Wind Power:

Optimization at All Levels

By
Hitesh J.Bhatia

WIND POWER - What is it?
All renewable energy (except tidal and
geothermal power), ultimately comes from the
sun

The earth receives 1.74 x 10
17
watts of power
(per hour) from the sun

About one or 2 percent of this energy is
converted to wind energy (which is about 50-
100 times more than the energy converted to
biomass by all plants on earth

Differential heating of the earths surface
and atmosphere induces vertical and
horizontal
air currents that are affected by the earths
rotation and contours of the land WIND.
~ e.g.: Land Sea Breeze Cycle
Winds are influenced by the ground surface at altitudes up
to 100 meters.
Wind is slowed by the surface roughness and obstacles.
When dealing with wind energy, we are concerned with
surface winds.
A wind turbine obtains its power input by converting the
force of the wind into a torque (turning force) acting on the
rotor blades.
The amount of energy which the wind transfers to the
rotor depends on the density of the air, the rotor area, and
the wind speed.
The kinetic energy of a moving body is proportional to its
mass (or weight). The kinetic energy in the wind thus
depends on the density of the air, i.e. its mass per unit of
volume.
In other words, the "heavier" the air, the more energy is
received by the turbine.

at 15 Celsius air weighs about 1.225 kg per cubic meter,
but the density decreases slightly with increasing humidity.

Wind Turbines (that work)
HAWT: Horizontal Axis VAWT: Vertical Axis
Wind Turbines (flights of fancy)
Wind Power Factoids
Potential: 10X to 40X total US electrical power
.01X in 2009
Cost of wind: $.02 $.06/kWh
Cost of coal $.02 $.03 (other fossils are more)
Cost of solar $.25/kWh Photon Consulting
may reach $.10 by 2010 Photon Consulting
State with largest existing wind generation
Texas (7.9 MW) Greatest capacity: Dakotas
Wind farm construction is semi recession proof
Duke Energy to build wind farm in Wyoming Reuters Sept 1, 2009
Government accelerating R&D, keeping tax credits
Grid requires upgrade to support scalable wind

Wind Turbines: Number of
Blades


Most common design is the three-bladed turbine. The
most important reason is the stability of the turbine. A
rotor with an odd number of rotor blades (and at least
three blades) can be considered to be similar to a disc
when calculating the dynamic properties of the machine.
A rotor with an even number of blades will give stability
problems for a machine with a stiff structure. The reason
is that at the very moment when the uppermost blade
bends backwards, because it gets the maximum power
from the wind, the lowermost blade passes into the wind
shade in front of the tower.

Wind power generators convert
wind energy (mechanical
energy) to electrical energy.
The generator is attached at
one end to the wind turbine,
which provides the mechanical
energy.
At the other end, the
generator is connected to the
electrical grid.
The generator needs to have a
cooling system to make sure
there is no overheating.
Top Wind Power Producers
in TWh for Q2 2008
Country Wind TWh Total TWh % Wind
Germany 40 585 7%
USA 35 4,180 < 1%
Spain 29 304 10%
India 15 727 2%
Denmark 9 45 20%
Sustained Wind-Energy Density
From: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, public domain, 2009
Yet Another Wind Map
US Wind Farms in 2006
Inside a Wind Turbine
GE Wind Energy's 3.6
megawatt wind turbine
From Wikipedia
Power Calculation
Wind kinetic energy:

Wind power:

Electrical power:
C
b
~ .35 (<.593 Betz limit)
Max value of
N
g
~ .75 generator efficiency
N
t
~ .95 transmission efficiency
2
2
1
v m E
air k
=
3 2
2
1
v r P
air wind
t =
wind t g b generated
P N N C P =
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
3 2
3
1
2
4
1
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
v
v
v
v
v
v
air dt
dE
v r P + = = t
Wind v & E match Weibull Dist.
Weibull Distribution:





Red = Weibull distribution of wind speed over time
Blue = Wind energy (P = dE/dt)
( ) ( ) ( )
k
x
k
x k
k W

