Introduction

In undertaking a GIS analysis project I chose a subject that would allow me to collaborate with dynamic people involved in an exciting field so that I could benefit from their knowledge and gain real world experience. I also wanted to try to contribute something useful in return. I decided to collaborate with the staff of blueEnergy and use the region around their operational center in Bluefields, Nicaragua as the center of the spatial analysis processes I was interested in exploring for use in wind energy evaluation. This meant that I was able to learn more about the exciting work blueEnergy is doing, benefit from the knowledge base of the international team that comprises the blueEnergy's staff, and conduct some practical analysis.

The focus of this project is the development of analysis models to examine available climatic and topographic data sets for Nicaragua and perform an initial site suitability evaluation to identify areas that offer favorable conditions for different levels of wind power development. Two different sets of parameters are used to identify sites that are suitable for commercial scale wind development as well as sites that are suitable for small scale wind turbines like the ones that blueEnergy builds. These parameters are an attempt to take into account the dramatically different requirements of commercial wind energy generation and wind power used for rural electrification.

These analysis models are based on methodology I learned from other GIS wind energy studies. The criteria used are preliminary; they constitute my best guesses for appropriate values as the first step in the development and refinement of a model. A primary goal of my analyses is to explore the ways in which data available in the Nicaragua Geospatial Tool kit available from the Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment can be used to learn about the wind energy generation potential of an area and also to identify the limitations of these data sets.