WIND ENERGY

Vladimir A. Dobrovolski,
Wind Energy Department of Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), Director, Molinos Co. Ltd.,
Moscow, Russian Federation
Keywords: Wind, Wind speed, Wind power, Wind wheel, Wind mill, Water pumping, Sail,
Blade, Horizontal axis, Vertical axis, Darrieus rotor, Flettner rotor, Power coefficient, Betz
coefficient, Torque, Tip ratio, Pitch, Stall, Generator
Contents
1. History of Wind Application
2. Wind Energy for Electrical Power Production
3. Trends and Prospects of Wind Power Application for Vessels Propulsion.
4. Wind Turbine Technology
5. Hybrid Systems
6. Environmental Aspects
7. Legal Aspects
8. Economics of Wind Systems
9. International and National Activity
Related Chapters
Glossary
Bibliography
Biographical Sketch
Summary
This Article reviews both historical and modern technical development of wind turbines all
over the world for obtaining electrical and mechanical energy and the trends and prospects of
the wind power application for the propulsion of vessels. Aspects of modern wind turbine
technology, are briefly described also as fundamental theory of the transformation of energy
of moving air into mechanical or electrical energy, wind turbine generator system classes,
control systems tower types and offshore installation, stand-alone and hybrid systems,
turbines for water pumping and heating, batteries, environmental and legal aspects, economics
of wind energy systems, international and national activity and so on. The Article is addressed
to a wide audience, including students, engineers and scientists, researchers, manufacturers
and anyone else who is interested to acquire basic knowledge about wind energy technology.
1. History of Wind Power Application
Man began to use the wind power alongside with solar energy, heat of fire and power of
animals millennia ago. The exact historical date when and where the first wind mills or first
sails, have appeared is unknown. It is possible to consider, that certain wind mills for grains
grinding and water pumping or sails for sea navigation have appeared in most developed at
those times countries (Egypt, China, Persia a. o.).
Within centuries the sails were constantly perfecting, that resulting in development of
floating transportation means, increasing the sizes of vessels, their carrying capacity and
buoyancy. The modern changes of sails will be considered below.

Within the passage of time there was perfection of the originally primitive aerodynamics of
wind mills, that increased their reliability, strength and productivity. Originally in the wind
mills the wind wheel was installed on a fixed frame of a cylindrical or polygonal plane shape
made from bricks or wood, and the wind wheel was set in that direction, whence the wind
blows more often. Then to increase operating time and accordingly productivity of the device
the miller started to turn the whole frame together with the wind wheel installed on it. Such
turn was made manually with help of a driving rod, by means of which the miller could put
the frame and hence the wind wheel in the wind direction. Protection from high winds was
accomplished by turning the rotor out of the wind or by removal the canvas, which covered
the rotor latticework.
With increase of power the sizes of wind wheels and grindstones have grown, the mills
became bulky and so heavy, that the turn of the frame with a wind wheel, fixed on it, became
rather inconvenient. Therefore the following stage of the development was turning only the
upper part of the installation, in which the main shaft with wind wheel, transmission, rotary
circle and drive rod were located. The mills of this type were supposed to use wind wheels of
large diameters and the power up to 3-5 kW were reached. Further in all countries the mills
only of this type (with turn of a top of a mill) were under construction. The design of the mills
of this type has served as prototype for modern fast rotating wind turbines.
Technological development, for example, necessity to supply air for smelting furnaces,
operation blacksmith bellows and heavy blacksmith hammers, sawmills etc. constantly put
before power engineering new tasks of increase of power, reliability of power supply systems,
both convenience of maintenance and servicing of the equipment. Therefore alongside with
development of wind engines, further development and perfection have received water
wheels, their history by its roots retreating also deep in the past of mankind.
The significance of water wheels and wind engines began to reduce after the invention of the
steam machines in the middle of the 18th century, which were quickly improved and were
distributed in all areas of human activity.
The steam engine in comparison with water and wind engines had that advantage that could
produce large power in a period of time, convenient for a consumer. Its operation did not
depend on the weather conditions that is on the presence of wind, or water in the river.
Therefore application of wind mills and water engines became restricted to limited areas of
production activity as, for example, in agriculture, where a great many wind and water
engines for pumping water for livestock and watering of vegetable cultures are still used even
now.
In the mid of the 19th century the need of creation of wind engines for water pumping became
evident. In that period the development of the American West begun on large areas of fertile
soils however with water supply strata located rather deep under the ground surface.
Development of railways in western direction also promoted development and design of
advanced wind engines called the American Multiblade wind turbine. Wind engines of this
type had a high torque and adequate efficiency and suited very well for pumping water from
small depths. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century several millions of such
wind engines were constructed in different countries. Wind engines of this type are
successfully used till now in a number of countries for water pumping .
At the end of the 19th century a significant breakthrough in power production was achieved the invention of an internal-combustion engine working on petroleum or products of its

