scholarly journals Current State and Future Prospective of Repowering Wind Turbines: An Economic Analysis

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 3048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clemens Fuchs ◽  
Joachim Kasten ◽  
Maxi Vent
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Stock Prices ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
The United States ◽  
Present Value ◽  
Onshore Wind ◽  
Current State

For over two decades, the construction of wind turbines in Germany has been supported by guaranteed feed-in tariffs determined by the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), the primary goal of which is climate protection, in addition to reducing the country’s dependence on the import of (finitely available) fossil fuels. After China and the United States, Germany ranks third worldwide in the production of wind energy. The number of onshore wind turbines in Germany has risen to approximately 30,000 plants, of which approximately 10,000 wind turbines will fall out of the guaranteed EEG funding window in the next one to two years. There are basically two alternatives for these wind turbines: either continuing operations, with the sale of electricity at relatively low and fluctuating electricity stock prices, or repowering, which opens access to the fixed feed-in tariffs for another 20 years. However, repowering has the disadvantages that an approval process must be carried out and the investor must participate in a tender. There is no guarantee for the granting of a building permit; economically feasible operations also depend on the fact that one can win a contract without the submitted price being set too low. This area of tension is illustrated by a wind farm in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and analysed economically. The investment in new, more efficient, and larger wind turbines currently promises a high return. The profitability of the investment in wind turbines is determined using the net present value (NPV) method. In addition, a risk analysis is carried out using stochastic simulation. As a result, the feed-in tariff contributes to over 95% of the variance in the net present value (NPV).

Arena-Based Modeling of the Maintenance Operation for a Wind Farm

2013 ◽  
Vol 401-403 ◽  
pp. 2205-2208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huai Zhong Li ◽  
Tong Jing ◽  
Hong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Discrete Event ◽  
Onshore Wind ◽  
Electric System ◽  
System A ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Event Model ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Discrete Event Model

Wind energy has become a leading developing direction in electric power. The high cost associated with turbine maintenance is a key challenging issue in wind farm operation as wind turbines are hard-to access for inspection and repair. Analysis of an onshore wind farm is carried out in this paper in terms of the operation, failure, and maintenance. Failures are categorized into three classes according to the downtime. It is found that the pitch, gearbox and generator have the most amount of downtime, while the most number of failures is from the pitch and electric system. A discrete-event model is developed by using Arena to simulate the operation, failure occurrence, and maintenance of the wind turbines, with an aim to determine the main factors influencing maintenance costs and the availability of the turbines in the wind farm.

scholarly journals Plasma Assisted Combustion as a Cost-Effective Way for Balancing of Intermittent Sources: Techno-Economic Assessment for 200 MWel Power Unit

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (19) ◽  
pp. 5056
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Mączka ◽  
Halina Pawlak-Kruczek ◽  
Lukasz Niedzwiecki ◽  
Edward Ziaja ◽  
Artur Chorążyczewski
Keyword(s):  
Power Unit ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Economic Assessment ◽  
Marginal Effect ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Present Value ◽  
Plasma System ◽  
Value Analysis

Due to the increasing installed power of the intermittent renewable energy sources in the European Union, increasing the operation flexibility of the generating units in the system is necessary. This is particularly important for systems with relatively large installed power of wind and solar. Plasma technologies can be used for that purpose. Nonetheless, the wide implementation of such technology should be economically justified. This paper shows that the use of plasma systems for increasing the flexibility of power units can be economically feasible, based on the results of a net present value analysis. The cost of the installation itself had a marginal effect on the results of the net present value analysis. Based on the performed analysis, the ability to lower the technical minimum of the power unit and the relationship between such a technical minimum and the installed power of a plasma system can be considered decisive factors influencing the economics of the investment for such an installation. Further research on better means of prediction of the minimum attainable load, which would allow determining the influence of implementation of a plasma system, is recommended. This will be the decisive factor behind future decisions regarding investing in such systems.

scholarly journals Impact of Economic Indicators on the Integrated Design of Wind Turbine Systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianghai Wu ◽  
Tongguang Wang ◽  
Long Wang ◽  
Ning Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Integrated Design ◽  
Aerodynamic Performance ◽  
System Level ◽  
Blade Length

