Wind resource assessment in the Edinburgh region

In recent years, a growing number of manufacturers have produced small wind turbines that are suitable for utilization of wind energy by individual householders or small businesses. These small wind turbine systems are unavoidably installed close to where people live, i.e. towns and cities. This raises the question about the potential of wind energy resource in built-up areas. The answer to this question depends on an understanding of the wind regime of urban areas. This paper is about wind energy assessment in the Edinburgh region, which includes Edinburgh’s topographical information and an initial analysis of ten years of met office data. The results related to wind energy potential are given in terms of statistical analysis that includes yearly average wind speed, standard deviation in yearly wind data, prevailing wind direction, wind speed frequency distribution, probability density function (pdf), cumulative distribution function (cdf), wind power density estimation, and available wind energy calculation. Air density for the Edinburgh region has been calculated from met office data.