Techno-Economic Analysis of Wind Power Generation in Mongo and Abeche, Chad

Abstract

The useful wind energy potential in the Sahelian part of Chad is estimated by considering two representative sites namely, Mongo and Abeche from a long series of in situ wind speed measurements over a period of thirty years at 10 m height from the ground.The Weibull distribution statistic was used and its parameters were used to show the influence of turbulence sources on the wind speed at 10 m.Vertical extrapolation of the Weibull parameters and wind speed at different heights from 10 m to 100 m provided more usable wind speeds.The results show that on average the wind is more intense and stable in Mongo than in Abeche and that the wind speed values increase with height with the influence of turbulence sources quantified at about 22.15% in Abeche and 19.93% in Mongo.The comparative study of the five turbines used shows that the De Wind D7 turbines with $0.057/kWh at 70 m in Abeche and Bonus 1MW/54 turbines with $0.067/kWh at 50 m in Mongo are better suited to produce energy according to their production capacity.The minimum and maximum electricity costs per kilowatt hour obtained using these two best turbines are very competitive compared to the cost of electricity in Chad (about $0.16/kWh) and that the installation of a wind farm in these cities could significantly improve the socio-economic situation of households.