An Assessment of the Wind Power Generation Potential of Built Environment Wind Turbine (BEWT) Systems in Fort Beaufort, South Africa

作者：Manyeredzi Terrence^*; Makaka Golden

来源：Sustainability, 2018, 10(5): 1346.

DOI：10.3390/su10051346

• distributed system
• power density
• renewable energy
• sustainability
• utility scale
• wind resource

The physical and economic sustainability of using built environment wind turbine (BEWT) systems depends on the wind resource potential of the candidate site. Therefore, it is crucial to carry out a wind resource assessment prior to the deployment of the BEWT. The assessment results can be used as a referral tool for predicting the performance and lifespan of the BEWT in the given built environment. To date, there is limited research output on BEWTs in South Africa, with available literature showing a bias towards utility-scale or conventional ground-based wind energy systems. This study aimed to assess the wind power generation potential of BEWT systems in Fort Beaufort using the Weibull distribution function. The results show that Fort Beaufort wind patterns can be classified as fairly good and that BEWTs can best be deployed at 15 m for a fairer power output as roof height wind speeds require BEWTs of very low cut-in speeds of at most 1.2 ms(-1).

• 出版日期2018-5