wind resource and extent of associated land areas in Ethiopia [22]

Wind resource Wind Wind Wind speed Total Area Total area of
category Class power @ 50m (km2) Somali Region
density (m/s) (km)
(W/m2)
Poor 1 50 - 200 3.5 – 5.6 538,810 196,734
Marginal 2 200 – 300 5.6 – 6.4 92,019 18,862
Moderate 3 300 – 400 6.4 – 7.0 40,304 3,163
Good 4 400 – 500 7.0 – 7.5 22,279 526
Excellent 5 500 – 600 7.5 – 8.0 6,454 80
Excellent 6 600 - 800 8.0 – 8.8 3,646 --
Excellent 7 Above 8 Above 8.8 1,392 --
Total area covered by Marginal-to-Excellent wind 740,376 219,330
regions

Referring table 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5, it is specified that all the four districts of the Werder
zone’s annual average wind speed and power density distribution is categorized in second
class wind resource. But wind class in each month of the year for the four districts varies
between first to the last (seventh) class. It is a good complementary situation with the

41
 WIND AND SOLAR RESOURCE ASSESSMENT AND FEASIBILITY STUDY OF LARGE SCALE
OFF- GRID HYBRID SYSTEM FOR REMOTE DISTRICTS OF WERDER ZONE – ETHIOPIA
2012

weakening of the solar irradiance in winter that the wind resource in June, July and August
has possessed an excellent type which is between class 5 and 7 and therefore this indicates
that the region has got a great wind potential not only for off-grid purpose but also for grid
based high power electric energy production.

3.4. Wind Turbines

3.4.1. Different Types of Turbines
A wind turbine is a machine that converts the kinetic energy from the wind into
mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used directly by machinery, such as a pump
or grinding stones, the machine is usually called a windmill. If the mechanical energy is
then converted to electricity, the machine is called a wind generator [27].
There are a number of different wind turbine types available. The horizontal axis turbine,
HAWT is by far the most common type of turbine. They come in two different types: the
upwind, which face the wind (tower behind rotor) and the downwind arrangement that
works away from the wind (tower in front). Another kind of turbine is the vertical axis,
VAWT arrangement that uses drag and lift as the driving forces; the horizontal also uses
drag and lift, but in different proportions. The advantages with upwind turbines are that the
tower does not act as an obstacle for the wind hitting the rotor. Besides this, the flow
behind the passing blade is affected by the tower and causes a slight drop in power. When
the blade passes the tower, it also decreases the drag on the construction which can cause
an on / off bending process causing fatigue stress. This has of course been taking into
account when designing the turbine. The upwind design needs a control system that helps
the nacelle turn straight to the wind. In downwind turbines, the tower shades a rotor blade
each time it passes by and causes greater power losses compared to the upwind design. An
advantage with downwind turbines is that the nacelle is self adjusting and is not in need of
a control system. One drawback with this is the problem with untwisting the cable inside
when the nacelle has turned same direction repeatedly. The VAWT´s are not as
commercial and economically competitive as the HAWT´s. Some of the VAWT types
suffer from low efficiency due to design difficulties as well as the problem with operation
close to the ground. Parts of the vertical turbines will therefore receive low quality winds
causing power losses. To keep the construction upright it also needs to be supported with

42