Document Type : ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Authors

1 Department of Civil Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty, Near East University, 99138 Nicosia, Cyprus

2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Faculty, Near East University, 99138 Nicosia, Cyprus

Abstract

Economic evaluation of 12 MW grid-connected wind farms and PV power plants in two regions in Northern Cyprus for electricity generation was investigated. The wind speed, sunshine duration, and solar global radiation characteristics were analyzed using monthly data collected over 17 years (2000-2016) for Girne and nine years (2008-2016) for Lefkoşa, which were measured at various heights. The result showed that during 2000-2016, the mean wind speed at Girne was 2.505 m/s and during 2008-2016, the mean wind speed at Lefkoşa was 2.536 m/s. The result showed that both regions had annual mean wind speed greater than 2 m/s at 10 m height. Moreover, the annual mean sunshine duration and global solar radiation were higher than seven h/day and 15 MJ./m2/day at a height of 2 m for all studied regions, respectively. In this study, eight distribution functions were used to analyze the wind speeds and global solar radiation data in each region. The results indicated that Weibull and Logistic were the best distributions for analyzing the wind speeds and global solar radiation data of the studied regions, respectively. Furthermore, the capacity factors of the selected regions ranged between 1.92% and 48.53%. Based on the renewable energy cost results, it is found that the generation costs of the wind farm were between 0.023 and 0.04 Euro/kWh, while the PV plant was between 0.08 and 0.098 Euro/kWh.

Graphical Abstract

Economic assessment of renewable power generation based on wind speed and solar radiation in urban regions

Highlights

  • Wind power potential of the selected regions is suitable for low capacity wind turbine
  • The selected regions in Northern Cyprus have a huge solar potential and actual market opportunities for investors to develop grid-connected PV projects compared to wind farm projects
  • The grid-connected PV and wind farm projects are still economically feasible in all selected regions in Northern Cyprus.

Keywords

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421506003235

Letters to Editor

GJESM Journal welcomes letters to the editor for the post-publication discussions and corrections which allows debate post publication on its site, through the Letters to Editor. Letters pertaining to manuscript published in GJESM should be sent to the editorial office of GJESM within three months of either online publication or before printed publication, except for critiques of original research. Following points are to be considering before sending the letters (comments) to the editor.

[1] Letters that include statements of statistics, facts, research, or theories should include appropriate references, although more than three are discouraged.
[2] Letters that are personal attacks on an author rather than thoughtful criticism of the author’s ideas will not be considered for publication.
[3] Letters can be no more than 300 words in length.
[4] Letter writers should include a statement at the beginning of the letter stating that it is being submitted either for publication or not.
[5] Anonymous letters will not be considered.
[6] Letter writers must include their city and state of residence or work.
[7] Letters will be edited for clarity and length.

CAPTCHA Image