The use of small wind turbines (SWTs) is an alternative energy strategy with increasing potential for satisfying in situ electrical demands and should be studied to promote social penetration. The Valley of Mexico Metropolitan Area (VMMA) has air pollution issues that need to be addressed. This has resulted in programs for monitoring atmospheric variables, such as wind speed. By selecting and using 3 years’ worth of available data, we developed a methodology to study the technical and economic feasibility of using SWTs in the VMMA. To this end, 28 SWT models were assessed at 18 locations to estimate annual energy production. In light of certain data characteristics, an adjustment to the power production was proposed for the specific case of using SWTs. Cash flow analysis and annualized net present value (ANPV) were used to determine economic feasibility for each location; furthermore, electric home feeds in the VMMA were considered to model local economic conditions. Similar wind conditions were observed within the VMMA; however, only two wind turbine and location models provided positive ANPV values. The extra annual benefit for each project was calculated by associating the cost per mitigation of CO2 emissions, which may provide an economic strategy for promoting the penetration of this technology.

Wind speed turbulence intensity is a crucial parameter in designing the structure of wind turbines. The IEC61400 considers the Normal Turbulence Model (NTM) as a reference for fatigue load calculations for small and large wind turbines. La Ventosa is a relevant region for the development of the wind power sector in Mexico. However, in the literature, there are no studies on this important parameter in this zone. Therefore, we present an analysis of the turbulence intensity to improve the understanding of local winds and contribute to the development of reliable technical solutions. In this work, we experimentally estimate the turbulence intensity of the region and the wind shear exponent in terms of atmospheric stability to analyze the relation of these design parameters with the recommended standard for large and small wind turbines. The results showed that the atmosphere is strongly convective and stable in most of the eleven months studied. The turbulence intensity analysis showed that for a range of wind speeds between 2 and 24 m/s, some values of the variable measured were greater than those recommended by the standard, which corresponds to 388 hours of turbulence intensity being underestimated. This may lead to fatigue loads and cause structural damage to the technologies installed in the zone if they were not designed to operate in these wind speed conditions.

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