An analysis of wind energy potential and economic evaluation in Zahedan, Iran Ali Mostafaeipour a,n , Mohsen Jadidi a , Kasra Mohammadi b , Ahmad Sedaghat c a Industrial Engineering Department, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran b Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran c Mechanical Engineering Department, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran article info Article history: Received 8 March 2013 Received in revised form 23 July 2013 Accepted 12 November 2013 Keywords: Wind potential Economic evaluation Weibull Zahedan Iran abstract Most people would produce their own clean local energy if it were easy and affordable. When a renewable energy system is installed, there is an upfront cost that can be partially or completely offset by various ways. Purpose of this study is to assess wind energy potential for the city of Zahedan in southeast part of Iran. Five-year (2003–2007) wind data has been analyzed to obtain wind power density and wind energy potential. Weibull density function has been used to determine the wind power density and energy of the region. Yearly mean Weibull parameters, k and c, were 1.155 and 3.401 (m/s). Obtained wind power and energy densities are 89.184 W/m 2 , and 781.252 kWh/m 2 respectively. In short, economic evaluation and analysis of four different wind turbines are presented in this paper. In order to utilize wind energy, it is recommended to install Proven 2.5 kW model wind turbine in the region which is the most cost efficient option. & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 641 2. Wind energy in the world............................................................................................. 642 3. Wind energy in Iran ................................................................................................. 642 4. Description of Zahedan ............................................................................................... 643 5. Methodology ....................................................................................................... 644 5.1. Wind power and wind energy density ............................................................................. 645 5.2. Wind speed extrapolation ....................................................................................... 645 6. Statistical analysis ................................................................................................... 645 6.1. Wind speed characteristics ...................................................................................... 645 6.2. Analysis of Weibull parameters, power and energy densities ........................................................... 646 7. Performance assessments of wind turbines ............................................................................... 647 8. Cost estimation of energy output ....................................................................................... 648 9. Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 648 Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................... 649 References ............................................................................................................. 649 1. Introduction The current trend of consuming fossil fuels in the world causes these resources to deplete within the next century [1]. On the other hand, using fossil fuels has negative environmental pro- blems such as greenhouse effect, pollution to atmosphere, and soil and water contamination [2]. Many developed and developing countries around the world have adopted policies to harness renewable energies such as wind and solar in order to reduce their dependency on nonrenewable resources of energies [3]. Renewable or the so-called “green energy” like wind, solar, geothermal, and hydro power is inexhaustible, clean and free [4,5]. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 1364-0321/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.11.016 n Corresponding author. Tel.: þ98 913 251 3751; fax: þ98 351 821 2001. E-mail address: mostafaei@yazduni.ac.ir (A. Mostafaeipour). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 30 (2014) 641–650