TITLE:
Wind Turbine Selection and Techno-Economic Assessment of Wind Power Generation in Kassa, Guinea
AUTHORS:
Mohamed Ansoumane Camara, Kadiatou Aissatou Barry, Ouaïdou Emmanuel, Souleymane Soumah, Lamine Thiaw, Roger Marcelin Faye
KEYWORDS:
Kassa, Wind Energy, NASA POWER, ERA5, Weibull, Wind Turbine, AEP, Capacity Factor, LCOE, Techno-Economic Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Resources,
Vol.17 No.10,
October
27,
2026
ABSTRACT: This study aims to select a wind turbine suited to the wind conditions of Kassa, Guinea, and to assess its energy and techno-economic performance. NASA POWER and ERA5 wind data covering the 2020-2025 period, available at 10 m, were used to determine wind conditions at heights of 30, 50, and 100 m. Three commercial wind turbines, NPS 100C-24, EWT DW54-900, and the 2 MW ENERCON E-82 E2, were evaluated by combining their power curves with monthly Weibull distributions. The ENERCON E-82 E2 provides the highest absolute annual energy production, with an AEP of 1775.31 MWh/year for NASA POWER and 1989.60 MWh/year for ERA5, whereas the NPS 100C-24 exhibits the highest capacity factors, at 17.20% and 20.02%, respectively. The ENERCON E-82 E2 was selected for the techno-economic assessment because of its higher absolute AEP. After accounting for 10% losses, its net energy production reaches 1597.78 and 1790.64 MWh/year. The economic assessment yields LCOE values of 0.2502 and 0.2233 USD/kWh, NPVs of −2,561,884 and −2,356,009 USD, IRRs of −5.16% and −3.41%, and payback periods of 53.53 and 40.47 years, respectively. The sensitivity analysis confirms that energy production, CAPEX, and the electricity price strongly influence economic performance, but none of the scenarios investigated achieves economic viability under the conditions considered. These results demonstrate the importance of the choice of wind data source and highlight the need for in situ measurements and more detailed local economic data to strengthen the assessment of Kassa’s wind energy potential.