THE WIND ENERGY POTENTIAL OF GOKCEADA IN THE NORTHERN AEGEAN SEA

Wind data collected over a period of three years at four different loc ations in Gokceada were evaluated to estimate the potential of wind en ergy in the north-western part of Turkey. The data From the selected s tations were used to estimate the regional mean wind speed distributio n of Gokceada, which revealed that four distinct regions exist with va lues from 1.0 to 4.0;4.1 to 6.0, 6.1 to 8.0 and greater than 8.1 m/s. For each station, an extensive analysis was carried out to find the mo nthly average wind speed and its distribution. Several types of probab ilistic distribution were matched to these distributions including the Weibull distribution. It was observed that one third of the island en joys annual wind speeds greater than 6.0 m/s. This potential can be co nverted to electrical energy by means of wind farms, and the energy ex tracted from this source may supply electricity to the island and a sm all part of the mainland.