Estimation of Annual Wind Characteristics in India

The paper gives an account of the detailed statistical analysis of annual average wind speed data procured from India Meteorological Department, Pune of 92 stations spread all over lndia for the period 1931-90. Probability densities, average wind speeds, standard deviations, kurtosis, skewness of wind speed frequency distribution for each station have been worked out. Histogram depicting relative frequency distribution of annual average wind speeds have also been prepared. It is observed that the average annual wind speed over major part of India varies from 4 to 10 kmph. it is also revealed that the different histograms do not exhibit any similarity indicating there by that no single distribution is uniformly applicable for all the cases. The information generated is of multifold application such as (i) Identification of sites suitable for installation of Wind Energy Conversion Systems (ii) Performance assessment of Wind Energy Conversion Systems at a given station and (iii) Design of buildings for creating acceptable and comfortable environment indoors.