processing. It can be said that the invention and use of the internal-combustion engines
literally lashed the rates of development and advance of the human society. The internalcombustion engine - compact, powerful, mobile, reliable, easy to maintain, has pushed aside
on a background the steam machine, as well as the wind and water engines. It is possible to
say, that from the invention of an internal-combustion engine a new era began in the history of
the mankind
era of struggle for petroleum markets.
Despite of the prevailing significance of internal-combustion engine the conventional
activities on perfecting the wind and water engines were constantly conducted in some
countries such as Germany, USA and Russia. This was promoted by a number of factors and,
first of all by the very large industrial experience of designing of wind mills and wind engines
for water pumping which was accumulated in the world, and also by the fact that for some
kinds of activities, especially in agriculture, in some countries application of the wind engines
was economically more expedient than use of other power sources.
Generally speaking, at the beginning of the 20th century wind power was used all over the
world to produce mechanical work by means of hundreds of thousands of multiblade wind
engines.
2. Wind Energy for Electrical Power Production
At that time in Denmark a wind engine for electricity production was constructed with of a
rotor diameter of 24 m. These activities in Denmark were continued and rather soon there
were several hundreds wind power stations with capacities of 5 to 25 kW.
At the same time manufacturing of wind engines for electric power generation well existed in
some other countries, in particular, in USA. The wind engines had rotors with 2 or 3 blades.
Such wind engines have been manufactured by firms Windcharger (200 W to 1.2 kW) and
Jacobs (1.5 to 3 kW). These wind engines belong to a class of chargers and were intended to
charge electric storage batteries. In turn the effective load of the battery could be bulbs,
wireless, refrigerators, low consumption electric tools etc., for which operation direct current
of 12 or 110 V was used. The success in elaboration of electric generators, which could be
coupled with the wind engines, provided for creation of the wind power plants. However, the
cost of the electric power delivered by centrally powered systems was much lower than the
cost of the electric power produced by wind engines. This has hampered the development of
wind engines and in a number of cases led to termination of their manufacturing.
This was also the time of rapid development of military and civil aviation. Many problems of
aerodynamics, dynamics and strength of flying vehicles have been solved. The achievements
of aircraft aerodynamics have allowed the scientists to consider from the new scientific
positions the theory of an air wing and operation of wind engines in a ram airflow and to
create fundamentals of the theory of fast-rotating wind turbines with low number of blades.
Between the years 1920 and 1925 the Russian Professor Nickolai Zhoukovski has elaborated
the theory of a wind engine, which further was wide spread to practical use. At the same time
in Germany the theory of wind engines was developed and experimental research carried out
by Ludvig Prandtl and Albert Betz. In the USA research of wind engines aerodynamics was
conducted by Professor Karman.
In the 30th and 40th years of the 20th century in Germany, Russia, Denmark and Netherlands
development of wind power plants with improved aerodynamics began, totaling to some
thousands kW. However the world was not yet ready by technical, economic and ecological

reasons for large-scale deployment of such installations and was compelled to go on a path of
development of fossil fuel power systems.
The large fuel and energy monopolies consistently expanded electrical networks, using
conventional techniques of electric power production based upon petroleum, coal, hydro
resources of large rivers and rather jealously reacted to the attempts of use of nonconventional power resources such as the wind, sun, biomass, tidal energy etc.
Nevertheless at that time development of wind engines and the appropriate research work did
not stop in some countries. So, in 1933, in the USSR in Crimea near Sevastopol city on the
Black Sea coast a wind power system of 100 kW capacity was installed. For that time it was
the most powerful wind power plant in the world supplying power to the electrical grid.
In 1941 on Grandpa's Knob, near Rutland, Vermont, USA a grid connected wind mill with
output power of 1250 kW was constructed (Palmer Coslett Putnam was head of the team).
The machine had a 34 m high tower and two stainless steel blades, which spanned 53 m. This
wind mill worked in parallel with a hydroelectric power station. When the wind speed was
sufficient the necessary power was produced by the wind power plant thus decreasing
consumption of water by the hydro plant. In case of absence of the wind the consumers were
provided with electricity from the hydroelectric power station. This wind generator worked
through 1941 to 1945 and then was disassembled for economic and technical reasons (bearing
and blade failures). In spite of this the whole project was determined as successful.
Similar research activities were conducted also in Denmark and Germany. In Denmark the
grid connected Gedser wind turbine was constructed in 1957. This machine produced 200 kW
at 15 m s-1 wind speed. The wind turbine had a 26 m high tower and a 24 m in diameter wind
wheel.
In 1957 in Germany a wind turbine was constructed (Ulrich Hutter was head of the team) with
power of 100 kW at 8 m s -1 wind speed. The wind turbine had a 35 m rotor diameter and was
in successful experimental operation for about 11 years.
The above mentioned isolated successes in development of wind power had not show much
progress prior to the advent of the global energy crisis in the 70th and 80th. The world came
to the conclusion that the era of cheap oil is over and that time had come to boost intensive
search for and development of other power sources besides oil and gas.
An obvious solution to manage the new situation could be augmented use of coal and nuclear
power. However environmental concerns hamper increase of coal utilization. There are also
strong public objections against nuclear power, which emerged at that time.
Therefore the energy crisis has resulted in a new stage in development of renewable energy
sources and in particular wind power.
The work on creation of large wind turbines was initiated in the USA at the beginning of the
80th. In 1974 the MOD-O downwind horizontal-shaft machine with a two-blade rotor of 38 m
diameter and rated power of 100 kW has entered in experimental operation. The rotor and the
nacelle were placed at top of four-legged steel truss tower about 30 m high. The next machine
was named MOD-OA and had a rated power of 200 kW. The machines MOD-1 and MOD-2
had respectively 200 and 300 kW power.

