Is it possible to harness the wind energy on a large-scale basis to generate electricity in Malaysia? Malaysia’s mean annual wind speed is low at no more than 2 m/s. Nonetheless, the wind does not blow uniformly throughout Malaysia; wind speed varies according to region and month.

Malaysia experiences two main weather seasons: southwest monsoon (May/June to September) and northeast monsoon (November to March). Wind speeds during the southwest monsoon are often below 7 m/s, but during the northeast monsoon, wind speeds could reach up to 15 m/s particularly in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Moreover, during April to September, the effects from typhoons striking neighbouring countries (such as Philippines) may cause strong winds (even exceeding 10 m/s) to Sabah and Sarawak.

So although Malaysia, as a whole, experiences low wind speeds, some areas in this country see strong winds during certain periods of the year.

I requested the wind speed data for 14 towns from all over Malaysia from the Malaysian Department of Meteorology. These data were from 1989 to 2008 (20 years), and in addition to them, I included the wind speed for Serdang, the town where my university main campus is located. For Serdang, the wind speed data were from 1985 to 2007 (23 years). All wind speeds were typically measured 2 meters above the ground.