Renewable Energy Wind Mapping for Zambia: 12-Month Site Resource Report
The overall Zambia ESMAP program consists of providing a validated mesoscale wind atlas for Zambia, including associated deliverables and wind energy development training courses. Meteorological data is collected at eight sites over a 2-year period. This 12-month Site Resource Report provides interim wind resource statistics at the eight masts and energy production estimates for preliminary wind farms in the vicinity of the masts.
The program’s goal is to provide Zambian policy makers, stakeholders and independent power producers with accurate and valuable knowledge of the national wind resource, including complementary tools, which can be of direct practical use, both for formulating energy policy and implementing wind projects. A key conclusion from this study is that there is now an established network of state-of-the-art wind measurement masts in Zambia that can be used to support stakeholder wind analysis activities and future utility-scale wind development in-country. In the future, this network of masts will also provide the industry with a source of long-term reference station data which could greatly reduce uncertainties for potential developers.
The data collected from the eight met masts are considered very good both in terms of data quality and data coverage. The primary goal of the met masts was not to provide potential wind farm locations, but instead to validate a country-wide wind map. However, and as a secondary goal, it is noted that from this analysis, several met mast locations are sited in areas where wind development could be considered viable and potentially bankable with current turbine technology. Further investment by stakeholders in well-organized measurement campaigns and in feasibility analysis that are focused on reducing uncertainties will help support future growth of the Zambian wind market.