In the same period of time an extensive development program for wind turbines was initiated
in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The rated power of
planned wind mill units was in the range of some hundreds to several thousands kW.
2. 1. Horizontal and Vertical Axis Wind Turbines
Alongside with the horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWT) in a number of countries the
research works were aimed on vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) and the construction works
begun.
The HAWT while operating should be oriented in the wind direction, and for large machines
this is a significant technical problem. A HAWT with a rotor placed in front of the tower (the
upwind machine) should be equipped with sophisticated systems for adjusting the wind mill
axis and the whole nacelle in the desired direction, and for costly tracking systems
(electromechanical or hydraulic).
The wind turbine with a rotor placed behind the tower (downwind system) does not require
such control systems but it experiences constantly varied mechanical loads on the rotor
blades, when they move in the turbulent wake behind the tower. Such loads result in blades
vibration, which should be taken into account at designing the blades, and this usually results
in weight increase of a blade and increase of the production cost. The vibration of blades is
further transmitted to the tower of the wind engine, and its designer also should take that into
account.
Designs of VAWT show great variety. Two types of the wind turbines with vertical axis most
known are the Savonious rotor and the Darrieus rotor (see General Characteristics and
Meteorology of Wind ).
The Savonious rotor consists of two vertical half cylinders displaced from, but remaining
parallel to the axis of rotation. The wind engine with Savonious rotor does not need an
external starting device and at the presence of some wind speed begins its rotation
independently. However this rotor has no protection against high wind speeds. The Savonious
rotor produces large torque and is applied in cases, when rather small power is needed, as for
example for rising water from small depths. It can be also used for starting of the Darrieus
rotor (see below), which has no ability of independent start.
Another type of VAWT is represented by the Darrieus rotor. It consists of two flat foils and
has no ability of independent start at any wind speed. The start is usually executed by means
of an inductive motor from the electricity of a local network. The same inductive motor is
used as a generator when the rotor catches wind and begins to move autonomous.
The Darrieus rotor was patented in the United States by G.J. M. Darrieus in 1931. In the early
70th activities devoted to creation of wind turbines with the Darrieus rotor were continued in
a number of countries, in particular in Canada, Denmark, Netherlands and the USA.
The VAWT advantages are the following: simplified construction of the rotor and electric
generator, since this heavy equipment can be placed at the ground level; ease of maintenance
and no need for expensive towers; independence of changes in wind direction, since its entire
rotor area is always exposed to the wind; its blades do not require pitch control.
A disadvantage is that VAWTs produce high-level vibrations, which considerably shorten the
life of their bearings and reduce aerodynamic efficiency.

