Climate Change and Projected Impacts on Wind Speed in the State of Kuwait

The development within Kuwait of wind energy is essential to meet rising energy needs. This study aims to address a gap in the existing literature by examining the role that a changing climate is projected to have on wind speed and wind power density (WPD). This analysis will include an examination of the projected future temporal and spatial variability of wind speed and WPD. We have selected two individual locations; the first location is near expanding urban areas and the second is close to the largest renewable energy project: the Shagaya renewable energy park. This research uses near surface wind speeds from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 6 for a comparison between the historical climate (1994–2014) and the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways Scenarios (SSPs) future projections under SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 for mid- and long-term future climate estimates (2040–2060, 2080–2100). The results show that there are estimated to be pronounced changes both spatially and temporally. While there is spatial variability to the projected changes, the overall pattern suggests that future WPD is projected to decrease over Kuwait and this result will need to be considered in any plans for the development of renewable energy in the future.Keywords: Kuwaitwind energywind power densityclimate changerenewable energy Disclosure statementThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.