scholarly journals Wind Energy Implementation to Mitigate Wildfire Risk and Preemptive Blackouts

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2421
Author(s):  
Francisco Haces-Fernandez

Damages caused by wildfires in California due to transmission line failures have increased significantly in recent years. Curtailment of electric service in areas under fire threat has been implemented to avoid these wildfires. Results from this research indicated that 24% of California’s cities are at risk of wildfire, while 52% are at risk of blackout. These blackouts have resulted in significant financial losses and risk to life and health. Undergrounding current transmission lines has been proposed as a long-term solution. However, undergrounding lines would take decades to complete and increase average monthly electric bills from $80 to $260. This research investigated shortening the length of the electricity supply chain, supplying affected communities with onshore and offshore wind energy. Results showed good wind energy potential in locations near affected cities. Distance analyses revealed that more than two hundred cities (population 5.5 million) can be served by existing wind farms located at less than 50 km. Future offshore wind turbines could generate high power output (capacity factor >50% for significant periods). An analysis of diverse locations along California’s coast indicated that just one offshore wind farm could serve more than a hundred cities with cumulative population larger than one million.

Vestnik MEI ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 35-46
Author(s):  
Galina V. Deryugina ◽  
◽  
Evgeniy V. Ignatiev ◽  
Myat Tun Htet ◽  
Mikhail G. Tyagunov ◽  
...  

Nowadays, one of pressing problems in Myanmar is shortage of electric energy, which makes approximately 10% of all electric energy consumed in the country. This shortage can be partially decreased by constructing large-capacity grid-connected wind farms. The last four years have seen a general decline in the growth rates of commissioned wind farm capacities around the world; nonetheless, certain wind energy industry sectors, primarily offshore wind energy, demonstrate a steady growth. In recent years, the market of Asian countries, in particular, that of China, is one of the most rapidly growing offshore wind energy markets. An updated theoretical wind energy potential of Myanmar is given. It is shown that the highest wind intensity is observed on the western and southern coasts of Myanmar, which make approximately 8% of the country’s total area. The theoretical wind energy potential of the Andaman Sea water area near the west coast of Myanmar at heights equal to 10 and 100 m has been evaluated for the first time; eight promising sites for constructing offshore wind farms have been determined, and a model for analyzing efficient wind farms has been selected. A procedure has been developed, using which the optimal composition of a complex of several wind farms with the total capacity equal to 47.6 MW has been found. These wind farms are located at significant distances from each other in Andaman Sea areas, which are characterized by an essentially non-uniform distribution in time of wind intensities in them. Owing to this feature, it is possible to increase the energy generation by 8% and achieve a higher wind farm capacity utilization factor.


2021 ◽  
pp. 0309524X2110438
Author(s):  
Carlos Méndez ◽  
Yusuf Bicer

The present study analyzes the wind energy potential of Qatar, by generating a wind atlas and a Wind Power Density map for the entire country based on ERA-5 data with over 41 years of measurements. Moreover, the wind speeds’ frequency and direction are analyzed using wind recurrence, Weibull, and wind rose plots. Furthermore, the best location to install a wind farm is selected. The results indicate that, at 100 m height, the mean wind speed fluctuates between 5.6054 and 6.5257 m/s. Similarly, the Wind Power Density results reflect values between 149.46 and 335.06 W/m2. Furthermore, a wind farm located in the selected location can generate about 59.7437, 90.4414, and 113.5075 GWh/y electricity by employing Gamesa G97/2000, GE Energy 2.75-120, and Senvion 3.4M140 wind turbines, respectively. Also, these wind farms can save approximately 22,110.80, 17,617.63, and 11,637.84 tons of CO2 emissions annually.


2020 ◽  
pp. 0309524X2092539
Author(s):  
Mohamed Elgabiri ◽  
Diane Palmer ◽  
Hanan Al Buflasa ◽  
Murray Thomson

Current global commitments to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases encourage national targets for renewable generation. Due to its small land mass, offshore wind could help Bahrain to fulfil its obligations. However, no scoping study has been carried out yet. The methodology presented here addresses this research need. It employs analytical hierarchy process and pairwise comparison methods in a geographical information systems environment. Publicly available land use, infrastructure and transport data are used to exclude areas unsuitable for development due to physical and safety constraints. Meteorological and oceanic opportunities are ranked and then competing uses are analyzed to deliver optimal sites for wind farms. The potential annual wind energy yield is calculated by dividing the sum of optimal areas by a suitable turbine footprint to deliver maximum turbine number. In total, 10 favourable wind farm areas were identified in Bahrain’s territorial waters, representing about 4% of the total maritime area, and capable of supplying 2.68 TWh/year of wind energy or almost 10% of the Kingdom’s annual electricity consumption. Detailed maps of potential sites for offshore wind construction are provided in the article, giving an initial plan for installation in these locations.


