Potential of wind energy and economic assessment in Egypt considering optimal hub height by equilibrium optimizer

In Egypt, the wind market increases quickly to make it one of the top countries in the Middle East. This study discusses the viability of wind resources and the economic assessment for four locations in Egypt: Ras El-Hekma, Farafra, Nuweiba, and Aswan through two stages. In the first stage, the optimal hub height for some wind turbines has been calculated by using Equilibrium Optimizer (EO) algorithm to achieve maximum wind energy with overall minimum cost. The second stage, the economic assessment has been evaluated by using such turbines to calculate the cost of energy (COE) compared to the global and Egyptian production costs of wind energy. Developed MATLAB programs are applied for statistical analysis of wind data. The results have shown that Ras El-Hekma's average wind speed is higher than other sites and its wind energy potential is the best. Moreover, the economic assessment for selected locations turns out that Ras El-Hekma by using EWT-DW61/22 turbine has the lowest COE. (C) 2022 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University.