Long-Term Assessment of Onshore and Offshore Wind Energy Potentials of Qatar

Exploitation of conventional energy resources has caused a deliberate increase in the emitted carbon in the atmosphere, which catalyzes global warming trends. This is a matter of concern, especially in Qatar, where fossil fuels (oil and gas) are largely relied upon for power production. The dependen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energies (Basel) 2021-02, Vol.14 (4), p.1178
Main Authors: Aboobacker, Valliyil Mohammed, Shanas, Puthuveetil Razak, Veerasingam, Subramanian, Al-Ansari, Ebrahim M. A. S., Sadooni, Fadhil N., Vethamony, Ponnumony
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alternative energy sources
Annual variations
Clean energy
Climate change
Coasts
El Nino
Energy resources
Energy sources
ENSO
ERA5 reanalysis winds
Global warming
Offshore
Offshore energy sources
Offshore operations
Qatar coast
Regions
Renewable energy sources
shamal winds
Southern Oscillation
Trends
wind energy
Wind farms
Wind power
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Summary:Exploitation of conventional energy resources has caused a deliberate increase in the emitted carbon in the atmosphere, which catalyzes global warming trends. This is a matter of concern, especially in Qatar, where fossil fuels (oil and gas) are largely relied upon for power production. The dependency on such resources could be gradually reduced by utilizing clean and renewable energy. Resource characterization is an important step to evaluate the potentiality of available renewable energy sources. Wind energy is one among them, which has not been assessed reliably so far in Qatar. We analyzed the wind energy potential along the onshore and offshore areas of Qatar using 40 years (1979–2018) of hourly wind data extracted from the ECMWF Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) database. Monthly, seasonal, annual, and decadal mean wind power densities have been derived. Reliability tests have been carried out at select onshore and offshore locations. Trends and inter-annual variability have been assessed. The study reveals that the available wind resources are generally moderate but consistent with no intense trends during the 40 year period. An inter-annual variability in wind power has been identified, which has secured links with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO).
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en14041178