Wind Power Potential in Nepal

Dipak

As media started highlighting news about Dhaubadi,  a village in Nawalparashi (which is said to be the first renewable village of Nepal), I was filled with keen interest in finding the existing wind power potential and its current state. Therefore, this post is a continuation of my previous article on Energy situation in Nepal where I am trying to accumulate whole bunch of fact about wind power potential(WPP) in case of Nepal.

Nepal being the land of top eight highest peak in the world, is also a home of diverse terrain and geographical structure. Its holds elevation from 59m to 8848m and host deepest valley in the world. With its diverse terrain, Nepal possesses huge potential in wide variety of resources. This post tries to uncover some of its potential in wind power generation.

There are very less study and references available about the WPP of Nepal and those which are available are quit old, however, let’s starts with some of those available facts. The available document shows that, the formost study regarding WPP was conducted jointly by the Center for Energy (IOE) and UNEP in 2003 initiated by Alternative Energy Promotion Center within the Ministry of Energy.It showed that the total potential area of wind power in Nepal is about 6074 sq. km and receives 18hrs of winds everyday with two windy days a week. Study further highlighted that, Nepal could harness total electricity of 3000 MW from the wind, provided that power plant with minimum capacity of 5MW is installed per square kilometer. Kathmandu valley alone could produce 70 MW and Kagbeni could have 700MW. However, as this estimation was done only from10% WPP area analysis and study itself is 13 years old, there is no doubt that the total capacity could dramatically change if all potential areas is fully analysed and estimation is based on current technology and trend. I have tried to accumulate some information regarding the existing power plant (wind),which is shown below, but it seems that this data needs to be revised and details has to be reconsidered as some of these plant are already unfunctional. 

Wind Power Plants in Nepal (*needs update – Source : Nepali Times)

  • Solar-wind hybrid system in Pyuthan, 400W
  • Wind power plant in Pyuthan, 1.5KW,
  • 23 wind turbines across the country, 200-600W capacity each, (Including plants of Nawalparashi)
  • 10 turbines in Nagarkot, 1KW each,
  • Wind turbines in Kathmandu Engineering College and Lakhuri Bhanjyang, 2KW and 1.5KW,

Wind Power Measuring Station Details

Although data presented here are relatively old (I was not able to access the latest data 🙁 ), but it provides the major wind power data collection sites throughout the country. There are 29 such sites provided by the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, 2007. (Will be updated as soon as new data are publicly available)

Further Readings