The Darrieus rotor can effectively be used for development of wind engines up to some
thousands kW of power. It was proven by actual construction of a 4 MW wind engine with a
Darrieus rotor. The wind engine is more than 96 m tall and has 64 m in diameter. This
machine has been erected in the Province of Quebec in Canada.
2.2.Wind Machines Mode of Operation
At the end of the 20th century intensive development of wind generators working with
electrical grids, as well as constructed for autonomous use and hybrid wind
solar
and wind
diesel power systems was marked all over the world.
According to the forecasts at the beginning of the 21st century further development of
the wind power will allow a number of countries (Denmark, United Kingdom, Germany,
USA, Netherlands a.o.) to generate substantial amount of energy with the help of wind
turbines.
3. Trends and Prospects of Wind Power Application for Vessels Propulsion
Development of sailing navigation i.e. use of wind energy for propulsion of vessels is also an
important area of wind energy use. On the sailboats of the past the wind was a sole power
source for vessels motion. Perfection of sails was directed to achieve increasing carrying
capacity, speed and controllability of the vessels. From the middle of the 19th century sailing
propulsion began to decline and sailboats were step by step supplanted by steamers and later
on by ships propulsed with internal-combustion engines. Nowadays the application of sails or
their modern versions on vessels is directed to the maximum possible fuel economy, reduction
of the operation time of the main engine, as well as decrease of noise level. So, for example,
for the fishing boats one of the main economic parameters is the ratio of the fuel consumption
to the weight of the fish (and accordingly cost - efficiency). Obviously, one of paths for
operating cost reduction is lowering consumption of fuel by using sails for propulsion of a
vessel. It also enables to reduce time of reaching the fishing area by increasing the speed of a
ship.
The second advent of sails is now supported by a number of factors, among them: success in
the progress of aerodynamics, instrumental and computer facilities, development of light and
strong fabrics, and invention of easily automated sailing arms design.
As a whole it is counted up, the fuel economy from application of sailing arms makes not less
than 10-20 % or even 80 % for different types of vessels, and in a number of cases the pay
back time for the sails installation is less, than one year.
In use of the wind power on marine some directions have been selected. The first one is
application of wind energy installations with conventional schemes of sailing arms (or other
wind devices) as the main or auxiliary propulsion system.
The vessels with conventional sails are typical for the beginning of the 20th century and are
represented by large sailing vessels. Among them are industrial, training and research ships.
The other direction incorporates sailing vessels with wind systems as auxiliary propulsion
devices.
On modern vessels using sailing arms the soft, semi rigid and rigid sails are applied. The light
sails are used of both slanting, and rectangular shape. The basic research works concern the

methods and devices increasing the lift force of sails and methods of erection and dismantling
of the sails and their safety systems.
The rigid sails of one type have (wing or close to it in a plane) form (airfoils or multi-element
vertical wings), selected in accordance with the specifics of the activity (capability of change
of the sail area, its rotation against the wind, stability variations of a vessel, icing etc.) under
the conditions of marine operation in the wind speed ranging from a still air to a strong storm.
The basic research works on rigid sailing arms concentrate on principal schemes of the wind
engines, jacking up and rotary mechanism and control systems of sails.
3.1. Flettner Rotor for Ship Propulsion
Another type of a ship propulsion device using the wind power for motion of a vessel is the A.
Flettner rotor, which operation is based on a phenomenon, known since 1853 as the Magnus
effect. According to the Magnus effect, when airflow sweeps a rotating cylinder with an axis
perpendicular to the air flow, a force originates which is perpendicular both to the air flow and
to the rotation axis.
The German engineer A. Flettner at the beginning of the 20th century used the Magnus effect
for a ship propulsion system, which was named the Flettner rotor. The Flettner rotor consists
of a rigid cylinder installed vertically on the upper deck of a ship and rotated by an auxiliary
engine. During the rotation of the rotor at the expense of friction at the rotor surface there
occurs a distortion of speed of a ram airflow. On the part of the rotor surface, where the
direction of airflow velocity and the circumference velocity of the cylinder coincide there is
an increase of airflow velocity and hence decrease of static pressure on the cylinder. On the
part of the rotor surface, where the both velocities are opposite to one another the airflow is
decelerated and hence there will be created a zone with increased static pressure.
The arising pressure difference on the rotor surface results in a transversal force acting at the
rotor, which is used for motion of the vessel. Experiments performed with Flettner rotors
installed on a number of ships have confirmed existence of large aerodynamic forces on small
area sales under a broad band of wind angles and substantial growth of the vessel speed
accompanied by reduced consumption of fuel by the main power plant.
Operation of a Flettner rotor needs an external source of energy to support the rotation. This
draw back was partly eliminated in the turbo sail designed by French scientists J.Y. Cousteau
and L. Malavard. The turbo sail consists of a rigid non-rotating cylinder of elliptical crosssection narrowing upward, which can be positioned at any angle to the wind. Alongside the
cylinder in its narrowed part slots are provided. A set of moving grills inside the cylinder is
provided which can cover certain slots, or some part or them. On top of the cylinder a fan is
installed which drives air into the cylinder and pushes it out through the opened slots thus
securing circulation of air around the cylinder and its interaction with the wind. By
streamlining the airflow around the cylinder the turbo sail creates a controllable horizontally
directed lift or thrust moving the vessel in the desired direction.
There exist also a number of combinations of various types of the wind engines for sailing, for
example, Flettner rotor and direct sailing arms.
3.2. Wind Power Driving the Ship Propelling Screws

