The wind energy potential of Thailand

Abstract Routine wind data from meteorological stations have been used to determine seasonal wind speed distributions and mean power densities at the surface over Thailand. Analyses of hourly wind speeds at two stations show that Weibull distributions fit the data well, provided that observations of calm are excluded. The diurnal variation of the wind at these stations has also been found. Estimates of mean power densities of surface winds over the whole country are typically in the range 10–20 Wm −2 . Upper level climatic charts indicate that mean free-stream wind power densities above the surface boundary layer are typically in the range 100–600 Wm −2 . Similar power densities would be accessible to wind machines on high ground in many places, depending on mountain topography and machine siting.