Offshore wind resource assessment of the Gulf of Thailand

The Royal Thai Government recently launched its latest policy regarding the installation of 1,800 MW wind power capacity by 2025. While onshore wind power has significant limitations due notably to land use constraints and public acceptance, offshore wind energy offers good opportunities of development and is thus an interesting alternative. The main objective of this paper is to present the offshore wind resource assessment of the Gulf of Thailand, which covers an area of 320,000 km². A coupled mesoscale-microscale model is used, along with R1 NCEP/NCAR global reanalysis database, to generate a high resolution wind resource map. Results show that interesting potential areas for offshore wind farm development have wind speeds of up to 6.5 m/s, especially in the upper part of the Gulf of Thailand, covering a surface of 2,112 km². With a total potential installed capacity of 5,000 MW, the annual energy production is estimated at 9.64 TWh/year.