WIND ENERGY POWER POTENTIAL OF MARD？N AND POLATLI REGIONS IN TURKEY

Despite the high wind energy potential in Turkey, electric power generation using wind energy is quite low. Thus, the results obtained from studies on wind power have become extremely important. In the present study, the wind energy potential of two regions in Turkey was estimated in accordance with the data obtained from Turkish State Meteorological Service. First, suitable distribution for wind speed data was specified by Anderson-Darling and Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit tests. The Weibull distribution was determined to be the best fit distribution for wind speed data. The parameters of the Weibull distribution were estimated by the moment method, least squares method, and modified maximum likelihood method, which are commonly used methods in the literature. The parameters obtained were placed in the power density function and the power density was computed for the two regions. This study provides approximate information about the wind energy potential of the regions examined