Green Power Generation

1. Green Power Generation Lecture 3 Wind Power

2. Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity • At the end of 2010, worldwide nameplate capacity of wind-powered generators was 197 gigawatts (GW) • Energy production was 430 TWh, which is about 2.5% of worldwide electricity usage and has doubled in the past three years • Several countries have achieved relatively high levels of wind power penetration, such as 21% of stationary electricity production in Denmark • 18% in Portugal, • 16% in Spain, • 14% in Ireland • and 9% in Germany in 2010 • As of May 2009, 80 countries around the world are using wind power on a commercial basis

3. Large-scale wind farms are connected to the electric power transmission network; smaller facilities are used to provide electricity to isolated locations • Utility companies increasingly buy back surplus electricity produced by small domestic turbines • Wind energy, as an alternative to fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, and produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation • The construction of wind farms is not universally welcomed because of their visual impact, but any effects on the environment are generally among the least problematic of any power source • The intermittency of wind seldom creates problems when using wind power to supply a low proportion of total demand, but as the proportion rises, increased costs, a need to upgrade the grid, and a lowered ability to supplant conventional production may occur • Power management techniques such as exporting and importing power to neighboring areas or reducing demand when wind production is low, can mitigate these problems.

4. Humans have been using wind power for at least 5,500 years to propel sailboats and sailing ships. Windmills have been used for irrigation pumping and for milling grain since the 7th century AD in what is now Afghanistan, India, Iran and Pakistan • In the US, the development of the "water-pumping windmill" was the major factor in allowing the farming and ranching of vast areas otherwise devoid of readily accessible water • Windpumps contributed to the expansion of rail transport systems throughout the world, by pumping water from water wells for the steam locomotives • The multi-bladed wind turbine atop a lattice tower made of wood or steel was, for many years, a fixture of the landscape throughout rural America

5. Small wind turbines for lighting of isolated rural buildings were widespread in the first part of the 20th century • Larger units intended for connection to a distribution network were tried at several locations including Balaklava USSR in 1931 and in a 1.25 megawatt (MW) experimental unit in Vermont in 1941 • When fitted with generators and battery banks, small wind machines provided electricity to isolated farms • In July 1887, a Scottish academic, Professor James Blyth, undertook wind power experiments that culminated in a UK patent in 1891 • In the US, Charles F. Brush produced electricity using a wind powered machine, starting in the winter of 1887-1888, which powered his home and laboratory until about 1900

6. In the 1890s, the Danish scientist and inventor Poul la Cour constructed wind turbines to generate electricity, which was then used to produce hydrogen • These were the first of what was to become the modern form of wind turbine.

7. Design • A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other purposes • A wind farm may be located offshore to take advantage of strong winds blowing over the surface of an ocean or lake • As a general rule, economic wind generators require windspeed of 10 mph (16 km/h) or greater • An ideal location would have a near constant flow of non-turbulent wind throughout the year, with a minimum likelihood of sudden powerful bursts of wind.

8. Map of available wind power over the United States

9. An important factor of turbine siting is also access to local demand or transmission capacity • Usually sites are screened on the basis of a wind atlas, and validated with wind measurements • Meteorological wind data alone is usually not sufficient for accurate siting of a large wind power project • Collection of site specific data for wind speed and direction is crucial to determining site potential in order to finance the project • Local winds are often monitored for a year or more, and detailed wind maps constructed before wind generators are installed.

10. The wind blows faster at higher altitudes because of the reduced influence of drag • The increase in velocity with altitude is most dramatic near the surface and is affected by topography, surface roughness, and upwind obstacles such as trees or buildings • Typically, the increase of wind speeds with increasing height follows a wind profile power law, which predicts that wind speed rises proportionally to the seventh root of altitude • Doubling the altitude of a turbine, then, increases the expected wind speeds by 10% and the expected power by 34%.

11. The modern wind power industry began in 1979 with the serial production of wind turbines by Danish manufacturers Kuriant, Vestas, Nordtank, and Bonus • These early turbines were small by today's standards, with capacities of 20–30 kW each • Since then, they have increased greatly in size, with the Enercon E-126 capable of delivering up to 7 MW, while wind turbine production has expanded to many countries.

