Revisiting some computation methods for estimating the parameters of the Weibull Distribution

To employ the wind speed measurements to determine the wind power potential of sites by way of computation methods to: 1) appraise the wind data to detect outliers (that is, spurious or distrustful values) that have the potential to degrade the quality of the data; and 2) obtain generic data information utilizing statistical procedures, such as the wind rose and Weibull distribution parameters of the wind in a specific time period. The study revisits some computation methods for estimating the parameters of the Weibull distribution of the wind and thereby assess the potential for generating electricity from wind for a site. Computation methods for estimating the parameters of the Weibull Distribution namely: 1) the graphical method; 2) the linear least square method; 3) the maximum likelihood estimation; and 4) the methods of moments: are presented and discussed. A meaningful example on applying the preceding computation methods on how to compute the Weibull distribution parameters from a wind speed time series data for a specific time period is presented. The statistical computations and analysis for estimating the parameters of the Weibull Distribution were conducted using MATLAB. The boxplot was used to examine the example data for outliers (that is, unusual observations that are far removed from the mass of data).