Abstract
This paper introduces an accurate procedure to choose the best site from many sites and suitable wind turbines for these sites depending on the minimum price of kWh generated (Energy Cost Figure (ECF)) from wind energy system. In this paper a new proposed computer program has been introduced to perform all the calculations and optimization required to accurately design the wind energy system and matching between sites and wind turbines. Some of cost calculations of energy methods have been introduced and compared to choose the most suitable method. The data for five sites in Saudi Arabia and hundred wind turbines have been used to choose the best site and the optimum wind turbine for each site. These sites are Yanbo, Dhahran, Dhulom, Riyadh, and Qaisumah. One hundred wind turbines have been used to choose the best one for each site. This program is built in a generic form which allows it to be used with unlimited number of sites and wind turbines in all over the world. The program is written by using Visual Fortran and it is verified with simple calculation in Excel. The paper showed that the best site is Dhahran and the suitable wind turbine for this site is KMW-ERNO with 5.85 Cents/kWh. The worst site to install wind energy system is Riyadh with minimum price of kWh of 12.81 Cents/kWh in case of using GE Energy 2 wind turbine.
•Matching between sites and wind turbines based on minimum price of generated energy.•Design and feasibility study of installing wind energy system in five locations in Saudi Arabia.•New proposed computer program software for simulating wind energy systems.•Economic analysis for utility interfaced wind energy systems.