Wind Resource Assessment for the Pacific Island Countries - Tonga Islands

The paper presents an overview of the wind resource assessments carried out in Tonga Islands in the South Pacific region. The assessment was carried out in the mainland Tongatapu. The mean wind speed at 34m AGL of the Tongatapu site is analyzed as 4.5m/s and 4.54 m/s, respectively and the mean speed at 20m AGL is analyzed to be 3.63m/s and 3.45m/s respectively. The prevailing wind direction recorded for both the NRG 34m towers is south-east, which corresponds to the south-east trade winds. The WAsP analysis indicates a low wind speed regime. keywords: USP, Tonga, wind resource assessment, monitoring, mapping, Tongatapu