INTRODUCTION

In 1974 Martin E Parkes published a Research Paper "The Use of Windmills in Tanzania" (through University of Dar es Salaam, Bureau of Research and Land Use Planning - BRALUP - Paper Nr 33). This contained data for 59 cup counter anemometer sites throughout Tanzania, also Beaufort data for 13 sites and Pitot Tube Anemograph data for 4 sites. These sites were to some extent duplicated, enabling some cross-checking of data sources....

In 1976 Alex Weir, who had worked beside Parkes at University of Dar es Salaam Agricultural Engineering Department in Morogoro Tanzania, got involved with Student Projects constructing prototype Wind Energy Converters. This led to him continuing the windspeed data analysis utilising Parkes' figures; this material was published as part of Weir's MPhil thesis in 1978.

In 1995, Weir cast an eye over the original report and over the thesis, and decided that there were potentially still some valuable information and techniques to be extracted from the original data.

Weir's methodology was to use computer simulation and computer graphics to analysis the data; both these techniques were effectively not available when the original work was done by Parkes and by Weir.

The findings affect not only Tanzania and the named locations within Tanzania, but are also applicable to site evaluation, windmill installation and the assessment of existing windpower sites worldwide.