12. Wind is a form of solar energy • Winds are caused by the uneven heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the irregularities of the earth's surface, and rotation of the earth • Wind flow patterns are modified by the earth's terrain, bodies of water, and vegetative cover • This wind flow, or motion energy, when "harvested" by modern wind turbines, can be used to generate electricity

13. Wind Energy • The terms "wind energy" or "wind power" describe the process by which the wind is used to generate mechanical power or electricity • Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy in the wind into mechanical power • This mechanical power can be used for specific tasks (such as grinding grain or pumping water) or a generator can convert this mechanical power into electricity to power homes, businesses, schools, and the like • Wind turbines, like aircraft propeller blades, turn in the moving air and power an electric generator that supplies an electric current • Simply stated, a wind turbine is the opposite of a fan. Instead of using electricity to make wind, like a fan, wind turbines use wind to make electricity

14. The wind turns the blades, which spin a shaft, which connects to a generator and makes electricity • Modern wind turbines fall into two basic groups • The horizontal-axis variety, like the traditional farm windmills used for pumping water • The vertical-axis design, like the eggbeater-style Darrieus model, named after its French inventor • Most large modern wind turbines are horizontal-axis turbines. • Horizontal turbine components include: • Blade or rotor, which converts the energy in the wind to rotational shaft energy; • A drive train, usually including a gearbox and a generator; • A tower that supports the rotor and drive train; • Other equipment, including controls, electrical cables, ground support equipment, and interconnection equipment.

15. Wind turbines are often grouped together into a single wind power plant, also known as a wind farm, and generate bulk electrical power • Electricity from these turbines is fed into a utility grid and distributed to customers, just as with conventional power plants • Wind turbines are available in a variety of sizes, and therefore power ratings • The largest machine has blades that span more than the length of a football field, stands 20 building stories high, and produces enough electricity to power 1,400 homes • A small home-sized wind machine has rotors between 8 and 25 feet in diameter and stands upwards of 30 feet and can supply the power needs of an all-electric home or small business • Utility-scale turbines range in size from 50 to 750 kilowatts. Single small turbines, below 50 kilowatts, are used for homes, telecommunications dishes, or water pumping.

16. Wind Energy Resources in the United States • Wind energy is very abundant in many parts of the United States • Wind resources are characterized by wind-power density classes, ranging from class 1 (the lowest) to class 7 (the highest) • Good wind resources (e.g., class 3 and above, which have an average annual wind speed of at least 13 miles per hour) are found in many locations • Wind speed is a critical feature of wind resources, because the energy in wind is proportional to the cube of the wind speed • In other words, a stronger wind means a lot more power

17. Cost Issues • Even though the cost of wind power has decreased dramatically in the past 10 years, the technology requires a higher initial investment than fossil-fueled generators • Roughly 80% of the cost is the machinery, with the balance being site preparation and installation • If wind generating systems are compared with fossil-fueled systems on a "life-cycle" cost basis (counting fuel and operating expenses for the life of the generator), however, wind costs are much more competitive with other generating technologies because there is no fuel to purchase and minimal operating expenses.

18. Environmental Concerns • Although wind power plants have relatively little impact on the environment compared to fossil fuel power plants, there is some concern over the noise produced by the rotor blades, aesthetic (visual) impacts, and birds and bats having been killed (avian/bat mortality) by flying into the rotors • Most of these problems have been resolved or greatly reduced through technological development or by properly siting wind plants

19. Supply and Transport Issues • The major challenge to using wind as a source of power is that it is intermittent and does not always blow when electricity is needed • Wind cannot be stored (although wind-generated electricity can be stored, if batteries are used), and not all winds can be harnessed to meet the timing of electricity demands • Further, good wind sites are often located in remote locations far from areas of electric power demand (such as cities) • Finally, wind resource development may compete with other uses for the land, and those alternative uses may be more highly valued than electricity generation • However, wind turbines can be located on land that is also used for grazing or even farming

20. Wind Turbines • A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy • If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger • If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or pumping water, the device is called a windmill or wind pump • Developed for over a millennium, today's wind turbines are manufactured in a range of vertical and horizontal axis types • The smallest turbines are used for applications such as battery charging or auxiliary power on sailing boats; while large grid-connected arrays of turbines are becoming an increasingly large source of commercial electric power.

