The Feasibility Study of Offshore Wind Energy Potential in Kijal, Malaysia: The New Alternative Energy Source Exploration in Malaysia

Abstract

Nowadays, many countries have been endeavoring to explore and exploit the offshore wind energy in terms of solving the problem of limitations of onshore wind energy. Wind energy is one of potential alternative for generating electricity in Malaysia. The offshore wind speed is better compared to onshore, so there is more potential contribution by offshore wind power in terms of electricity generation. This paper provides a summary of the offshore wind resources of the Kijal, Malaysia by analyzing the QuikSCAT satellite data which is available and can be downloaded from the WindPRO application. Based on these datasets, wind resources are assessed, and economical efficiency is evaluated by means of the expected capacity factor. Research was conducted using WindPRO and WAsP software to assess the potential of wind energy along the South China Sea in Kijal, Terengganu. Seven models of the wind turbines with different rated power; 110kW, 225kW, 275kW, 600kW, 850kW, 1000kW and 1250kW are taken for energy and economic feasibility analyses. The wind turbine with rated power 850 kW was indicated as the best wind turbine for installation in Kijal based on its best capacity factor, 26.8% In economical aspect, Malaysia does not have Feed in Tariff (FiT) rates for offshore wind projects, thus the range of predicted FiT rates, RM 0.30 to RM 2.00 were tested by using Net Present Value (NPV) and Payback Period (PBP) calculation. Finally, the conducive FiT rates for wind projects with secured investment were identified and the rates were in range RM 0.80 to RM 1.38. The overall results suggest that the wind energy has a bright future for use as an alternative source for generating electricity in Kijal, Malaysia.

Efficiency assessments for some state of the art wind turbines in the coastal environments of the Black and the Caspian seas

“…In any renewable energy project, an important step is to evaluate the potential of the natural resources in order to estimate the performances of the future energy farm (Albani et al, 2014;Gazzilli et al, 2001;Schneiderhan et al, 2005). It can be also mentioned that most of the studies performed in the recent years were focused on the evaluation of the nearshore and offshore wind resources at a level of 80 m (and above), considering different geographical scales: Global (Lu et al, 2009), Portuguese nearshore (Salvacao et al, 2013), Brasilian coastal environment (Pimenta et al, 2008), or the US coastal environment (Dhanju et al, 2008).…”

Suitability of utilizing small horizontal axis wind turbines for off grid loads in eastern region of Saudi Arabia

“…According to Albani et al (2014), all energy forms or sources have an adverse environmental impact but the wind energy does not, compared to conventional energy sources. Wind energy is one of the cleanest, benign, and environment friendly source of energy and is not going to diminish like fossil fuels having fixed and limited reserves (Al-Qabandi et al, 2014;Bassyouni and Gutub, 2013;Ozgur and Kose, 2006).…”

Techno-economic and sensitivity analysis for grid-connected renewable energy electric boat charging station in Terengganu

“…In Table 1, the grid-PV system has shortest period to a return of investment with 13.2 years at rates RM 0.813/kWh followed by grid-wind-PV systems and grid-wind with 14.2 years and 42.1 years, respectively. However, the grid-wind system is still not being able to precede grid-only system even though the wind energy technology is promising energy sources in Terengganu [29]. Thus, to find the least FiT that can be used to get the most optimal hybrid grid-RE configuration, sensitivity analysis was done.…”