B.E.

(Electrical)-I- Examination 2010

Renewable Energy Sources
Solution and scheme of Marking

Q a) State the different sources of renewable energy and explain in detail stand alone wind- 09
1 Turbine Generator system
Ans A) sources of renewable energy
1. Biomass 2. Geothermal Energy 3.Wind Energy

2. Photovoltaics (PV) Cells 5. Tidal Energy 5M

B) stand alone wind-Turbine Generator system (Sketch/ description) 4M

Wind Turbine  Permanent Magnet Synchronous Gen  Rectifier  Battery Storage

 Inverter  Load
b) Explain the trends in renewable energy. 08
Ans Global Trends: [4M]
1. Renewable electricity generation capacity reached ~ 250 GW, an increase of 50
percent over 2004, which represents 5% of total capacity.
2. Including large hydro, the capacity supplied by renewable energy is close to 20%
3. The fastest growing energy technology in the world is grid-connected solar
photovoltaics (PV), with 50% CAGR over 2005-07
4. Renewable energy comprises of 18% of the world’s total energy consumption.
5. Global renewable energy capacity grew at rates of 15–30 percent annually
during the five-year period 2002–2006.

Renewable Energy trends in India [4M]

1. Total installed capacity in the country is 141,500 MW as on 2008

2. Generation capacities based on renewable resources are around 11 GW
showing growth rate of 30%
3. This represents 7% of the total installed capacity, below global average
4. Including large hydro capacity, renewable capacity is 46 GW

Q a) What are the key drivers which affects the renewable energy supply 08
2
Ans Key drivers for renewable energy growth in India

a) Ample number of sites for Wind, Hydro and Solar Plants:

Daytime production peak coincides with peak electricity demand making
solar ideal supplement to grid
b) Government incentives:
• Government encouraging Solar energy investments.
• Various incentives provided by government to make projects attractive.
• Increasing state level initiatives, States such as Punjab, Haryana,
AP taking the lead in development of RE projects
c) Increasing sources of finance
 • Financing through IREDA,
• Investor’s bankers,
• Few nationalized & Scheduled banks
• Certified Emission Reductions Revenues (CDM)

Key Barriers in Renewable Energy development

• Optimal pricing of power generated from the renewable energy sources
• Quality and consistency issue of renewable power arising from the intermittent
nature of electricity from wind and small hydropower,
• The costs of technology development and production need to be reduced
significantly from current levels
• Availability of financing especially project finance for Renewables
• Creditworthiness of counterparties has posed challenges
• Slow pace of rural electrification and pace of reforms in the rural electricity sector
Future growth drivers for RE in India
• Demand Supply Gap
• Supply regularly being over stripped by demand
• Natural Resource Scarcity
• Limited amount of fossil based fuel sources
• Large renewable energy potential
• Abundance of sites for tapping natural & renewable sources of energy
• Availability of New forms of capital – Private equity, CDM
• Increasing presence of PE funds in Clean energy
• India emerging as a dominant player in CDM projects
• financial incentives Provided by government

b) Explain Weibull Distribution function used for wind energy studies 08

Ans [Students should mention the Need of Weibull Distribution function for wind energy studies]

In practice, the problem frequently is that insufficient data about the frequency distribution
of the wind speeds at a particular location are available. In such a case, there is no
alternative but to use a mathematical approximation for the distribution curve. In normal
wind regimes, aWeibull function will provide a good approximation.

The wind speed frequency distribution curve is closely represented by Weibull

distribution as given below.

Frequency function, f(u) = (k / c) (u / c)(k-1) exp [-(u / c)k]

Scale factor in m/s, c > 1; Shape factor, k > 0; wind speed in m/s, u >0.

[Students are expected to draw WDF for at least k=2 and c=10]
Q a) With the help of graph, explain the terms Mean, mode, root mean cube velocity in 08
3 ANS context with wind energy.

Mode speed is defined as the speed corresponding to the hump in the distribution function. This
is the speed the wind blows most of the time.

Mean speed over the period is defined as the total area under the h-v curve integrated from v = 0
to Infinity divided by the total number of hours in the period (8,760 if the period is one year).
The annual mean speed is therefore the weighted average speed and is as follows:
 Root Mean Cube Speed
The wind power is proportional to the speed cube, and the energy collected
over the year is the integral of h. v3.dv.

b) Obtain an expression for power extracted from wind. Also define the terms rotor 09
efficiency Cp and TSR.
Ans
The factor Cp is called the power coefficient of the rotor or the rotor efficiency.

Tip speed ratio, λ = R Ω / u

R = Rotor radius (m), Ω = rotational speed of the rotor (rad/s), u =
undisturbed wind

Graph of TSR Vs Cp