OFFSHORE WIND RESOURCE ASSESSMENT, SITE SUITABILITY AND TECHNOLOGY SELECTION FOR BLIGH WATERS FIJI USING WINDPRO

Abstract: This thesis aims to carry out offshore wind resource assessment, site suitability and technology selection for Bligh Waters in Fiji, and perform energy calculations for a 10-12 MW model offshore wind farm as well as carry out a simple economic analysis. The objectives were achieved by assessing the offshore wind resources employing atmospheric reanalysis data from the WindPRO online database performing the data correlation using the Measure Correlate Predict (MCP) module of WindPRO. The best correlated wind speed closest to the microsite was computed to be about 6.5 m/s at a height of 10 m, with a dominant East-southeast (ESE) and South-southeast (SSE) wind directions. Furthermore, the wind turbine technology was selected to be Vestas V80-2.0MW Offshore wind turbine and Siemens SWT-2.3-93 (2,300 kW) wind turbine with wind turbine class IEC IA for the site using the analysis done by the WindPRO site compliance module. Moreover, energy calculations were performed for 10 MW and 11.5 MW model offshore wind farms using the best correlated datasets close to the micro-site. The best model offshore wind farm was found to be the 11.5 MW wind farm, which had an annual energy production of 40,327.5 MWh/year, a capacity factor of 40.0 %, park efficiency of 99.8 % and full load hours of 3507 hours/year. Each Siemens SWT-2.3-93 (2,300 kW) wind turbine of the 11.5 MW wind farm produces an average of 8,065.4 MWh annually. The wind farm has a simple payback time of approximately 8 years with an installation cost of USD $51,750,000 and AAR of USD $6,452,400. The cost of energy generation per kWh is computed to be USD $0.12. Thus, comparing this to the cost of energy generation by other renewable and conventional sources in Fiji, it can be concluded that it is feasible and potentially competitive to invest into offshore wind farms to support the national electricity grid in Fiji.