Author(s):  
Diane Palmer ◽  
Mohamed Elgabiri ◽  
Hanan Al Buflasa ◽  
Murray Thomson

Current global commitments to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases encourage national targets for renewable generation. Due to its small land mass, offshore wind could help Bahrain to fulfill its obligations. However, no scoping study has yet been carried out. The methodology presented here addresses this research need. It employs Analytical Hierarchy Process and pairwise comparison methods in a Geographical Information Systems environment. Publicly available land use, infrastructure and transport data are used to exclude areas unsuitable for development due to physical and safety constraints. Meteorological and oceanic opportunities are ranked, then competing uses are analyzed to deliver optimal sites for wind farms. The potential annual wind energy yield is calculated by dividing the sum of optimal areas by a suitable turbine footprint, to deliver maximum turbine number. Ten favourable wind farm areas were identified in Bahrain’s territorial waters, representing about 4% of the total maritime area, and capable of supplying 2.68 TWh/yr of wind energy or almost 10% of the Kingdom’s annual electricity consumption. Detailed maps of potential sites for offshore wind construction are provided in the paper, giving an initial plan for installation in these locations.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Platon Patlakas ◽  
Christos Stathopoulos ◽  
Ariadni Gavriil ◽  
George Galanis ◽  
George Kallos

<p>Wind energy investments have met a quick growth during the last decades due to the stricter climate policies, the need for energy independence and the higher profits coming from the smaller costs of such applications. Moreover the evolution of technology leads to the characterization of more areas as suitable for energy applications. Offshore wind farms are a nice example of how to build bigger, more efficient and resistant in extreme conditions wind power plants.</p><p>The present work is focused on the determination of the suitability of an offshore marine area for the development of wind farm structures. More specifically the region of interest is the marine area on the south of France including the Gulf of Leon. For the needs of the study a 10-year database, produced employing state of the art atmospheric and wave models, is utilized. The wind and wave parameters used, have a spatial resolution of 6 km and a frequency of one hour.</p><p>Wind speed and power probability distribution characteristics are discussed in different heights throughout the domain. Particular locations are selected for a more comprehensive analysis. At the same time extreme wind and wave conditions and their 50-years return period are analyzed and used to define the safety level of the wind farms structural characteristics. The outcome could lead to a review of the area suitability for wind farm development, providing a new tool for technical/research teams and decision makers.</p>


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 2357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Farkas ◽  
Nastia Degiuli ◽  
Ivana Martić

The European Union is a leading patron for the introduction of renewable energy, having set a target that renewable sources will represent at least 27% of total energy consumption by the year 2030. Presently, the most significant Croatian renewable resource is hydropower, which is presently at its peak and will not develop further because of limited hydro resources. Therefore, the share of electricity generation from onshore wind farms in Croatia during in recent years has grown significantly. However, as the Croatian government has already made most of the concessions for possible locations of wind farms, the aim of the present study is to evaluate a different renewable energy resource, wave energy. An assessment of the offshore wave energy potential in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea is performed using data taken from WorldWaves atlas (WWA). WWA is based on satellite measurements, validated against buoy measurements and reanalysed by numerical wave modelling. This assessment was done for seven locations, and mean yearly energy is calculated for two offshore wave energy converters. Capacity factors were calculated for annual as well as for seasonal levels, and it was concluded that the bulk of the energy would be generated in autumn and winter. The most probable extreme significant wave height was determined at the investigated locations as well. Furthermore, the offshore wind energy potential was evaluated and compared to the wave energy potential.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 531
Author(s):  
Florin Onea ◽  
Eugen Rusu ◽  
Liliana Rusu

The European offshore wind market is continuously expanding. This means that, together with significant technological developments, new coastal environments should be considered for the implementation of the wind farms, as is the case of the Black Sea, which is targeted in the present work. From this perspective, an overview of the wind energy potential in the Romanian exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Black Sea is presented in this work. This is made by analyzing a total of 20 years of wind data (corresponding to the time interval 2000–2019) coming from different sources, which include ERA5 reanalysis data and satellite measurements. Furthermore, a direct comparison between these datasets was also carried out. Finally, the results of the present work indicate that the Romanian offshore areas can replicate the success reported by the onshore wind projects, of which we can mention the Fantanele-Cogealac wind farm with an operating capacity of 600 MW.


10.6036/9957 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 290-295
Author(s):  
JUAN JOSE CARTELLE BARROS ◽  
MANUEL LARA COIRA ◽  
MARIA DEL PILAR DE LA CRUZ LOPEZ ◽  
ALFREDO DEL CAÑO GOCHI

Wind energy is among the renewables that have grown the fastest in recent times. Since it can be considered as a notably clean and sustainable alternative, this trend is likely to continue in the years to come. In particular, offshore wind energy has received an increasing amount of attention for two main reasons: i) its high energy potential and ii) the difficulty certain countries experience in finding suitable terrain for new onshore wind farms. For this reason, the Spanish Coast is seen as a promising area in terms of its offshore wind energy potential. The first step in planning offshore wind farms is to carry out a thorough characterisation of the wind resource. For the first time, this paper addresses how the Spanish Coast potential- both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean- can be assessed through seven probability distributions (the Weibull, Rayleigh, Nakagami, Gamma, Normal, Lognormal and Inverse Gaussian). These distributions are then compared in terms of six different metrics. The results show that the Weibull, Rayleigh and Nakagami are usually the best options. A 10-MW wind turbine was used to estimate the yearly average production. The Galician coast obtained the highest-performing results, although certain Mediterranean areas also achieved acceptable values. Keywords: Offshore wind energy; Sustainable energy systems; Spanish Coast; Wind speed; Probability distribution; 10-MW turbine


Energy ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 555-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ki-Yong Oh ◽  
Ji-Young Kim ◽  
Jae-Kyung Lee ◽  
Moo-Sung Ryu ◽  
Jun-Shin Lee

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