This article presents a framework to integrate and optimize the design of large-scale wind turbines. Annual energy production, load analysis, the structural design of components and the wind farm operation model are coupled to perform a system-level nonlinear optimization. As well as the commonly used design objective levelized cost of energy (LCoE), key metrics of engineering economics such as net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR) and the discounted payback time (DPT) are calculated and used as design objectives, respectively. The results show that IRR and DPT have the same effect as LCoE since they all lead to minimization of the ratio of the capital expenditure to the energy production. Meanwhile, the optimization for NPV tends to maximize the margin between incomes and costs. These two types of economic metrics provide the minimal blade length and maximal blade length of an optimal blade for a target wind turbine at a given wind farm. The turbine properties with respect to the blade length and tower height are also examined. The blade obtained with economic optimization objectives has a much larger relative thickness and smaller chord distributions than that obtained for high aerodynamic performance design. Furthermore, the use of cost control objectives in optimization is crucial in improving the economic efficiency of wind turbines and sacrificing some aerodynamic performance can bring significant reductions in design loads and turbine costs.

scholarly journals Economic perspective of hybrid wind-diesel technology for commercial loads of Dhahran Saudi Arabia: A step towards sustainable future

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-178
Author(s):  
S.M. Shaahid
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Hybrid Systems ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Residential Buildings ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Commercial Building

The governments world-wide are deliberating to promote renewable energy sources such as wind to mitigate increasing demand of energy and to overcome effects of pollution due to to use of fossil fuels. Integration of wind turbine generators (WTG) with the diesel plants is pursued widely to reduce dependence on fossil-fuels and to reduce carbon emissions. Literature indicates that commercial/residential buildings in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (K.S.A) consume an estimated 10 - 40% of the total electric energy generated. The aim of this study is to analyze wind-speed data of Dhahran (East-Coast, K.S.A.) to assess the economic feasibility of utilizing hybrid wind-diesel power systems to meet the load requirements of a typical commercial building (with annual electrical energy demand of 620,000 kWh). The monthly average wind speeds range from 3.3 to 5.6 m/s. The hybrid systems simulated consist of different combinations of 100 kW commercial WTG supplemented with diesel generators. NREL?s (HOMER Energy?s) HOMER software has been employed to perform the techno-economic analysis. The simulation results indicate that for a hybrid system comprising of 100 kW wind capacity together with 175 kW diesel system, the wind penetration (at 37 m hub-height, with 0% annual capacity shortage) is 25%. The cost of generating energy (COE, $/kWh) from this hybrid wind-diesel system has been found to be 0.121 $/kWh (assuming diesel fuel price of 0.1$/liter). The study exhibits that for a given hybrid configuration, the number of operational hours of diesel gensets decreases with increase in wind farm capacity. Emphasis has also been placed on wind penetration, un-met load, energy production and COE, excess electricity generation, percentage fuel savings and reduction in carbon emissions (relative to diesel-only situation) of different hybrid systems, cost break-down of wind-diesel systems, COE of different hybrid systems, etc.

Cost Performance Tradeoff Study of Power Generation From Wind

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Navid Goudarzi ◽  
Alex Pavlak
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
The United States ◽  
Wind Load ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
Gas System ◽  
One Year ◽  
Natural Gas System

Health and environmental consequences of conventional fossil fuels are drawing more interest in expanding the use of renewable energy sources. The primary challenges in supplying the required electricity from wind are the variability, uncertainty, and the cost of electric power generation. An earlier paper presented the results of a system concept tradeoff using one-year wind/load data from Pennsylvania New Jersey Maryland Interconnection LLC (PJM). While one year results showed a wind plus natural gas system can reduce CO2 emission as much as 50% below that of an all-natural gas system with only a modest increase in system cost, typical power generation modeling extends to three years. In this work, the developed model is employed to estimate the magnitude of cost versus performance using three-year wind/load data at PJM in the United States and EirGrid in Ireland, and cost estimations published by the Energy Information Agency. The year to year variation at each region is studied and compared with each other. Also, the curtailment curve obtained from three years wind/load data is compared with that from one year to access the variance. The grid-scale storage parameter variations are studied to estimate the generation cost with storage as a function of emission levels.

scholarly journals From Megawatts to Kilowatts: A Review of Small Wind Turbine Applications, Lessons From The US to Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caio Cesar Moreira Chagas ◽  
Marcio Giannini Pereira ◽  
Luiz Pinguelli Rosa ◽  
Neilton Fidelis da Silva ◽  
Marcos Aurélio Vasconcelos Freitas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Power Grids ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Low Carbon Economy

Increased use of fossil fuels has contributed to global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions, which has led countries to implement policies that favor the gradual replacement of their use with renewable energy sources. Wind expansion in Brazil is a success story, but its adherence to distributed generation is still a big challenge. In this context, the authors of this paper argue that the development of robust and viable distributed power grids will also depend in the future on improving small wind generation as an important alternative to the diversity of decentralized power grids. In this study, the authors present an overview of the small-sized Aeolic (or wind) energy market in Brazil, with the objective to support the debate regarding its expansion. Promoting the small wind market in Brazil is still a big challenge, but lessons can be learned from the United States. In this context, the article uses the United States learning curve, analyzing barriers that were found, as well as public policies implemented to overcome them. The lessons learned in the American market may guide public policies aimed at fostering this technology in Brazil. If technological improvements, certification and introduction of financial incentives were implemented in Brazil, the small wind industry chain could grow substantially, building a trajectory to promote the low carbon economy.

