Wind Resource Maps for Cambodia

Abstract

This paper presents maps of the monthly and annual mean wind speed and direction at the height of 50 m above the ground in Cambodia. The wind speed is calculated by the Karlsruhe Atmospheric Mesoscale Model using atmospheric data from NCEP/NCAR for the years 1977-2006 as input data. Average wind speed is calculated by using the wind class approach. Wind data from four new wind measuring stations in Cambodia and from nearby wind measuring stations in Vietnam and Thailand are used to validate the model. The validation results show that the values of the calculated and measured wind speeds are in reasonable agreement. The values of wind speed obtained from the model are then used to generate the wind resource maps. The annual map reveals that relatively high wind speed areas are situated in the northeastern part of the country with the maximum annual mean wind speeds of 5-6 m/s.