Assessments of Wind-Energy Potential of Four Nigeria States for Sustainable Development

Abstract

Growing worldwide energy demands and concerns about climate change have made the shift to renewable energy sources, especially wind energy, essential for sustainable development. However, despite Nigeria's richness of wind resources, there is scanty evaluations of wind properties (temporal and spatial characteristics of wind direction and speed), which are necessary for the siting of wind generation infrastructure. This research assessed the potential, trends, and variability of wind speed and direction to identify regions in Nigeria that would support higher wind power density and be appropriate for the installation of wind energy conversion systems aimed at electricity generation for sustainable development across four states: Abuja, Sokoto, Jigawa, and Ebonyi. Daily wind speed and direction data spanning from 1982 to 2023 for these selected locations were sourced from NASA's MERRA-2 archives, recorded at heights of 10 and 50 meters. The daily measurements were compiled into monthly averages and analyzed using the 2-parameter Weibull distribution test. The results indicated the average wind speeds at a hub height of 10 m were 3.83, 2.59, 3.06, and 3.98 m/s respectively for Abuja, Ebonyi, Jigawa, and Sokoto. At a hub height of 50 m, the wind power density was measured at 286.6 W/m² for Abuja (marginal - power class 2), 165.9 W/m² for Jigawa (poor - power class 1), 301.8 W/m² for Sokoto (fair - power class 3), all oriented in the ENE direction, and 99.3 W/m² for Ebonyi (poor - power class 1), directed towards the NNE. Moreover, the annual wind energy production reached 1980, 1390, and 2003 MWh/a for Abuja, Jigawa, and Sokoto, respectively, all in the ENE direction, while Ebonyi recorded the highest production of 495 MWh/a in the SSW direction. This suggests that Sokoto has the greatest potential for wind energy, followed closely by Abuja, whereas Ebonyi shows the least wind...