Offshore Wind Resource Assessment of Thailand Using Remote Sensing Technique

This paper presents the evaluation of the offshore wind resource of Thailand (the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea) using remote sensing technique. The wind speed at height of 10 m above mean sea level (A.M.S.L.) was measured using SeaWinds Scatterometer on QuickSCAT by NASA. The QuickSCAT satellite images in 1999-2009 with resolution of 1ox1o was interpreted and validated using the measured wind speed provided by the ship observation, buoy data and numerical weather prediction models. The wind speed was interpolated for 1 km resolution enhancement and extrapolated to the height of 50 m A.M.S.L.. The monthly and annual mean wind speed maps were presented in order to show the spatial and temporal variation of offshore wind energy potential. Results showed that QuickSCAT satellite images interpretation gave lower bias in the rage of wind speed of 3-18 m/s, however, the bias was high for wind speed more than 20 m/s. It found that offshore mean wind speed at height of 50 m A.M.S.L. was in the range of 3.0-6.0 m/s where the middle part of Thai offshore had the highest potential with the wind speed in the rage of 7.0-10.0 m/s. The offshore wind speed had high potential during June until August due to the influence of southwest monsoon.