Identifying wind regimes near Kuwait using self-organizing maps

For a region with less-studied weather such as the Middle East, climatology becomes more vital. The Shagaya Renewable Energy Park in development in Kuwait experiences regional wind regimes that affect wind power production.

Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model output allowed investigation into the weather regimes most likely to impact Shagaya Park. The self-organizing maps (SOMs) machine-learning method clustered the WRF output into six primary weather regimes experienced by the Middle East. According to the wind regimes mapped by the SOM, two of the six regimes have average wind speeds of approximately 9.9 and 8.6 m s(-1) at 80 m near Shagaya Park, as well as wind speed and estimated wind power distributions that are more favorable to wind power production in Kuwait.