Comparison between hybrid Weibull and MEP methods for calculating wind speed distribution

The wind speed distribution is one of the wind energy characteristics. It is of a great importance in the exploitation of wind energy resources for a site. The quality of wind speed distribution depends on the capability of chosen probability distribution function, to describe the measured wind speed distribution. The objective of this study is to model wind speed using two probability density functions; the Weibull distribution and the Maximum Entropy principe distribution (MEP). Hourly wind speed data of M'sila region (a town of Algeria) for three years (2008-2010) were treated using these two models. In order to compare these two models, the analysis methods used are; R2, RMSE and χ2. The results obtained showed that hybrid Weibull distribution is very suitable and efficient to estimate wind speed distribution in M'sila's region, characterized by a great percentage of calm wind.