Application of wind turbines for producing electric power to drive the vessels propellingscrews was also studied. Generally the wind energy can be converted into mechanical energy,
which can be used to drive propelling-screws or directly for obtaining the thrust.
Developments of marine vessels with sailing arms or based on various methods of wind
energy harnessing are being conducted in Japan, the USA, Germany, United Kingdom,
France, Italy, Sweden, Bulgaria, Poland and other countries.
4. Wind Turbine Technology
Fundamental theory of conversion of moving air energy into mechanical or electrical energy
shows that there are some limits, which determine the value of energy, which can be derived
from an airflow, and some rules of rotor design, by means of which the energy can be
extracted from an airflow.
The airflow behavior when interacting with the wind turbine is subject to the basic laws of
physics, in particular to Bernoulli equation. According to these laws in front of the rotor the
flow decelerates while the air pressure is rising. By interaction of the flow with the blades of
the wind turbine and while crossing the blades rotation plane the flow transfers a part of its
energy to the wind wheel that results in further decrease of the speed. Behind the wheel the
flow becomes vortex type and turbulent and is characterized by lowered both speed and
pressure, than in a ram airflow. The value of pressure and speed alterations is determined by
the wind engine parameters
its size, shape, ability to convert the wind power into
electrical or mechanical energy, characteristics of actuators, which work with the wind engine.
The trailing flow turbulence causes disturbance of the flow behind the rotor and gradual
recovery of the air pressure and wind speed in the ambient flow to initial values.
Obviously, there should be some limit in the value of energy, which can be extracted by a
wind engine from the wind flow, for if all the flow energy would be extracted, the flow
velocity after the wind wheel should become zero and the flow should stop motion. The
airflow should have a reserve of kinetic energy to leave the wind rotor and this is possible
only if not much more than half of energy of a ram airflow has been extracted. The fraction of
the energy taken by the wind wheel from the airflow is determined as factor Cp, which is
called power coefficient of the wind wheel.
4.1. Aerodynamics of the Wind Wheel
It is supposed in the simplified theory of a wind wheel that while passing through it the lines
of the air flow do not interrupt; the wheel is substituted by a thin permeable disc; interacting
with the disc the airflow transmit to it part of its energy; as a result both the flow pressure and
its momentum decrease. For greater details about the fundamentals of the theory of the wind
wheels (see Fundamentals of Energy Extraction from Wind ).
The calculations show, that for an optimal system the power density P (the power per 1 m2 of
the area swept by the wind mill rotor), which can be extracted from an airflow is determined
by the following equation derived by Carl Betz in 1927:

(1)
where: Pmax ,W- maximum power of the windmill; P, W m-2 - power density; At, m2 -swept
area of the turbine; V0, m s-1- upstream free wind speed; , kg m-3 - ambient air density.
Factor 0,593 is known as Betz limit or Betz coefficient, which is actually the maximum
theoretical value of power coefficient Cp for an ideal (without any aerodynamic losses) wind
turbine.
In practice the value of Cp first of all depends on a type of wind turbine, shape of its blades
and quality of their manufacturing, and also from other factors.
The second dominant and fundamental wind turbine design parameter is the tip speed ratio.
The ratio of the tip speed of a wind turbine blade to the wind speed producing it defined as

where m, s-1 - the rotor angular velocity; rm, m - the maximum radius of the rotating blade
tip.
Typical values lie between 0,75 and 20 the latter quite seldom. Currently it is accepted that
in general the optimum value is about 8 for horizontal shaft machines and 3 to 4 for vertical
shaft machines, but many other factors can influence this decision, in particular, the size of the
wind turbine, number of blades, etc.
For Darrieus type wind turbines rm is the measured at rotor mid-height distance from the rotor
axis to the blade. For inclining blade wind turbines rm is the distance from the axis to the
blades as measured with the blades upright.
For the best fast-running turbines, which have from one to four blades with an airfoil cross
section Cp = 0.42-0.46. It means, that only 42-46 % of wind flow energy can be transformed
into mechanical energy. For slow rotating turbines with 4 up to 24 and more blades the Cp
value can be in the range from 0.27 up to 0.33.
The coefficient Cp is valid for any power installation with a moving liquid or gas with free
borders. For more details about the relation between power coefficient Cp and tip speed ratio
(see Fundamentals of Energy Extraction from Wind ).
Here are presented qualitative considerations, which explain the influence of the tip speed
ratio upon the power coefficient Cp. In case, when the rotational speed of a rotor is small, a
part of the wind flow passes through the rotor plane without interaction with its blades. At
optimum rotational speed the total flow interacts with the rotor and the power coefficient Cp
reaches its maximum values. At very large rotational speed the blades move so fast, that each
blade gets in a wake generated by the previous blade, the wind flow in the wake is intensively
perturbed and its energy dissipates.

The power of a wind turbine for different diameters of rotors at different speeds of a wind can
be calculated by the formula

,W

(2)

where A, m2 is the area swept by the rotor.

