• 1- find the power produced by 1 train by your system.

• 2-then power produced by the system placed at a 2-3km stretch(for 1 railway

station range).
• When you find it comparable to the value of onshore wind power(150 MW), find
the capital cost of system for that region instalment(by finding the cost of 1
WINDBOX and then extending it for the required region) and then find the LCOE of
your system(and of course prove it to be comparable to the already present
onshore wind system)
• Calculation:
• Finding the swept area of the turbine which is to be used in calculation of power.
• Darrieus wind turbine
Cost of energy generation by
our proposed system and its
comparison with other
sources of energy:
Assumptions:
• 4 trains/ hour. This is usually more but we have considered the worst
case.
Finding the energy produced by our system:

• The formula for finding the power of a wind turbine is :

• Power(P)=1/2*Cp*D*A*V3

where Cp= Betz coefficient

D= Density of air
A=Swept area of turbine
V=velocity of wind
Finding the parameters required for calculation:
• The swept area of wind turbine system will be as follows (projected area):
(Dimensions of the box taken considering the space between two sleepers in a typical Rail line).

1500 mm

600 mm
A= 0.90 m2

• The density of air under normal atmospheric condition: D= 1.26 kg/m3.

• The Betz coefficient: Cp=0.50 (Maximum can be 0.593, which is practically not possible due to real world
constraints).
• Velocity of the wind= 18 m/s (average velocity achieved).
• Calculating the power by 1 box:
P = 1/2 * 1/2 * 1.26 * 0.90 * 18 * 18 * 18
P = 1653.37
P = 1654 Watt (approx.)
• Calculating the power as one train passes through the box:
Consider a train with speed= 90 km/hr passing through the box.
The length of the train is 600 m.
(All the above data taken from Indian Railways study.)
Therefore, time taken = 0.6/90 * 60 * 60
= 24 sec.
So, energy generated = 1654 * 24
= 39696 J.
• Now, consider the turbine system is stretched in a rail length of 2km before the station:
Then each number of boxes in 2 km = 2* 1150 =2300 (1000 m has 1150 boxes installed)
Energy generated = 2300 * 39696 = 91,300,800 J = 91.3 MJ
• Approximate Energy generated after considering mechanical losses = 86-87 MJ
= 24 kWh (approx.)
• According to generalized data of Indian Railways, 4 trains pass through a path in an hour.
So , Energy in an hour = 24 * 4
= 96 kWh
• Now, calculating the amount of energy it can generate in an year:
Energy/year = 96 * 24 *365
= 840,960 kWh/year (by system installed in one station only)
Capital cost calculation of the system:
• Cost of installing the system in a 2 km stretch before a station:
Price per box (total initial invest) = $500
Total cost = 700 * 2300 = $1.61 million
Note that the initial investment in installing a utility scale wind turbine onshore (power=1-2 MW) is
equal to $1.2-1.3 million. So our system’s cost at a station(as calculated above) is comparable to it.

• Taking above calculation into account, using the method of AWEA (American Wind Energy
Association) and considering all other factors which affect the capital cost(up to complete
installation) we calculated a range of capital cost as shown below.
Initial Capital Investment or ‘Capex’= $38-42/MWh
 Comparison with the energy produced by other sources:
Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE) for various sources
160 150
140
140 26 128
Levelized Cost ($/MWh)

19
120
102
100 91
64
27
80
30
58
60 124 121
47
42
26 7
40 75 8
61 64
20 34 40
32
0
Gas Combined Solar tower with Wind Hackers
Coal Nuclear Onshore Wind Geothermal Fuel Cell
Cycle storage System
Running Cost 26 27 26 8 30 64 19 7
Capital Cost 32 75 124 34 61 64 121 40
Total 58 102 150 42 91 128 140 47
Energy Sources

Capital Cost Running Cost Total

Conclusion:
• From the data shown in last slide it is evident that our system produces energy which is more cost
efficient than any other conventional source proving it to be commercially feasible energy
generation method.
• The proposed system is also is very less costly than Solar, Geothermal and Nuclear energy source
as depicted in the graphical data.
• Also, we can clearly see that our energy generation system’s cost is comparable to the cheapest
energy source (onshore windmill).
LCOE ($/MWh) of onshore windmill = $42
LCOE ($/MWh) of our system = $47
And this system has an advantage over the onshore windmill system that it can be installed
anywhere unlike the latter one which is only viable in coastal areas with high wind.
Major References:
• https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-and-levelized-cost-of-storage-
2018/
• https://www.windpowerengineering.com/projects/windpower-profitability-and-break-even-
point-calculations/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source
• Various Research papers and Wikipedia sources on Turbine Efficiency, Windmill energy study, Air
movement around a fast moving vehicle/train.