Statistical Analysis of Wind Speed for Energy Production in Sinana District, Bale Zone, South-East Ethiopia

Abstract The Purpose of this study is to assess wind energy potential for Sinana District based on five years(2011-2015) measured data of daily wind speed and direction, 3-hourly measured wind speed data at 2m height, which are obtained from Robe Meteorological Station and short-term measured data from Selka, Sinana Agricultural research centre and Sanbitu site in the year 2015. The analysis carried out using Weilbull Stastical Analysis for wind speed data analysis and Matlab software used for data acquisition. This study indicates that Sinana District, has energy potential available with the maximum and minimum monthly average wind speed, 5.26 m/s and 1.35 m/s, respectively and average monthly wind power density also varies with maximum and minimum values 276.5 w/m2 and 4.65 w/m2, respectively. In brief, for measurements taken at a height of 10 m, the results show that for Sinana Agricultural research centre the wind energy potential is reasonable, with annual average wind speeds and average wind power density, of approximately 4 m/s and 123 w/m2 respectively. For the three sites the mean wind speed is less than 3 m/s, not suited for electricity generation. The results suggested that for Sinana Agricultural Research centre wind energy has a good potential especially for small Wind farm. 1