Assessment of different methods used to estimate Weibull distribution parameters for wind speed in Zafarana wind farm, Suez Gulf, Egypt

The use of wind as an energy source is becoming popular because of its non-polluting and renewable features. There is an urgent request to develop site-based estimation on wind engineering, which can be used for optimal design of wind turbines and wind farming. The wind speed for Zafarana Project in Suez Gulf, namely Site-3, based on monthly averaged data for 1 year as well as every 10 min for two days, one day in summer season and one day one winter season have been analyzed to estimate the most appropriate method to find Weibull distribution parameters for this site. The investigated methods are the mean wind speed method, the maximum likelihood method, the modified maximum likelihood method, the graphical method and the power density method. These methods results have been compared with the provided data to find their accuracy based on the root mean square errors. From the obtained results, the mean wind speed and the maximum likelihood method are recommended in estimating the wind speed distribution for the studied site in Zafarana wind farm. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.