Seasonal and Annual Assessment of Solar and Wind Energy Potential in Karwar, Coastal Karnataka

Local scale renewable energy evaluation is highly significant in regard to sustainable energy planning and efficient use of resources. This paper contains a 10-year comparative evaluation of the solar and wind energy potential in the coastal district of Karnataka, India, Karwar between 2015 and 2024. The NASA POWER database provided the meteorological data, such as Global Horizontal Irradiance and the speed of the wind at 50 m height [1]. Statistical calculations and coefficient of variation analysis were used to calculate the annual and seasonal averages and to assess the variability respectively [10]. It is found that the solar irradiance is nearly constant across the years with an average of 5.04 to 5.56 kWh/m 2/day. Wind speed on the other hand demonstrates more variation between 2.91 and 3.17 m/s per year. Seasonal variations indicate that Solar irradiance reduced by 35% in monsoon in comparison to pre-monsoon months whereas the wind speed also rises by 69 percent in monsoon months. This complementary seasonal operation has a lot of promise in the joint solar and wind energy projects in Karwar [7]. The results can be applied in the planning of renewable energy in the region and sustainable development of infrastructure [8].