611 Energy Education Science and Technology Part A: Energy Science and Research 2012 Volume (issues) 29(1): 611-626 Assessing wind energy potentiality for selected sites in Malaysia M. R. Islam 1, 2,* , N. A. Rahim 2 , K. H. Solangi 2 , R. Saidur 1, 2 1 University of Malaya, Engineering Faculty, UMPEDAC Level 4, Engineering Tower, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2 University of Malaya, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Received: 07 July 2011; accepted: 22 August 2011 Abstract The detailed knowledge of the wind characteristics at a site is very crucial to install and estimate the performance of a wind energy project. In this paper, with the help of 2-parameter Weibull distribution, the assessment of wind energy potentiality at Mersing, Melaka and Kuantan in 2006-2008 was carried out. The monthly and yearly highest mean wind speeds were 4.28 and 2.91 m/s respectively at Mersing. The annual highest values of the Weibull shape parameter (k) and the Weibull scale parameter (c) were 2.18 and 3.11 m/s. The maximum wind power density was found to be 26.76 W/m 2 at Mersing for the year 2008. The maximum wind power density at Melaka and Kuantan were found to be 11.98 W/m 2 and 8.4 W/m 2 respectively. The maximum wind energy density was found to be 234.42 kWh/m 2 /year at Mersing in 2008. The most probable wind speed and wind speed carrying maximum energy were estimated 2.40 m/s and 4.47 m/s at Mersing in 2008. The maximum deviation, at wind speed more than 2 m/s, between observed and Weibull frequency distribution is about 8%. The most probable wind directions (blowing from) were 0˚, 45˚ and 247.5˚ at Kuantan, Melaka and Mersing respectively. From this study, it is concluded that these sites are unsuitable for large-scale wind energy generation. However, small-scale wind energy can be generated using a vertical axis turbine in Mersing. Keywords: Wind energy; Weibull distribution; Potentiality; Malaysia ©Sila Science. All rights reserved. Nomenclature A Area (m 2 ) c Weibull scale parameter (m/s) k Weibull shape parameter f(v) Weibull probability distribution function F(v) Weibull cumulative distribution function h Height (m) v Observing wind speed velocity (m/s) N Number of observations n Number of constants ____________ * Corresponding author. Tel.: +6-014-996-3264; fax: +6-037-967-5317. E-mail address: mrislam007@gmail.com (M. R. Islam).