Thus the power on the working shaft of a wind turbine is equal to
Ps = P0 m
where m is the mechanical transmission efficiency (usually about 0.8).
According to formula (2) there is a cubic relation between the wind mill power and the wind
speed. To expand the wind speed range, at which the wind turbine can function save, it is
necessary to provide certain measures. The different types of turbines react differently to wind
speed change. Drag types turbines (see Fundamentals of Energy Extraction from Wind ) with slow
rotation and large torque are less sensitive to changes of wind speed, than fast-running
turbines, using lift forces of blades.
4.2. Types of Electrical Generators Used With Wind Mills
The power on the working shaft of the turbine can be used to drive a mechanical machine or
an electrical generator.
In regions, removed from grids, wind turbines usually work with a DC generator for charging
a bank of batteries, which in turn supply power to household appliances. Other loads include
remote communication equipment, cathode protection for buried pipelines, space heating,
domestic hot-water heating units, water pumping and so on. An inverter can be used to invert
the DC battery voltage to AC if needed.
The vast majority of wind turbines built in the past have been used for non-electrical
application. As it was mentioned earlier water pumping and grain grinding were classical
applications of wind power.
Nowadays large wind mills are grid connected and either use induction or synchronous
generators directly switched to the grid, or variable frequency alternators connected to the
grid by a power conditioning unit including rectifier and inverter. The utility grid can smooth
down the inevitable fluctuations of wind power caused by wind speed changes.
4.3. Wind Turbine Generator System Classes
The external conditions to be considered in design are dependent on the intended site or site
type for a wind turbine generator system (WTGS) installation. WTGS classes are defined in
terms of wind speed and turbulence parameters. The intention of the classes is to cover most
applications. The values of wind speed and turbulence parameters are representing the
characteristic values of many different sites. Table 1 specifies some basic parameters, which
define the WTGS classes.
In cases where a special design (e.g. special wind conditions or other external conditions or a
special safety class is necessary), a further WTGS class, class S, is defined. The design values

for the WTGS class S shall be chosen by the designer and specified in the design
documentation. For such special designs, the values chosen for the design conditions shall
reflect a more severe environment than anticipated for the use of the WTGS.
The particular external conditions of offshore installations require WTGS class S design.
Table 1. Some basic parameters for WTGS classes
To get electrical output from wind turbines some types of electrical generators are used. A
synchronous generator is a constant-speed generator producing constant-frequency alternating
current (AC) and operating independently of an external power source. An induction
generator can either be a variable-speed generator with a variable frequency or a constantspeed generator (constant frequency) but requires an external power source in either case.
The synchronous generator allows independent control of voltage and reactive power, and
must operate at fixed speed corresponding to the coupled network frequency in order to
transmit power to the grid. This normally necessitates a variable pitch turbine so that transient
torque can be adjusted to the generator load.
An induction generator is cheaper, simpler and more reliable than a synchronous generator,
but it relies upon the grid for excitation.
4.4. Control Systems
Some methods are used in case when it is necessary to change the turbine torque and rotation
speed when the wind speed is changing. For example, turbine control may be organized by
varying the pitch of the whole blade. This means that as soon as the turbine produces rated
power, the blades are feathered in order to maintain the power output at this level with
increasing wind speed.
Another method to control the turbine torque is to use blades with fixed pitch, so that power
increases smoothly with wind speed until it reaches some limiting value as the blades stall
(see Fundamentals of Energy Extraction from Wind ). At still higher wind speeds the drag
associated with fully stalled airfoil sections actually reduces the net power output. The
advantage of this method of control is simplicity and more reliable blade design. The
disadvantage is a higher rated power resulting in higher transmission and generator costs.
4.5. Tower Type
Onshore towers may be made from reinforced concrete, lattice steel and tubular steel, guyed
or unguyed. For many countries there is need and possibility to use offshore installation of
wind turbines. Advantages of offshore installation of wind turbines in comparison with
onshore are economy of land sites, elimination of local noise problem, microwave and TV
disturbance, increasing safety aspects in the case of blade loss and shedding of ice and snow.
Disadvantages are the ship navigation and fishing industry interference.The range of possible
towers and platforms design is very wide:
(a) Seabed fixed platforms are rigidly fixed to the seabed by their own weight or by pinning;
(b) Floating platforms float partly immersed and they are anchored to the seabed;
(c) Tension leg platforms, where the buoyancy force exceeds the weight so that the platforms
are restrained by tension in the moorings.
4.6. Power Transmission from Sea to Shore

