Monthly and seasonal assessment of wind energy characteristics at four monitored locations in Liguria region (Italy)

The aim of this paper is to investigate the monthly and seasonal variation of the wind characteristics in term of wind energy potential using the wind speed data collected between 2002 and 2008 for four meteorological stations in Liguria region, in Northwest of Italy, namely Capo Vado, Casoni, Fontana Fresca and Monte Settepani. The results show that Capo Vado is the best site with a monthly mean wind speed between 2.80 and 9.98 m/s at a height of 10 m and a monthly wind power density between 90.71 and 1177.97 W/m(2), while the highest energy produced may be reached in December with a value of 3800 MWh. This study may provide information for developing wind energy sites and planning economical wind turbines capacity for the electricity production in Liguria region, as well as an example of how, deepening the analysis at monthly and seasonal scale, the characteristics of the sites might fall in quite different classes of power density. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.