Assessment of Economic Feasibility on Promising Wind Energy Sites in Myanmar

Abstract

Due to lack of reliable wind data measured on site by high tower mast, the preliminarily wind atlas of Myanmar is forecasted with Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Application (MERRA) reanalysis data using in ArcGIS. From the result wind- map, the promising areas were found in Arakan, Pathein, Yangon, Ye which lie at coastal area in Myanmar and of which wind power density can be used for village power application with isolated-grid. To evaluate the annual energy production of each site, eight suitable wind turbines operated with  low wind speed and isolated-grid are chosen from the RETScreen product data. For economic feasibility of selected sites, 600kW wind farm is  analysed as wind energy project model in RETScreen. RETScreen software output performs the project model matching with site and turbine. PGE wind turbine is investigated for each site with the lowest cost of energy, the highest capacity factor, the greatest annual energy production and the maximum green house gas (GHG) emission in each site. In the proposed project (600kW), 24 units of 25kW wind turbine (PGE) can provide the lowest price of 0.148$/kWh, 0.141$/kWh, 0.171$/kWh and 0.138$/kW, positive net present value (NPV), internal rate of return of 19% (IRR) and simple payback period of 10 yrs (SPB) for each site. The sensitivity analysis is also performed for back up findings of project development. This study can examine the potential and economic feasibility of developing small scale wind farm with isolated grid for generating electricity in remote area, Myanmar.