2023 Volume 79 Issue 26 Article ID: 23-26012
Utilization of small wind turbines in local areas may facilitate renewable energy owing to their higher efficiency in low-wind speed conditions and lower noise emission. When local governments consider applying wind turbines to their region, official wind potential maps can be used to estimate power generation. However, information on wind potential, which is important to decide if one introduces a wind turbine or not, generally considers the usage of larger turbines and cannot be applied to small wind turbines. Additionally, such conventional wind maps have targeted the whole country and resulted in the low-resolution of such maps. With this regard, when local governments introduce small wind turbines, they need to calculate wind conditions and potential by themselves, which is challenging for the local governments in terms of cost, time, and other resources. Here in this study, a simple assessment of wind speed and direction in Shinchi, Fukushima was performed using free-GIS software (QGIS). The assessment was performed under the assumption that the small wind turbines were introduced dispersedly in the town. Calculations were conducted with a varied number of measuring points to evaluate calculation reliability, which was improved with an increase in its number. Results gave detailed information on wind and power potential depending on the place and time in various scales (hour, day, and month), which demonstrated the effectiveness of localized assessment and application possibilities in other local regions.
