Wind energy potential in Aden-Yemen

The wind energy resource is very large and widely distributed throughout the world as well as in Yemen. Aden possesses a very good potential of wind energy. In this article a number of years data on wind speed in Aden has been studied and presented. A statistical analysis was carried out from which the annual wind speed was found to be 4.5 m/s and most of the time the wind speed is in the range of 3.5-7.5 m/s. The wind speed distributions were represented by Weilbull and Rayleigh distributions. It was found that the Rayleigh distribution is suitable to represent the actual probability of wind speed data for Aden. The wind speed data showed that the maximum monthly wind speed occurs in the month of February with the maximum in the month of June. It is concluded that Aden can be explored for wind energy applications. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.