The Namche Conference: May 24-26, 2003 People, Park, and Mountain Ecotourism Participants and Presentations: Mr. Joseph Oswald Wenisch

Mr. Joseph Oswald Wenisch (Kathmandu, Nepal) Student, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA; and Tribhuvan University, Kathmand, Nepal; email: jozzyw@alum.mit.edu Abstract Electricity from the Wind in Nepal: An Economic Feasibility Study Using HOMER Software Various efforts have been made in Nepal over the past two decades to harness the power from the wind for small-scale electric power generation. Though Nepal’s natural solar and hydro resources are more widespread, for particular regions and applications the utilization of the wind resource may still be the most economical option. Because of past technical failures of this technology and poor characterization of the wind resource throughout Nepal, however, wind technology is still absent from the Nepalese landscape. This paper identifies several potential applications of wind turbine generators in Nepal and assesses their life-cycle costs using a software package called HOMER (The Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables) developed at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado-USA. The wind turbine generators are analyzed in both standalone and hybrid configurations and their economic feasibility is compared with other conventional and renewable energy generators such as photovoltaics, micro-hydro turbines, and combustion engines.

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