Comparison of three methods for Weibull distribution in calculating wind energy potential

Three kinds of methods commonly used for estimating Weibull parameters were fitted to a collection of wind speed data at 10 m above ground level for the year of 2009 to determine the best distribution function which describes the wind speed variation at M'sila, Algeria site for wind energy. Three methods used the coefficient of determination R-2, root mean square error RMSE and Chi-Square chi(2) were compared with failure analysis. According to the results of failure analysis the moment method has better results than graphic method and power density method. The wind power density calculated from moment method shows a good approximation to estimate the power density. So the Weibull distribution using the moment method adequately fit the data and it is suitable for modeling the wind speed distribution in M'sila province of Algeria.