The potential estimation and cost analysis of wind energy production in Oman

Selecting the wrong turbine can result in a massive financial mistake. Hence, this paper investigated three research questions. First, which region in Oman has greater potential in wind energy generation? Which type of wind turbines is the most suitable for the south and north regions of Oman? Second, what makes this turbine the best option for the south and north regions of Oman? In this study, 36 different types of wind turbines were evaluated using the HOMER Pro software. The evaluated turbines had a production capacity starting from 500 kW and were assessed for their suitability for electricity production in two villages-one in the north and the other in the south of Oman which will represent the north and south regions of Oman. Each of these villages has an electric load demand of 10 MW. Each turbine was evaluated in terms of the percentage of unmet electric load and the cost of energy production. The results show that most of the turbines evaluated performed better in the south compared to the north which indicated that the south has a greater potential in wind energy application. The Leitwind 90 1000 kW turbine proved most suitable in both the northern and southern locations as it gave the lowest cost of energy which are US$ 0.0606 per kW and US$ 0.0453 per kW in the north and south, respectively, and the lowest unmet electric load which are 59.3% in the north and 45.6% in the south compared to the other types of wind turbines.