There are several methods of power transmission - hydraulic, electricity or hydrogen gas line:
(a) Electrolysis of water producing hydrogen and oxygen is expensive and has low production
and reconversion efficiency. Its advantages are lower transmission losses and the possibility
of storage;
(b) Electrical systems with overhead cables are simple but may cause shipping hazard so that
submerged transmission cables would be preferable. DC or AC transmission is possible;
(c) Hydraulic transmission of power is transmission of high-pressure liquids to drive the
onshore hydraulic machines
4.7. Stand-alone Systems
Stand-alone systems are wind power systems which operate independently of the utility grid.
There are many possible loads for stand-alone power systems and the most important load is
water pumping with a piston pump or electrical one with use of electrical motors.
Other loads include remote communication equipment, cathodic protection for buried
pipelines, space heating, domestic hot water heating units, electrical water pumping and
charging of a bank of batteries which in turn supplies power to house hold appliances.
Pumps operating on wind energy can be broadly divided into two major categories, the
dynamic and displacement. Energy is continuously added to a dynamic pump and periodically
added to a displacement pump. Wind mills for mechanical water pumping are usually
multiblade and have rotors diameters of 2 to 5 m.
For these stand-alone application, not only the average wind speed is important, but also the
number of consecutive hours or days without wind. Water storage tanks must be sized so that
storage is adequate for the longest calm period that would be expected. The turbine and pump
must then be able to refill the storage perhaps during one day while water is still being
withdrawn.
For small water capacities mainly piston pumps are used. Larger-capacity pumps are usually
centrifugal with submerged electric motors.
4.8. Turbines for Water Heating
Wind electrical generators can be used to produce electricity for operating resistance heaters.
But instead of it, it may be more economical to heat the water directly by mechanical means.
To heat the water or air a paddle wheel heater can be used. A paddle wheel heater is basically
a cylindrical insulated tank with baffles fixed at its inner wall and paddles on a rotating
impeller.
4.9. Batteries
Most stand-alone wind electric systems are equipped with lead-acid or alkaline batteries as
energy storage to level out the mismatch between the availability of the wind turbine power
output and the load requirements. Batteries used in the small energy power stations are
expensive, have a relatively short life time and need periodic maintenance.
Batteries are also used by electric utilities to level out demand variations. They are charged
during off-peak demand periods and discharged at peak load times. The advantage of the
battery storage system is that it has minimal environment impact and do not need cooling
water.

There are some different types of batteries. In common use in wind/solar power stations
usually are lead-acid, lead-antimony and lead calcium batteries. The best batteries for
autonomous power systems are marine trolling batteries (number of charge-discharge cycles
100-200), golf cart batteries (300-500), mining batteries (500-700) and lift truck-batteries
(1500-2000).
5. Hybrid Systems
In isolated or island communities some times hybrid power systems such as wind-PV; winddiesel or wind-small hydro may be of great interest.
In the case of a hybrid wind-diesel power station the wind generated electricity would be used
first to save fuel, so that the consumption of expensive oil and gas would be decreased when
the wind is blowing.
Hybridization provides for maximum use of the climatic features. For example, the wind is
usual blowing with large intensity within spring, winter and autumn, whereas its intensity is
decreases during a summer period. The solar battery on the contrary works with smaller
efficiency when there is not enough sun light (autumn, spring and winter), and works well
during summer time. Thus, hybrid power station allows to avoid the drawback of renewable
energy sources - their inconstancy.
6. Environmental Aspects
Wind energy is safe, non-polluting and does not deplete the world's nonrenewable energy
resources. In windy countries it can occur to be the cheapest method of generating electricity.
Nevertheless there are some environmental issues that hamper large-scale deployment of wind
installations.
The most important environmental concerns of wind turbine operation are safety levels in the
vicinity of a wind mill, noise, damage to birds, electromagnetic interference and public
acceptability.
Extensive researches about influence of WTGS on the environment, which were conducted in
many countries, field experience gained from operation of hundreds thousand of WTGS,
show, that such influence (safety and visual impact) do exist, however their importance is
sometime exaggerated. The possible problems are well enough investigated and in many cases
it is clear how to avoid or decrease the possible impact of wind energy on the environment.
7. Legal Aspects
For WTGS an unimpeded supply of wind is important. The ideal way achieve this is to own
all the land surrounding the installation or to purchase of " wind rights " (in the USA) over
adjoining land. The meaning of this is that nothing could be built or grown that would have
deleterious effect on the airflow over the land referred to. The " wind rights " is a recognition
of a land owner's right that sun and air (wind) could be considered in the same way as other
natural (minerals) resources.
8. Economics of Wind Systems

