Wind Energy: Lecture Notes For Mechanical Engineering Students

Lebanese University, Faculty of Engineering
Mechanical Engineering Department
Wind Energy
Lecture Notes For

Mechanical Engineering Students
2014 - 2015
12/29/2014 Bassam Riachi 1

References
1- Renewable and Efficient Electric Power

Systems, Gilbert M. Masters
2- Wind Energy Explained, J.F.Manuel
3- Aerodynamics of Wind Turbines, Martin
4- Renewable Energy Fundamentals, Bistritski

• Wind power could generate up to 18% of the world’s
electricity by 2050, compared with 2.6% today.
• The nearly 400 gigawatts of current wind power
worldwide must increase eight- to ten-fold to achieve
the IEA roadmap’s vision.
• It sees China overtaking OECD Europe as the leading
producer of wind power by 2020 or 2025, with the
United States ranked third.
• Wind power deployment under this vision would save
up to 4.8 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions per year by 2050

Top 15 countries
by nameplate wind power capacity

Top 10 countries by wind power
electricity production [2012]

Wind energy cost
Fixed / Initial + Operating
• The cost of a wind system has two components:
initial installation costs and operating expenses.
• The initial installation cost includes the purchase
price of the complete system (including tower,
wiring, utility interconnection or battery storage
equipment, power conditioning unit, etc.) plus
delivery and installation charges, professional
fees and sales tax.

Operating costs
• Operating costs include maintenance and
service, insurance and any applicable taxes.
• A rule of thumb estimate for annual operating
expenses is 2% to 3% of the initial system cost.
• Another estimate is based on the system’s
energy production and is equivalent 1 to 2
cents per kWh of output.

Cost of installed KW
• A grid-connected residential-scale system (1-
10 kW) generally costs between $2,400 and
$3,000 per installed kilowatt.
• A medium-scale, commercial system (10-100
kW) is more cost-effective, costing between
$1,500 and $2,500 per kilowatt.
• Large-scale systems of greater than l00 kW
cost in the range of $1,000 to $2,000 per
kilowatt

Calculating the Cost Per kWh
Annual Cost = (Initial Cost/Expected Life) +

Annual Operating Costs
Wind turbine manufacturers estimate a useful
life of between 20 and 30 years for their
product.
• Cost Per kWh = Annual Cost/Annual Energy
Output

example
• Annual cost = ($100,000/25 years) +
$1,000/year = $4,000 + $1,000 = $5,000/year
• Cost per kWh = ($5,000/year)/100,000
kWh/year = $0.05 per kWh
• US cost: 2.5 – 5 cents per KWh

Cost comparison based on levelized
energy costs LEC
The LEC represents the total cost
to build and operate a new power
plant over its life divided to equal
annual payments and amortized
over expected annual electricity
generation.
It reflects all the costs including
initial capital, return on
investment, continuous operation,
fuel, and maintenance, as well as
the time required to build a plant
and its expected lifetime
Lifecycle greenhouse gas emission estimates for
electricity generators, according to Benjamin K.
Sovacool's comparison

World’s First Wind Turbine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llIbjC49Fjs

http://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/how-does-wind-turbine-work

Types of Wind Turbines

The cost of a turbine
increases roughly in
proportion to blade
diameter, but power is
proportional to
diameter squared, so
bigger machines have
proven to be more cost
effective.

ρ = f (p,T)

Impact of Tower Height
USA
Europe

• For large machines, when a blade is
at its high point, it can be exposed to
much higher wind forces than when
it is at the bottom of its arc.
• This variation in stress as the blade
moves through a complete revolution
is compounded by the impact of the
tower itself on wind speed-especially
for downwind machines, which have
a significant amount of wind
shadowing as the blades pass behind
the tower.
• The resulting flexing of a blade can
increase the noise generated by the
wind turbine and may contribute to
blade fatigue, which can ultimately
cause blade failure.

• For a given wind speed, rotor efficiency is a function of
the rate at which the rotor turns.
• If the rotor turns too slowly, the efficiency drops off
since the blades are letting too much wind pass by
unaffected.
• If the rotor turns too fast, efficiency is reduced as the
turbulence caused by one blade increasingly affects the
blade that follows.
• The usual way to illustrate rotor efficiency is to present
• it as a function of its tip-speed ratio (TSR).
• The tip-speed-ratio is the speed at which the outer tip
of the blade is moving divided by the wind speed.
A 40-m, three-bladed wind turbine produces 600 kW
at a wind speed of 14 m/s. Air density is the standard
1.225 kg/m3. Under these conditions:
a. At what rpm does the rotor turn when it operates
with a TSR of 4.0?
b. What is the tip speed of the rotor?
c. If the generator needs to turn at 1800 rpm, what
gear ratio is needed to match the rotor speed to the
generator speed?
d. What is the efficiency of the complete wind turbine
(blades, gear box, generator) under these conditions?

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Lebanese University, Faculty of Engineering

Mechanical Engineering Department

Lecture Notes For

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1- Renewable and Efficient Electric Power

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Annual Cost = (Initial Cost/Expected Life) +

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