21. The first electricity generating wind turbine, was a battery charging machine installed in July 1887 by Scottish academic James Blyth to light his holiday home in Marykirk, Scotland • Some months later American inventor Charles F Brush built the first automatically operated wind turbine for electricity production in Cleveland, Ohio • Although Blyth's turbine was considered uneconomical in the United Kingdom electricity generation by wind turbines was more cost effective in countries with widely scattered populations • In Denmark by 1900, there were about 2500 windmills for mechanical loads such as pumps and mills, producing an estimated combined peak power of about 30 MW

22. The largest machines were on 24-metre (79 ft) towers with four-bladed 23-metre (75 ft) diameter rotors • By 1908 there were 72 wind-driven electric generators operating in the US from 5 kW to 25 kW • Around the time of World War I, American windmill makers were producing 100,000 farm windmills each year, mostly for water-pumping • By the 1930s, windmills for electricity were common on farms, mostly in the United States where distribution systems had not yet been installed. In this period, high-tensile steel was cheap, and windmills were placed atop prefabricated open steel lattice towers

23. A forerunner of modern horizontal-axis wind generators was in service at Yalta, USSR in 1931 • This was a 100 kW generator on a 30-metre (98 ft) tower, connected to the local 6.3 kV distribution system • It was reported to have an annual capacity factor of 32 per cent, not much different from current wind machines • In the fall of 1941, the first megawatt-class wind turbine was synchronized to a utility grid in Vermont • The Smith-Putnam wind turbine only ran for 1,100 hours before suffering a critical failure • The unit was not repaired because of shortage of materials during the war • The first utility grid-connected wind turbine to operate in the U.K. was built by John Brown & Company in 1951 in the Orkney Islands

24. A quantitative measure of the wind energy available at any location is called the Wind Power Density (WPD) • It is a calculation of the mean annual power available per square meter of swept area of a turbine, and is tabulated for different heights above ground • Calculation of wind power density includes the effect of wind velocity and air density • Color-coded maps are prepared for a particular area described, for example, as "Mean Annual Power Density at 50 Meters." • In the United States, the results of the above calculation are included in an index developed by the US National Renewable Energy Lab and referred to as "NREL CLASS." • The larger the WPD calculation, the higher it is rated by class. Classes range from Class 1 (200 watts/square meter or less at 50 meters altitude) to Class 7 (800 to 2000 watts/square meter) • Commercial wind farms generally are sited in Class 3 or higher areas, although isolated points in an otherwise Class 1 area may be practical to exploit

25. Types • Wind turbines can rotate about either a horizontal or a vertical axis, the former being both older and more common • The three primary types:VAWT Savonius, HAWT towered; VAWT Darrieus as they appear in operation

26. Horizontal axis • Components of a horizontal axis wind turbine (gearbox, rotor shaft and brake assembly) being lifted into position • Horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWT) have the main rotor shaft and electrical generator at the top of a tower, and must be pointed into the wind • Small turbines are pointed by a simple wind vane, while large turbines generally use a wind sensor coupled with a servo motor • Most have a gearbox, which turns the slow rotation of the blades into a quicker rotation that is more suitable to drive an electrical generator

27. Since a tower produces turbulence behind it, the turbine is usually positioned upwind of its supporting tower • Turbine blades are made stiff to prevent the blades from being pushed into the tower by high winds • Additionally, the blades are placed a considerable distance in front of the tower and are sometimes tilted forward into the wind a small amount • Downwind machines have been built, despite the problem of turbulence (mast wake), because they don't need an additional mechanism for keeping them in line with the wind, and because in high winds the blades can be allowed to bend which reduces their swept area and thus their wind resistance • Since cyclical (that is repetitive) turbulence may lead to fatigue failures, most HAWTs are of upwind design

28. Turbines used in wind farms for commercial production of electric power are usually three-bladed and pointed into the wind by computer-controlled motors • These have high tip speeds of over 320 kilometers per hour (200 mph), high efficiency, and low torque ripple, which contribute to good reliability • The blades are usually colored light gray to blend in with the clouds and range in length from 20 to 40 meters (66 to 130 ft) or more • The tubular steel towers range from 60 to 90 meters (200 to 300 ft) tall • The blades rotate at 10-22 revolutions per minute • At 22 rotations per minute the tip speed exceeds 300 feet per second (91 m/s)

29. A gear box is commonly used for stepping up the speed of the generator, although designs may also use direct drive of an annular generator • Some models operate at constant speed, but more energy can be collected by variable-speed turbines which use a solid-state power converter to interface to the transmission system • All turbines are equipped with protective features to avoid damage at high wind speeds, by feathering the blades into the wind which ceases their rotation, supplemented by brakes

30. Vertical axis design • Vertical-axis wind turbines (or VAWTs) have the main rotor shaft arranged vertically • Key advantages of this arrangement are that the turbine does not need to be pointed into the wind to be effective • This is an advantage on sites where the wind direction is highly variable, for example when integrated into buildings • the rotor prior to fabricating a prototype.

