Using Weibull and Rayleigh distrubitions in the investigation of wind energy potential

The usage of wind energy that is one of the renewable energy sources shows an increase in the last years. Many countries in the world prefer wind energy for the reason of its domestic, continuous and clean energy source, it has no raw material cost, it decreases the foreign dependency and it has a fast tribune setting up process. There are various encouragement applications in the world about if wind energy can able to be an alternative for fossil fuels and can compete with it. Along with those encouragement applications, both an industry depending on wind energy is formed and its usability becomes prevalent. In this study, the characteristics of wind energy, the status of wind energy in the world and in Turkey, wind turbines and generators, and statistically analysis of the wind energy potential were investigated. As a case study, wind energy potential of İskenderun, Elazığ, Bursa, Karaman, Sinop, Muğla ve Adıyaman cities in Turkey were analyzed statistically, based on the hourly measured data by Directorate of State Meteorological Station in 2005-2014 years. Key Words: Wind energy, wind energy applications, statistically analysis of the wind energy potential