Flow Simulation Around a Rim-Driven Wind Turbine and in Its Wake

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan E. Kaiser ◽  
Svetlana V. Poroseva ◽  
Michael A. Snider ◽  
Rob O. Hovsapian ◽  
Erick Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Flow Simulation ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Sensitivity Study ◽  
Onshore Wind ◽  
Flow Simulations ◽  
Turbine Design ◽  
The Impact

A relatively high free stream wind velocity is required for conventional horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) to generate power. This requirement significantly limits the area of land for viable onshore wind farm locations. To expand a potential for wind power generation and an area suitable for onshore wind farms, new wind turbine designs capable of wind energy harvesting at low wind speeds are currently in development. The aerodynamic characteristics of such wind turbines are notably different from industrial standards. The optimal wind farm layout for such turbines is also unknown. Accurate and reliable simulations of a flow around and behind a new wind turbine design should be conducted prior constructing a wind farm to determine optimal spacing of turbines on the farm. However, computations are expensive even for a flow around a single turbine. The goal of the current study is to determine a set of simulation parameters that allows one to conduct accurate and reliable simulations at a reasonable cost of computations. For this purpose, a sensitivity study on how the parameters variation influences the results of simulations is conducted. Specifically, the impact of a grid refinement, grid stretching, grid cell shape, and a choice of a turbulent model on the results of simulation of a flow around a mid-sized Rim Driven Wind Turbine (U.S. Patent 7399162) and in its near wake is analyzed. This wind turbine design was developed by Keuka Energy LLC. Since industry relies on commercial software for conducting flow simulations, STAR-CCM+ software [1] was used in our study. A choice of a turbulence model was made based on the results from our previous sensitivity study of flow simulations over a rotating disk [2].

Acoustic Study of REpower MM92 Wind Turbines During Exploitation

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maciej Kłaczyński ◽  
Tadeusz Wszołek
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Force Measurement ◽  
Power Level ◽  
Sound Power ◽  
Acoustic Study ◽  
Current State ◽  
Sound Power Level ◽  
Measurement Methodology ◽  
Full Power

Abstract The paper presents the current state of knowledge concerning the sources of noise generated by wind turbines, force measurement methodology, and assessment of noise onerousness in this type of installation, on the basis of a study concerning a wind farm with five REpower MM92 wind turbines and the electric power of 2 MW and the sound power level of 104.2 dB(A) each. Particular attention was focused on the often discussed problem of presence of infrasound generated by turbines and on the requirements of the applicable reference methodologies for the measurement of wind speed to 5 m/s, while the turbine reaches its full power at speeds above 10 m/s.

scholarly journals Development of new strategies for optimized structural monitoring of wind farms: description of the experimental field

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
João Pacheco ◽  
Silvina Guimarães ◽  
Carlos Moutinho ◽  
Miguel Marques ◽  
José Carlos Matos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbines ◽  
Wind Farm ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Structural Condition ◽  
Strain Gages ◽  
Onshore Wind ◽  
Experimental Campaign ◽  
Monitoring Strategies ◽  
Initial Results ◽  
New Strategies

Abstract. The main goal of the recently started WindFarmSHM research project is the development, validation and optimization of monitoring strategies to be applied at the level of the wind farm, which should be able to evaluate the structural condition of a set of wind turbines and their consumed fatigue life, using the response to operation loads. In this context, a quite extensive experimental campaign is being performed in Tocha wind farm, an onshore wind farm located in Portugal, which includes the simultaneous instrumentation of several wind turbines adoting strain gages, clinometers and accelerometers distributed in the tower and blades. This paper introduces the Tocha wind farm, presents the different layouts adopted in the instrumentation of the wind turbines and shows some initial results from the already fully instrumented wind turbine. At this preliminary stage, the capabilities of the very extensive monitoring layout will be demonstrated and it will be evaluated the ability of the different monitoring components to track the modal parameters of the system composed by tower and rotor.

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