Technoeconomic study of wind energy potential and prospects in Oman

This paper reports the study that carried out to find the wind energy potential and prospects in Oman. The results presented here are for three different sites. The first site discussed is for remote non-grid application of wind energy, the second for grid application and the third for wind pump application. The economic comparison for non-grid power applications is made between diesel engine generating sets alone and wind-diesel hybrid system at the selected location. The economic cost of grid system extension is also estimated for comparison purposes. The results show that for non-grid application for the selected site the levelized cost of winddiesel system is 0.105 $/kWh comparing to 0.148 $/kWh for diesel system alone. For grid power application the study found that installing a 20 MW wind farm in Quiroon Hariti has a levelized cost of energy comparable to long-run marginal cost of open cycle gas turbines. For wind pump application the study found that the total annualized cost of installing wind pumps for irrigating a selected farm in Thumrait without and with one day water storage is $1, 368 and $2, 067 respectively. The total annualized cost of using a diesel pump for irrigating the same farm is $3, 523.