31. The key disadvantages include • The low rotational speed with the consequential higher torque and hence higher cost of the drive train, • The inherently lower power coefficient • The 360 degree rotation of the aerofoil within the wind flow during each cycle and hence the highly dynamic loading on the blade • The pulsating torque generated by some rotor designs on the drive train • The difficulty of modeling the wind flow accurately and hence the challenges of analyzing and designing

32. With a vertical axis, the generator and gearbox can be placed near the ground, hence avoiding the need of a tower and improving accessibility for maintenance. • Drawbacks of this configuration include • (i) wind speeds are lower close to the ground, so less wind energy is available for a given size turbine • (ii) wind shear is more severe close to the ground, so the rotor experiences higher loads • Air flow near the ground and other objects can create turbulent flow, which can introduce problems associated with vibration, such as noise and bearing wear which may increase the maintenance or shorten the service life • However, when a turbine is mounted on a rooftop, the building generally redirects wind over the roof and this can double the wind speed at the turbine • If the height of the rooftop mounted turbine tower is approximately 50% of the building height, this is near the optimum for maximum wind energy and minimum wind turbulence. It should be borne in mind that wind speeds within the built environment are generally much lower than at exposed rural sites

33. Darrieus wind turbine • "Eggbeater" turbines, or Darrieus turbines, were named after the French inventor, Georges Darrieus • They have good efficiency, but produce large torque ripple and cyclical stress on the tower, which contributes to poor reliability • They also generally require some external power source, or an additional Savonius rotor to start turning, because the starting torque is very low • The torque ripple is reduced by using three or more blades which results in greater solidity of the rotor • Solidity is measured by blade area divided by the rotor area • Newer Darrieus type turbines are not held up by guy-wires but have an external superstructure connected to the top bearing

34. Giromill • A subtype of Darrieus turbine with straight, as opposed to curved, blades • The cycloturbine variety has variable pitch to reduce the torque pulsation and is self-starting • The advantages of variable pitch are: • High starting torque • A wide, relatively flat torque curve; a lower blade speed ratio • A higher coefficient of performance • more efficient operation in turbulent winds • A lower blade speed ratio which lowers blade bending stresses • Straight, V, or curved blades may be used.

35. Savonius wind turbine • These are drag-type devices with two (or more) scoops that are used in anemometers, Flettner vents (commonly seen on bus and van roofs), and in some high-reliability low-efficiency power turbines • They are always self-starting if there are at least three scoops • They sometimes have long helical scoops to give a smooth torque

37. Wind turbines are designed to exploit the wind energy that exists at a location • Aerodynamic modeling is used to determine the optimum tower height, control systems, number of blades and blade shape • Wind turbines convert wind energy to electricity for distribution • Conventional horizontal axis turbines can be divided into three components • The rotor component, which is approximately 20% of the wind turbine cost, includes the blades for converting wind energy to low speed rotational energy • The generator component, which is approximately 34% of the wind turbine cost, includes the electrical generator, the control electronics, and hub) weighs 48,000 pounds (22,000 kg).

38. Most likely a gearbox (e.g. planetary gearbox, adjustable-speed drive or continuously variable transmission) component for converting the low speed incoming rotation to high speed rotation suitable for generating electricity • The structural support component, which is approximately 15% of the wind turbine cost, includes the tower and rotor yaw mechanism • A 1.5 MW wind turbine of a type frequently seen in the United States has a tower 80 meters high. The rotor assembly (blades and hub) weighs 48,000 pounds (22,000 kg) • The nacelle, which contains the generator component, weighs 115,000 pounds (52,000 kg)

39. The concrete base for the tower is constructed using 58,000 pounds (26,000 kg) of reinforcing steel and contains 250 cubic yards (190 cubic meters) of concrete. • The base is 50 feet (15 m) in diameter and 8 feet (2.4 m) thick near the center