Wind potential evaluation in the canary islands using GIS

Abstract

The Canary Islands (Spain) are highly dependent on external energy sources. For 2015, the Canarian Energy Plan establishes that 30% of the electricity demand will be covered by renewable energy sources, mainly wind and solar (the goal for wind energy is 1025 MW). Therefore, it is crucial to determine the wind potential for each island as a first step for the energy planning. Within this work, a novel methodology based on GIS (Geographical Information System) for the determination of the wind potential is proposed. As a first step, the available land for wind exploitation per island is determined. For this purpose several territorial constrains are taken into account (natural reserves, inhabited areas, roads, etc.). Another type of constrain is the wind velocity (minimum wind speed for wind exploitation purposes). Once all these constraints have been applied, each island’s map shows the available land for wind production. At this stage wind farms are located in these areas. Finally the wind energy production per wind farm is calculated. For this, the annual energy yield is calculated as a function of the Weibull distribution.