**2. Chicamocha's canyon wind energy characterization**

The Chicamocha's canyon national park, known as "PANACHI", monitor constantly the wind velocity at the canyon to control the cableway safety installed at the location. The administration of the park provided to [1] research the historical data from the year 2009 up to 2012. The wind velocity magnitude is characterized at three different locations: the two highest points of the location ("Mesa de Los Santos" and "PANACHI") and the river point.

The wind energy potential of the canyon is analyzed by using the mass conservation principle Eq. (1):

$$\frac{dm}{dt} = \rho \ast A \ast U \tag{1}$$

where ρ is the air density, U the velocity and A is the swept area. Then, the wind energy potential, *P*, can be expressed as kinetic energy per time unit as Eq. (2):

$$\frac{P}{A} = \frac{1}{2} \ast \rho \ast U^3 \tag{2}$$

Manwell et al. [5] establishes how significant the wind energy potential is at a selected location (**Table 1**).

The annual average wind speed and wind power density of the three locations are shown in **Table 2**. Garcia Rodriguez et al. [1] concludes that the suitable VAWT location is at Chicamocha's river due to its high wind speed, 6.9 m½ � *=*s , and the critical point is found at "Mesa de Los Santos" location.



*Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Design and Installation at Chicamocha Canyon DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.99374*

**Table 2.**

*Wind power potential at Chicamocha's canyon [1].*

**Figure 1.** *Aerodynamics nomenclature [5].*
