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This study introduced an investigation to evaluate spatial and temporal variations of the wind potential for the techno-economic feasibility analysis of the energy production in Northwest Africa (a case of Mauritania). The present research was introduced as the first attempt to appraise the spatio-temporal influence of the wind energy production in Mauritania, and particularly focused on analyzing seasonal, daily, and turbulence index on the available wind potential in this region. Data measured every 10 min over one-year period were collected from eight sites (with three different height levels) located mainly on the west coast of Mauritania, and the annual average of the wind characteristics were determined. Power density, Weibull parameters, turbulence indices, and power-law exponents were estimated based on seasonal and daily wind analyses. Comparative studies of the power density potential of the wind on different sites were also conducted while investigating the influence of seasons, height of the wind turbines, wind directional distributions, and daily characteristics. Investigations regarding the generated energy from the wind turbine and the related capacity factor were performed based on eight particular wind turbines (Ecotècnia-44, Ecotècnia-48, Nordex-N50, Neg-Micon, Vestas-V66, Power-Wind-90, Bonus-2MW, and Vestas-V90). Results showed that the power-law exponent was higher where the turbulence index was low. The analysis of the power distribution allowed concluding on the energy availability according to the influent variables. Findings of the present techno-economic analysis (for electricity generation from the planned wind energy systems) revealed that the best cost of energy (ranging from 0.0187 €/kWh to 0.0596 €/kWh) was observed for the wind turbine Ecotècnia-48 on all sites. Image 1 • Spatio-temporal variations of the wind potential were explored in Mauritania for the first time. • Wind potential for electricity generation was characterized for eight sites with three height levels. • Wind direction was more stable in the rainy season than in dry season on all sites. • Annual mean turbulence index and power law exponent showed an opposite relationship. • Techno-economic feasibility analysis revealed that the best cost of energy was 0.0187 €/kWh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study proposes an original adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system modeling approach to predict the output power of a wind turbine. The model's input includes the wind speed, turbine rotational speed, and mechanical-to-electrical power converter's temperature. The structure of the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system-based model was first identified using the processed data gathered from wind turbine number 1 of a 30-MW wind farm in Nouakchott (Mauritania). Then, the proposed data-driven model was trained and validated according to two new scenarios based on the data set from four identical wind turbines operated in the same climatic conditions and the data set from the same wind turbines operated under different climatic conditions. Benchmarking involved the proposed model, existing approaches in the literature, and five adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system-based models, including grid partition, subtractive clustering, fuzzy C-means clustering, genetic algorithm, and particle swarm optimization, on the same data set to validate their prediction performance. Compared with existing adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system-based models, the proposed approach was proven to be a promising methodology with higher accuracy for estimating the output power of wind turbines operating in different climatic conditions. According to the results from two different scenarios, the lowest value of the fitting rate and the highest values of the normalized mean square error, normalized mean absolute error, and root mean square error for the validating period were 0.9977, 0.0047, 0.0473, and 46.5831 kW, respectively. Moreover, the proposed model showed superior forecasting performance and thus better accuracy in estimating wind power output compared to other adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system-based models. [Display omitted] • Original ANFIS approach was developed for wind turbine (WT) output power prediction. • Scenarios-based validation with real data from wind farm enhanced model building. • Machine learning embedded fuzzy logic boosted the model identification strategy. • Benchmarking of existing models corroborated the superiority of preprocessed ANFIS. • Neuro-fuzzy tool accurately estimated WT output power in various climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]