Arab J Sci Eng DOI 10.1007/s13369-014-1161-0 RESEARCH ARTICLE - ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING Pairing between Sites and Wind Turbines for Saudi Arabia Sites Ali M. Eltamaly Received: 13 December 2012 / Accepted: 15 June 2013 © King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals 2014 Abstract This paper introduces an accurate procedure to choose the best site from many sites and suitable wind tur- bines for these sites depending on the minimum price of kWh generated. In this paper, a new proposed computer program has been introduced to perform all the optimization required to determine the size of the wind energy system for pairing between sites and wind turbines. Cost calculation method of energy has been introduced to determine the price of kWh generated from wind energy system. The data for five sites in Saudi Arabia and hundred wind turbines have been used as input data for the proposed computer program. These sites are Yanbo, Dhahran, Dhulom, Riyadh, and Qaisumah. 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 salient results from this study are: Dhahran is the best site and the suitable wind turbine for this site is KMW-ERNO with 5.85 Cents/kWh, and the worst site to install wind energy system is Riyadh with minimum price of 12.81 Cents/kWh in case of using GE Energy 2 wind turbine. Keywords Wind energy system · Pairing between site and wind turbine · Cost of energy · Price minimization of the generated kWh A. M. Eltamaly (B ) Sustainable Energy Technologies Center, King Saud University, P.O. Box 800, 11421 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia e-mail: eltamaly@ksu.edu.sa Lists of Symbols WT Wind turbine WES Wind energy system ANWT Average number of WT U c Cut-in wind speed U r Rated wind speed U f Cut-off wind speed U av Mean wind speed m/s P r Rated power of WT K Shape parameter c Scale parameter C F Capacity factor F (u i ) Cumulative density function at wind speed u i P avg Average output power from WT P Lav Average required load ρ Air density kg/m 3 123