Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Modeling Earth Systems and Environment https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-017-0399-4 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Evaluation of wind potential and its trends in the mid-Atlantic Adekunle Ayodotun Osinowo 1  · Emmanuel Chilekwu Okogbue 2  · Emmanuel Olaoluwa Eresanya 2  · Olumide Samuel Akande 3 Received: 11 October 2017 / Accepted: 20 November 2017 © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2017 Abstract This work utilized a 37-year (1980–2016) 10 m wind feld dataset got from the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) to examine the wind energy potential in the mid-Atlantic by using the Weibull parameters. The region generally showed a fairly good wind characteristics. The computed annual average wind power (170.23 w/m 2 ) attributes the region as fairly suitable for wind power applications. Furthermore, locations such as State of Ceara and Sao Vicente in the southern and northern mid-Atlantic exhibits higher wind power of approximately 330 w/m 2 and are therefore suitable for grid connected wind power applications. In all years and seasons, increasing positive trends in wind power density dominate waters between States of Ceara and Amapa in the southern mid-Atlantic. The wind power density showed an increasing trend of 0.13 w/m 2 /year in the mid-Atlantic throughout the study period. The trend inclined (1.1 w/m 2 /year) in winter and declined (− 0.51 w/m 2 /year) during summer. Keywords Wind power · Weibull · Trend · Potentials · Region · Variation Introduction The wind force in ofshore locations of diferent parts of the globe is considered a source of new and inexhaustible energy. It is advantageous over other sources of electricity generation in that it does not pollute the environment. Wind turbines can create polluting substances in the atmosphere but do not bring greenhouse gases or acid rain. The electric- ity generated from wind energy has drawn the attention of farmers, ranchers and other landowners in every locality just for its lower costs and great economic benefts. Several works on wind energy assessment and prospects of wind power plant have been done for the Middle East and African countries (Ammari and Maaitah 2003; Bufasa et al. 2008; Buhairi 2006; Elamouri and Amar 2008; El- Osta and Califa 2003; Essa and Mubarak 2006; Marafa and Ashour 2003; Ahmed Shata and Hanitsch 2006). Wind speed in ofshore locations is higher than that in onshore locations (Bailey et al. 2002). Referring to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA 2010 Statistics), the yearly addition in the installed capacity of ofshore global wind energy dem- onstrates an increasing trend every year from 2001 to 2010 thereby, amounting to a fast increase in the total wind power installed capacity. Karamanis et al. (2011) used a 2-year mean wind speed at 10 m above the sea surface to estimate the ofshore wind energy of Zakynthos and Pylos within the Ionian Sea. They observed an annual mean wind speeds of 5.7 and 5.8 m/s respectively at these regions. The wind speed data over 10 buoy stations in the Aegean andIonian Seas was used by Bagiorgas et al. (2012) to preliminary esti- mate the strength of wind power density at a height of 50 m above the sea surface.Mykonos was assessed to be an excellent windy region and rated class 7 winds with wind * Adekunle Ayodotun Osinowo voxfox99@yahoo.com Emmanuel Chilekwu Okogbue emokogbue@gmail.com Emmanuel Olaoluwa Eresanya eresanyaeo@futa.edu.ng Olumide Samuel Akande olusamakande@gmail.com 1 Department of Marine Science and Technology, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria 2 Department of Meteorology and Climate Science, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria 3 Centre for Space Research and Applications, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria