Assessing wind energy potential and economics for three offshore locations on the Persian Gulf in Iran

Wind energy has been increasingly used in recent years, and is potentially competitive with conventional fuels in many locations. The spatial dependence is significant and related to the speed and energy of the winds. In this paper, energy and economic feasibility assessments of offshore winds are carried out, by considering the use of wind turbines in Abu Musa, Qeshm and Kish islands, located in the south of Iran. The analyses utilize the Weibull density function and recorded data for a four-year period (2019–2022), taken at three-hour intervals and at heights of 10 and 50m. The hourly, daily, monthly and annual variations of wind speed are analyzed, and the economic feasibility is determined of installing wind turbine sat the sites. Annual values for the Weibull shape parameters for Abu Musa, Qeshm and Kish islands are found to be in the range of 2.39–2.10, 2.28–2.54 and 2.04–2.10, respectively. The maximum wind power densities for Abu Musa, Qeshm and Kish islands occur in January, April and March, respectively. The results show that the wind potential and the generated electricity with two wind turbines models are suitable for the studied sites, and that the cost of generating electricity is lower than the price offered by the Iranian government to private power plants.