Analysis of Energy Potential of Micro Wind Turbines at Three Locations in the Central-Eastern Part of the Bulgarian Danube River Region

The share of renewable energy sources in the energy mix worldwide is gradually increasing. And even though they all have a highly variable nature, they can be forecasted statistically. The wind energy potential was investigated in this article in the Bulgarian Danube region, located between Ruse and Silistra. Two years of meteorological data, including the wind speed at 10 m height and the ambient temperature was used to estimate the average wind energy for each month of the year at three geographic locations – Ruse, Staro Selo (near Tutrakan), and Calarasi, Romania (near Silistra). The results showed that Staro Selo has the highest energy potential, reaching up to 0.75 kWh/day/m<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> in February, followed by Calarasi with 0.38 kWh/day/m<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup>. The city of Ruse showed the lowest wind potential with the highest average monthly value reaching only 0.0027 kWh/day/m<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup>. The obtained results showed that the regions around Tutrakan and Silistra are appropriate for the application of micro wind turbines.