Assessing wind energy potential in Malawi for power generation

Abstract

The current world's demand for energy needs exploring other energy sources. More studies are being conducted on the renewable energy resources are because of their friendliness to the environment. The objective of this study was to assess wind energy potential in Malawi, results of which would lead to harnessing wind energy in the country. Daily mean wind speed values for 16 sites from Malawi were analyzed in this study. Monthly and seasonal variations of wind speed were determined. Wind energy potential was also determined and monthly and annual mean wind energy potential values have been estimated. the analysis has shown that there is higher wind energy potential in the lakeshore areas, especially the central lakeshores and the northern tip of the country. The analysis has also shown that most of the areas in the south of Malawi have low wind energy potential. Weibull distribution was used to estimate the frequency distribution. The results show that given hourly data, the distribution can provide a good estimate for the distribution. More research needs to be done in order to get accurate estimate of available wind energy in Malawi.