DETERMINATION OF WEIBULL PARAMETERS AND ANALYSIS OF WIND POWER POTENTIAL IN COASTAL AND NON-COASTAL SITES IN AKWA IBOM STATE

The wind power potential and its viability for commercial energy production across two sites Eket (Latitude 4033’N & Longitude 7058’E) and Uyo (Latitude 5°18’53.7’’N & Longitude 7059’39.29’’E) in Akwa Ibom State were investigated. Using data obtained from the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (MIMET) for both locations for a period of four years (2010-2013), a statistical analysis was performed. The Weibull Distribution Function was used to determine the monthly and yearly wind speed. Resulting from the analysis, the values of the average wind speed, the average daily wind power, the shape parameter (k) and the scale factor(c) were obtained to be 6.7 m/s and 4.3 m/s, 0.91 MW and 0.25 MW, K~ 5.4 and 2.1, and c ≈ 8.8 m/s and 4.6 m/s respectively, for Eket and Uyo. Also, the annual electricity generation was projected to be 40.88 MWh& 10.80 MWh respectively, for Eket and Uyo. The Weibull distribution can be relied on for accurate prediction of wind energy output and resulting from the predicted values, Eket a coastal area was assessed to be viable for commercial wind power production compared to Uyo a non-coastal area. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v36i3.3