Large-scale wind energy potential of the Caribbean region using near-surface reanalysis data

The lack of dense, high quality, long-term in-situ wind data sets and wind resource maps for the Caribbean region is a major impediment to the development of wind energy projects. Thus, there is limited understanding of the large-scale near-surface wind climate and the regional wind resources. Through statistical analyses on 10m level NCEP/DOE reanalysis wind data for the period 1979–2010, this work found that although the prevailing winds are from the east-north-east over the eastern Caribbean islands, their wind direction distributions are bimodal. The regional area-averaged wind speed attains a maximum in January and a secondary maximum in July which coincides with the Caribbean Mid-Summer Drought. The derived regional annual wind resource map shows that the Caribbean low-level jet (CLLJ) region is an area of superb wind power density (WPD), 400–600W/m2, the eastern Caribbean and the Netherland Antilles are locations of excellent resource, 300–400W/m2, and the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas are areas of good-very good resource, 200–300W/m2. In general, WPDs are greater in the dry season than the wet season. The regional mean annual area-averaged WPD is 308W/m2 with mean WPDs of 350W/m2 for the dry season, 290W/m2 for the early rainy season, and 247W/m2 for the late rainy season. Annual WPDs vary within±18% of their mean. The area-averaged WPD ranges from 124 to 592W/m2 (±92% of mean annual WPD) depending on the year, season, or month. Therefore, the reanalysis data are shown to be suitable for general assessments of the wind resources in the Caribbean and thus, may be used as initial and boundary conditions in numerical models for the development of high resolution wind maps through dynamical downscaling.