Dr. Nkongho Ayuketang, AIMS-Cameroon alumnus of the first batch has recently earned a Ph.D. in Physics. Dr. Ayuketang, the third AIMS-Cameroon alumni to have earned a Ph.D., has emerged first to earn a Ph.D. in Physics with a focus on Renewable energy at the Department of Physics, University of Buea.

Dr. Nkongho embarked on this academic journey in order to defend why a complete onshore wind farm project in Cameroon will create a more reliable, effective and clean energy resource under the topic: “COMPLETE ONSHORE WIND FARM PROJECT IN CAMEROON: MODELLING, SIMULATIONS AND COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS”.

This project delved into the successful installation and operation of an onshore wind farm that supplies cheap, reliable and affordable electrical energy to a rapidly increasing population of Cameroon’s coastal cities.

In his defense, held on 27 March 2019, Dr. Nkongho explained to the five-person-jury chaired by AIMS-Cameroon’s Centre President, Prof. Mama, Foupouagnigni, how a comparative wind resource assessment for three of Cameroon’s coastal cities namely Kribi, Douala, and Limbe was carried out. Two wind farm layout patterns were studied and compared for the purpose of minimizing the wake effect which maximizes the output power from the farm. According to the resource assessment via Weibull statistics, Kribi was found to be a better site as compared to Douala and Limbe.

He further explained that the wind speeds in all three locations were found to be very low in supporting a conventional wind turbine, hence, small wind turbines with thin airfoil at low Reynold’s number, Helical gears or a belt-drive system with small wind turbine gearboxes for low wind speed sites, were highly recommended. In order to optimize wind farm layout, numerical calculations via the Checkers layout model was found suitable over the column layout model to be used on Grand Batanga, a small locality, south of Kribi town, Cameroon.

This project is an outstanding contribution to Cameroon’s energy sector, specifically to the wind energy industry in general by identifying, designing, studying and proposing a more reliable, effective and clean energy resource to Cameroon’s policymakers.

Dr. Ayuketang acknowledged the immense financial support from the Canadian Government’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the AIMS-NEI Research Program for Africa, the financial and material assistance received from the University of Buea via the annual Presidential Excellence scholarships.

Dr. Nkongho Ayuketang is currently a teaching assistant at Polytechnic, Saint Jerome Catholic University of Douala, Cameroon. His research interests include energy transition, energy resources assessment and modeling, wind energy, and wind farms modeling, sustainability, energy policies, and economics.