Recent Advances in the Implementation of Wind Energy in Iran

The 2 nd Joint International Conference on “Sustainable Energy and Environment (SEE 2006)” 

21-23 November 2006, Bangkok, Thailand 

Recent Advances in the 

Implementation of Wind Energy 

in Iran 

Prof. Mohammad Ameri 

Mehdi Ghadiri & Mehdi Hosseini 

CHP Specialized Unit, Energy Engineering Dept. 

Power & Water University of Technology 

P.O. Box: 16765-1719, Tehran, Iran



1. INTRODUCTION 

2. IRAN WIND ENERGY POTENTIAL 

3. ECONOMICAL ASPECTS 

4. CONCLUSION



The worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 58,982 MW 

on 31 December 2005.The global rate of growth increased to 24% in 

the year 2005. 

Fig.1: The global wind turbines installation for different years



The application of wind energy in Iran goes back to 200 

years B.C. The Persian windmills with wind-catching 

surfaces as wide as 5 m and as high as 10 m were used 

for grinding grain in the area known as Nehbandan in 

the western part of Iran up to a few years ago. 

 

According to the available technology, economic 

aspects and the researches on the Iran’s wind potential, 

it is estimated that the power generation potential in Iran 

using the wind turbines is around 15,000 MW.



Following the installation of two 550 KW Nordtank wind turbines, the 

installation of a 90 MW wind farm in Manjil and Roodbar area has 

been started a few years ago. 

Fig.2: The Manjil wind farm near Sefid Rud Dam



 

Up to now the Manjil wind farm is generating around 34.12 MW. 

Fig.3: The Manjil wind farm (Harzevil)



 

 

The next large wind farm was commissioned in the Dyzbad at the 

Binalood mountain which is located in the northeastern part of Iran. 

It is a wind tunnel of 50 kilometers in length and 5 kilometers in width 

through which wind steadily flows at a mild velocity of 8.9 m/s. 

Fig.4: The Dyzbad wind farm



Dyzbad wind farm will have forty three 660 kW wind turbines that can produce 

28.4 MW of electricity. Up to now, twenty 660 kW are delivering electricity to 

grid and another twenty three 660 kW will be installed in one year . 

Fig.5: The installation of 660 kW wind turbines in Dyzbad site



All of the 660 kW wind turbines (SSN47-660) are manufactured in Saba Sadid 

Niroo factory under the license of Danish Vestas Company. 

Fig.6: The blade manufacturing in Sadid Saba Niroo factory



2.1 The wind synoptic stations 

These 53 wind synoptic stations, record wind data every 10 minutes. 

The data is collected in 10, 20 and 40 meters height for wind speed 

and 20 meters height for wind direction. Data are analyzed by the 

statistical methods using Spss, Excel and Smada softwares. 

In order to do the evaluation of wind potential, 10 synoptic stations 

have been installed in this region. The geographical situation of these 

stations is illustrated in Fig. 7.



Fig.7: Position of synoptic stations at the area topography



2.2 Data analysis 

 

 

This procedure is performed by analyzing the wind rose, wind speed 

distribution curve and the changes in the wind speed rate per hour. 

To evaluate the roughness length (Z 0 

) we have: 

ln Z = ln Z 0 

–1/I z (1) 

I z 

is Turbulence Intensity at z height and it is evaluated as the 

following: 

σz 

I = σz 

/ 

z 

U z 

(2) 

is the standard deviation and U z 

is the average speed at the 

z height.



σ = 

[ ] 

2 

Γ(1 

+ 2 / k) 

− Γ (1 + 1/ k) 

, U = AΓ(1 

1/ k) 

a 

z 

+ 

(3) 

Γ 

is the Gama function and A (m/s) and k are Weibull parameters. 

Γ( 

z) 

= 

⎛ 

⎜ 

⎝ 

2π 

⎛ 

z⎜ 

⎝ 

p 

+∑ 

P 

⎞⎞ 

⎟ 

⎠⎠ 

n 

z+ 

0.5 −( 

z+ 

5.5) 

( ) ⎟⎟.( 

z 5.5) e 

0 n= 1.6 

+ . 

z + n 

(4) 

Table 1 shows the average annual wind speed measurements at 6 

stations of Manjil for the different heights.



Table 1: Average Annual Wind speed measurements at 6 stations of Manjil



Fig. 8 Wind Rose and annual Weibull curve for the Babaeian Station



2.3 Iran Wind Atlas 

 

 

 

In preparing Iran wind atlas, KLIMM (KLImate Model Manze) software, 

which has been developed by Mainz University, is used to model the 

wind field. 

The required data for the first part of the project include the high 

altitude atmosphere data (i.e. temperature, humidity, direction and 

speed of wind stream), region ground data (i.e. temperature, speed 

and direction of wind stream) and the topographical data. 

In the last section of wind atlas preparation procedure, the accessible 

energy from wind energy is predicted using WindPRO model. This 

model is used to model the low-scale regions. 

The Wind Atlas of Iran at 50 meters height is shown in Fig.9 .



Fig.9: The Wind Atlas of Iran at 50 meters height



3.1 Economical formulation 

 

For economic analysis, lifetimes of the V47-660 kW wind turbines and 

interest rate have been assumed to be 20 years and 16% respectively. 

The actual investment cost (C a 

) is 1000 $/kW. 

It should be noted that turbine availability is 0.98. 

The generation cost estimation is performed using the ECOWIND 

software. The flowchart of this software is presented in Fig.10 .



Fig.10: The flowchart of ECOWIND



The generation cost of wind energy (g) is estimated by following simple 

expression : 

g = [C a 

/( AUE.A. AF)] + m (5) 

AF is the annuity factor which is given by the following formula: 

AF = [1+ (1+i) –n ] / i (6) 

The operating & maintenance cost (m) is assumed to be 2% of the 

investment costs. 

m = 2% [C a 

/ (AUE.A)] (7)



3.2 Economic results and discussion 

The generation electricity cost is reduced as the annual average wind 

speed is increased. 

Generation cost, g (US¢/kWh) 

10 

8 

6 

4 

2 

6 7 8 9 10 

Average wind speed, U (m/s) 

Fig.11: The generation cost (US cents/kWh) versus the 

annual average wind speed (m/s)



6 

5 

4 

US¢/kWh 

3 

2 

1 

0 

Electricity Price Dyzbad Aliabad Jarandagh 

Fig. 12: The comparison of the generation cost for Dyzbad, 

Ali Abad and Jarandagh with the actual electricity price



4. CONCLUSION 

By the installation of synoptic stations and the analysis of the data, Iran 

wind atlas at 50 meters height is obtained. 

It shows that there are many sites in Iran with the good wind potentials. 

Two wind farms at Manjil and Dyzbad with the total capacity of 120 

MW are at the commissioning stage. 

 

 

The economical studies have revealed that the electricity generation 

cost by wind turbines is less than the actual cost of electricity. 

These studies have shown that the power generation potential in Iran 

using the wind turbines is around 15,000 MW.



Thank for Your 

Attention

Recent Advances in the Implementation of Wind Energy in Iran

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