Date of Award

6-1998

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Environmental Science

First Advisor

Riyad N. Bitar.

Second Advisor

Jihad M. Mohaidat

Third Advisor

Dr.A.S.Al Sharhan

Abstract

There has been an increasing world interest in clean renewable energies ( mainly radiation and wind energies ) due to the minimal environmental problems resulting from their use. The continuous depletion of conventional energy resources and the growing world concern about the environment have lead to extensive research and development efforts in order to improve the energy conversion efficiencies and economics of devices utilizing solar energy. However, it is important to identify first the potential of available energy resources in the site where renewable energy is to be utilized.

Meteorological information are critical to the assessment of the energy resources available and to the performance of many different types of renewable energy systems. Potential of the renewable energy ( radiation and wind) available is strongly influenced by climate factors such as air temperature, relative humidity, sunshine duration and natural energy supply. Solar radiation is strongly weather dependent.

In the United Arab Emirates weather conditions are monitored by meteorological stations across the country and weather data are collected by the various meteorological agencies who are running those stations. But unfortunately, not all

of these data are dependable, because most of those data are taken on recording tapes from unattended instruments with no maintenance and calibration. Therefor, in this thesis we depended on the meteorological data taken at aeronautical stations with on site observers and regular maintenance and calibration.

In the present study, the total and diffuse measured radiation as well as other meteorological data were collected from various stations. The available data of solar radiation were statistically analyzed and treated then were compared to the theoretical prediction of solar radiation using several models. Alnaser’s model was found to give the best agreement with the available data (very low percentage difference for total radiation, 1.13 %, when compared to Abu-Dhabi airport total radiation data for the period (1982-1996 ). Therefore, it is used to predict the total and diffuse radiation for other stations which have the required meteorological data. Solar map of the total radiation over United Arab Emirates was produced using the values obtained by Alnaser's model. It is concluded that solar radiation energy as a clean energy source is abundant in the United Arab Emirates with excellent prospects for future use in the photovoltaics and solar thermal applications especially in remote areas.

Hourly Abu-Dhabi wind data were collected for the period from 1991- 1996. The hourly wind data for Sharjah, AI-Ain and Fujairah airports were also collected for the year 1996. Long term wind data were obtained for selected stations. These data have been statistically analyzed, also the wind at higher altitude was found using a statistical law, an equation was used to get the maximum power that can be extracted from the wind for these stations with different sweep area

of the wind turbine blades at 10 and 50 meters height above the ground surface.

A final conclusion can not be reached regarding wind as an energy source because wind is highly effected by the local site features, and mesoscale analysis is the best method for an accurate measurement of wind speed since it is the most important parameter in wind power. In general wind energy is to some extend a promising energy source, especially over the coastal areas and at higher altitude.

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