THE WIND ENERGY POTENTIAL OF MALAYSIA

Routine observations have been used to determine the diurnal and seasonal variations of the wind at 20 meteorological stations in Malaysia. The wind speed distributions, with calms omitted, are represented by Weibull functions. Seasonal mean wind power densities at the surface exceed 20 W m** minus **2 only at stations on the east coast and in the south of West Malaysia during the northeast monsoon from November to March. Estimates of seasonal power densities at 600 m above the surface range from below 100 W m** minus **2 to over 300 W m** minus **2, with the highest values over the south of West Malaysia and the east coasts of East and West Malaysia during the northeast monsoon.