Investigation of wind characteristics and wind power potential in El-Kef region, Tunisia

This paper gives an estimation of the wind power that potentially could be generated by wind farms in the El-Kef governorate, a north-western region of Tunisia. The results of this investigation are based on wind speed measurements carried out by the local cement factory Oum ELKelil Cement (CIOK), one of the first plants in Tunisia which intends to set up its own wind farm. According to the collected data, the local values of Wind Shear Coefficient (WSC) and Turbulence Intensity (TI) are analysed and their hourly and monthly variations are assessed. The wind speed distribution is characterized using the Weibull probability density function. Average wind power density was calculated using Weibull distribution parameters. Based on wind characteristics study, a power production estimate is performed for different configurations of low wind speed turbines. The effect of hub-height on the annual energy yield was also investigated. The results presented in this paper indicate that El-Kef region has an encouraging wind potential to exploit.