Assessment of wind power in Kurdistan province

In recent years, the kinetic energy of wind as a source of renewable and inexhaustible energy is considered by many countries. This research aimed to evaluate the wind power in the Province of Kurdistan. In this research, direction and wind speed data of the Synoptic stations in Kurdistan (Sanandaj, Saghez, Marivan, Bane, Bijar, Ghorveh and Zarineh Aobato) and also 21 synoptic stations outside the Province, Since founding of these synoptic stations up to 2005, was used. Direction and wind speed data in the studied stations (28 stations) were converted to zonal and meridional wind components. Using these data, the zonal and meridional winds for 2068 cells (approximate dimensions 7/3 × 7/3 km²) in Kurdistan Province for all days using Kriging interpolation method was estimated. Wind power in the Province of Kurdistan was presented by the maps. The results of the wind power estimation (using three types of turbines with radius of rotors of 10, 15, and 25 m) showed that based turbines with radius of 10 meters can be up to 170 thousand Watts per square meter of energy in every cell. However, only limited areas of the Province of Kurdistan (especially Zarineh Aobato, Ghorveh and Bijar) have the ability to produce this amount of energy. For turbines of rotor of 15 meters radius, roughly the same area can be up to 370 thousand Watts per square meter per cell to produce energy in the Kurdistan Province. Finally, using turbines rotor with radius 25 meters, the harnessing energy can be more than 1 million Watts per square meter per cell. Although there is the possibility of energy production, but wind energy production in some parts of the Province of Kurdistan (large parts of Sanandaj, Marivan and Bane) may not be economically affordable. According to the estimates of wind power in Kurdistan Province, it seems that Zarineh Aobato and surrounding areas are the most appropriate place to install wind turbines. In fact, based on the estimated wind power, this region was identified as the maximum power generated for wind energy in this Province. In the next places Zarineh Aobato, some parts of the Ghorveh and Bijar also have high potential for wind energy production.