Estimation of Weibull Parameters using Graphical Method for Wind Energy Applications K. S. R. Murthy Electrical Engineering Department NIT Hamirpur Hamirpur, India harikella96@gmail.com O. P. Rahi Electrical Engineering Department NIT Hamirpur Hamirpur, India oprahi2k@gmail.com Abstract—Wind power resources are abundant in India; as a result the wind power industry has entered a period of rapid growth, and has been facing new challenges currently. Wind power is environment friendly and renewable in nature. The wind is caused by an air in motion and is produced by the uneven heating of the earth’s surface by the sun. The wind speed has been one of the most significant parameter in the design and investigation of wind energy conversion systems (WECS). The objective of the present research paper is to assess the feasibility of wind power generation for a new site in Himachal Pradesh using micro-turbines. The major contribution of this paper, envisages two parameters, i.e., shape and scale parameter based Weibull distribution model for investigating wind speed variations and Weibull parameters calculation by Least Squares Fit Method (LSM) also known as Linear regression model using graphical method. This research work shows that the hilly site of Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh has good wind power potential and large magnitude of winds have been available for power generation during the months of March to June suitable for low wind power generation. Keywords— greenhouse gases; statistics; weibull distribution; weibull parameters; wind power density; wind speed. I. INTRODUCTION Energy is one of the major inputs for economic and social development of any country. Energy demand grows due to population increase, rapid urbanization and industrialization. The use of fossil fuels for electricity generation has an adverse impact on environment, especially excessive emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to atmosphere leading to climate change and global warming. Renewable energy technologies are clean sources of energy and are sustainable. Wind is one of such widely used source worldwide [1]. Major contribution for renewable electricity generation so far has been from hydro and wind power with small contributions from solar, geothermal, biomass, waste, and tidal wave/ocean energy. The government incentives and policies provide primary support for renewable power generation programmers [2]. Worldwide wind power generation capacity 978-1-4799-5141-3/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE has reached 282.3 GW in 2012 as per the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) [3]. World Wind Energy Report 2012 has shown a 19.2% global growth and the global annual installed wind power capacity has increased from 1280 MW to 44,799 MW during the period 1996-2012. The cumulative wind power generation in India has reached 18.4 GW in 2012. The total renewable energy installations in the country has reached 26.9 GW in January 2013 which accounted for over 12 % of total installed capacity, and about 6% of electricity generation by the end of 2012 as compared to 2% in 1995. The wind power alone accounted for about 69% of total renewable energy capacity or about 8% of the total installed capacity in India [4]. Wind turbines are often used in large-scale wind farms in the countryside or in coastal regions, but there has been a growing market for micro-turbines. Micro-turbines are defined as those that are capable of delivering energy at a rate of less than 50kW [5]. This definition covers a range of turbine sizes, from blades of half a meter to around 15 meters with 30 meter tall towers. Small wind farms consisting of large number of such wind turbines in vast open spaces have also become a reality. Large wind turbines are now in their seventh or eighth generation of technology development, while micro-wind turbines are yet to evolve commercially in India. Micro-wind turbines can achieve high market penetration especially in areas with lower housing densities and sufficient wind resources [5]. The efficient micro-wind turbines for low wind speed regions with low cut in speeds are required to be developed and standardized keeping in view the vast wind power potential utilizing wind on the building roof tops. The Indian industry needs to develop innovative and simplify designs so as to reduce the cost of electricity generated by such small or micro wind turbines. Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET), a Govt. of India Undertaking under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has carried out a survey to estimate the installable potential of the country and published a wind atlas of India [6]. A meso-scale wind power density map of 80 m level integrated with the wind power density map generated with actual measurements and re-plotted final wind power density map is shown in Fig.1. A fraction of uniform 2% land availability in all states and 0.5% in Himalayan states, North eastern states and Andaman & Nicobar Islands, has been considered for energy estimation [6].