4/7/2014 Optimising Wind Turbines

http://www.motiva.fi/myllarin_tuulivoima/windpower%20web/en/tour/design/optim.htm 1/2
Optimising Wind Turbines
Optimisation and Economics
Victoria in Southern Australia would
never have been populated in the
late 19th century, were it not f or the
water pumping windmills - and these
windmills are really optimised f or
their purpose. Photograph Soren
Krohn
1998 DWIA
The wat er pumping windmills
t o t he left look very different
from modern, large wind
t urbines. But t hey are quit e
sensibly designed for t he
purpose t hey serve: The very
solid rot or wit h many blades
means t hat t hey will be
running even at very low
wind speeds, and t hus
pumping a fair amount of
wat er all year round.
Clearly, t hey will be very inefficient at high wind speeds, and
t hey will have t o shut t hemselves down, and yaw out of t he wind
in order t o avoid damage t o t he t urbine, due t o t he very solid
rot or. But t hat does not really mat t er: We do not want t hem t o
empt y t he wells and flood t he wat er t ank during a gale.
The ideal wind t urbine design is not dict at ed by t echnology
alone, but by a combinat ion of t echnology and economics: Wind
t urbine manufact urers wish t o opt imise t heir machines, so t hat
t hey deliver elect ricit y at t he lowest possible cost per kilowat t
hour (kWh) of energy.
But manufact urers are not very concerned about how efficient ly
t hey use t he wind resource: The fuel is free, aft er all.
It is not necessarily a good idea t o maximise annual energy
product ion, if t hat means t hat one has t o build a very expensive
wind t urbine. In t he next sect ions we shall look at some of t he
choices manufact urers have t o make.
Relative Generator and Rotor Size
A small generat or, (i.e. a generat or wit h low rat ed power out put in
kW) requires less force t o t urn t han a large one. If you fit a large
wind t urbine rot or wit h a small generat or it will be producing
elect ricit y during many hours of t he year, but it will capt ure only a
small part of t he energy cont ent of t he wind at high wind speeds.
A large generat or, on t he ot her hand, will be very efficient at
high wind speeds, but unable t o t urn at low wind speeds.
Clearly, manufact urers will look at t he dist ribut ion of wind
speeds and t he energy cont ent of t he wind at different wind speeds
t o det ermine t he ideal combinat ion of t he size of t he rot or and
t he size of t he generat or at different wind t urbine sit es.
Fit t ing a wind t urbine wit h t wo (or more) generat ors can
somet imes be an advant age, but whet her it really pays t o do it
depends on t he elect ricit y price.
Tower Heights
Home
Guided tour
Wind
Turbine siting
Energy output
How does it work?
Generators
Turbine design
Load considerations
Horizontal/vertical
Upwind/downwind
No. of rotor blades
Optimising turbines
Low mechanical noise
Low aerodynamic noise
Manuf acturing
R & D
Electrical grid
Environment
Economics
History of wind energy
Wind energy manual
4/7/2014 Optimising Wind Turbines
http://www.motiva.fi/myllarin_tuulivoima/windpower%20web/en/tour/design/optim.htm 2/2
In t he sect ion on wind shear , you have learned t hat t aller t owers
generally increase a wind t urbine's energy product ion.
Once again, whet her a t aller t ower is wort h t he ext ra cost
depends bot h on t he roughness class, and t he cost of elect ricit y.
Copyright 1997-2003 Danish Wind Industry Association
Updated 10 May 2003
http://www.windpower.org/en/tour/design/optim.htm