Talking about economics of wind energy use it is necessary to assess the capital cost of the
installation and operating cost for WTGS and finally to calculate the levelized cost of
electricity.
For an electric utility the value of wind generated electricity is determined by saving of
conventional fuel and by its capacity credit. When the wind is blowing less fossil fuel is
needed to be burned, which represents savings to the utility. Also, if the utility is able to
abstain installing some new conventional generation as a result of adding wind machines, this
represents additional saving to the utility.
The cost of electricity in remote locations is some time by a factor of 4-6 greater than the cost
enjoyed by people in developed countries with central coal and nuclear electric generating
plants. The actual amount of energy consumed per person is not large, so the cost of
electricity can be relatively high and still be acceptable.
The problem is that the cost of installed kW for wind mills is rather high, transportation of the
equipment to remote regions and assembling it on those sites, lack of trained people there are
adding a significant amount of money to be invested. As a result the villages are left in
poverty and hopelessness. City slums are perceived to be a better place to live, with massive
migrations of people. The country becomes unstable as this process continues. It can be
argued that having this in mind the real costs to a developing country and even to the world
community of nations is greater if these basic energy needs are not met than if they are met.
An improving standard of living in the rural areas would relieve a great deal of human misery
and also improve the political stability of the world. As I.H. Usmani, Senior Energy Advisor,
United Nations Environmental Programmer, once said: These villagers must have energy,
not at a price, but at any price.
9. International and National Activity
In 1973 the oil price increased and many nations understood that the supplies of oil and gas
are limited and there was an urgent need to explore the potential of the renewable energy
sources. Some international and national organizations have been created to support
international and national efforts aimed on development of wind energy conversion system.
The most notable of them are the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and the
European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). There are some national wind energy
associations in many counties. For example, the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA),
which was founded in 1978 and since that time has acted as a focal point for UK activity in
the wind energy field. It is recognized as the professional association for engineers and
scientists active in wind energy.
The meeting organized by the AWEA, EWEA and national associations have provided
invaluable opportunities for those active in wind energy to exchange information and ideas.
Proceedings of the meetings are very valuable information for researchers, scientists,
manufacturing industry and public people.
An important role in the wind energy development belongs to the International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). It is a worldwide organization for standardization
comprising all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of
the IEC is to promote international cooperation on all questions concerning standardization in
the electrical and electronic fields. To this end in addition to other activities, the IEC
published International Standards. Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees: any
IEC National Committee interested in the subject may participate in this work. International,

governmental and non-governmental organizations have links with the IEC and also
participate in this preparation. The IEC collaborates closely with the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined between the
two organizations. The IEC has established a technical committee " Wind turbine system ",
which in its turn has organized some working groups. Between them are groups: acoustic
noise measurement techniques, power performance measurement techniques, safety of wind
turbine generator systems, testing of rotor blades, certification procedures, power quality,
mechanical load measurements, safety of small wind turbines.
Related Chapters
Click Here To View The Related Chapters
Glossary
AC
: Alternating current
Betz coefficient: = 0.593 Maximum power coefficient of the wind wheel
Cp
: Power coefficient of the wind wheel.
DC
: Direct current
HAWT
: Horizontal-axis wind turbines
VAWT
: Vertical-axis wind turbines
WTGS
: Wind turbine generator system
Bibliography
International Standard. IEC 61400-1, Second Edition (1999). Wind turbine generator systems. Part 1. Safety
requirements
Johnson Gary L.. (1998). Wind Energy Systems, Prentice
[a description of wind farms and systems is presented]

Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N. J. 07632.

Lipman N.H., Musgrove P.J., Pontin G W-W. (1982). Wind Energy for the Eighties. Peter Peregrinus Ltd, [an
overview of modern wind installations is given]
WMO
N 575. Meteorological Aspects of the utilization of Wind as an Energy Source. [influence of
meteorological conditions upon wind mills performance is discussed]
Wind Energy Information (1996). Guide, US Department of Energy. April 1996.

Biographical Sketch
Professor Vladimir A. Dobrovolsky, Ph.D. was born in Moscow, Russia in 1936. He graduated from Moscow
Aviation Institute in 1960 and Ph. D. Degree in 1968.
1960-1963 - test engineer, the USSR Civil Aviation
1963-1970 - researcher, Thermodynamics department of Moscow Aviation Institute
1970-1973 - head of department, Central Aerohydrodinamics Institute
1973-1977 - adviser, International Civil Aviation Organization (Montreal, Canada)
1977
- head of department, Moscow Aviation Institute. His present position is a director of Wind Energy
Department of Moscow Aviation Institute and director, Molinos Co. Ltd. Main activities: Development and
production of small scale wind mills.

To cite this chapter

Vladimir A. Dobrovolski, (2004), WIND ENERGY, in Renewable Energy Sources Charged with Energy
from the Sun and Originated from Earth-Moon Interaction, [Ed. Evald E. Shpilrain], in Encyclopedia of Life
Support Systems (EOLSS), Developed under the Auspices of the UNESCO, Eolss Publishers, Oxford ,UK,
[http://www.eolss.net] [Retrieved July 20, 2007]