=

exp ) , (
) 1 (
Data from Lee Ranch, Colorado
wind farm
Optimization Opportunities
Site selection
Altitude, wind strength, constancy, grid access,
Turbine selection
Design (HAWTs vs VAWTs), vendor, size, quantity,
Turbine Height: 7
th
root law


Greater precision for local conditions
Local topography (hills, ridges, )
Turbulence caused by other turbines
Prevailing wind strengths, direction, variance
Ground stability (support massive turbines)
Grid upgrades: extensions, surge capacity,
Non-power constraints/preferences
Environmental (birds, aesthetics, power lines, )
Cause radar clutter (e.g. near airports, air bases)

( )
g g
h
g g
h
h g
h
v
v
P P P
g
h
43 . 0
7 3
7
= ~ ~
Worlds Largest Wind Turbine
(7+Megawatts, 400+ feet tall)

Oops...
Whats wrong with this picture?
Proximity of turbines
Orientation w.r.t.
prevaling winds
Ignoring local
topography

Near Palm Springs, CA
Economic Optimization
$1M-3M/MW capacity
$3M-20M/turbine
Questions
Economy of scale?
NPV & longevity?
Interest rate?
Operational costs?
Price of Electricity

8% improvement in 25B invested = $2B
Price of storage vs upgrade of grid transmission vs both

Penultimate Optimization Challenge
Objective Function
Construction: cost, time, risk, capacity,
Grid: access & upgrade cost,
Operation: cost/year, longevity,
Risks: price/year of electricity, demand, reliability,
Constraints
Grid: Ave & surge capacity, max power storage,
Physical: area, height, topography, atmospherics,
Financial: capital raising, timing, NPV discounts,
Regulatory: environmental, permits, safety,
Supply chain: availability & timing of turbines,
Energy Storage
Compressed-air storage
Surprisingly viable
Efficiency ~50%
Pumped hydroelectric
Cheap & scalable
Efficiency < 50%
Advanced battery
Cost prohibitive
Flywheel arrays (unviable)
Superconducting capacitors (missing technology)
Compressed-Air Storage System
Wind farm:
P
WF
= 2 P
T
(4000 MW)
Spacing = 50 D
2

v
rated
= 1.4 v
avg Transmission:
P
T
= 2000 MW
Comp Gen
P
C
= 0.85 P
T

(1700 MW)
Underground storage
Wind resource:
k = 3, v
avg
= 9.6 m/s,
P
wind
= 550 W/m
2
(Class 5)
h
A
= 5 hrs.
E
o
/E
i
= 1.30
P
G
= 0.50 P
T

(1000 MW)
h
S
= 10 hrs.
(at P
C
)
1
0 1
CF = 81%
CF = 76%
CF = 68%
CF = 72%
Slope ~ 1.7
0.5
0.5
1.5
1.5
Optimization To Date
Turbine blade design
Huge literature
Generators
Already near optimal
Wind farm layout
Mostly offshore
Integer programming
Topography
Multi-site
+ Transmission
+ Storage

new
challenge
Need Wind Data
Prevalent Direction, Speed, seasonality
Measurement tower position & duration
optimization too
US Investment in Wind Power
2008 Investment: $16.4B (private + public)
Total since 1980: $45+B
Estimate for 2009-2018: $300B-$700B
Optimization can have a huge impact
San Goronio Pass, CA
Trusted Third Party
Wind power industry now generates studies for
public utilities
Every industry provider (Vestas, GE, Siemens, )
shows their wind-generators are the best no true
comparison, no site/context sensitivity.
No global optimization across designs, etc.
Modeling, optimization, assessment is complex,
requires expertise
Room for a non-profit expertise pool and models
Track evolving technologies

US Electrical Power in 2008
Other (4.1%) = Biomass (2%) + Wind (1%) + Solar + Geothermal +

A Second Opinion
Power
Class
Wind
Power
(W/m2)
Speed*
(m/s)


1 <200 <5.6
2 200-300 5.6-6.4
3 300-400 6.4-7.0
4 400-500 7.0-7.5
5 500-600 7.5-8.0
6 600-800 8.0-8.8
7 >800 >8.8
From Battelle Wind
Energy Resource Atlas
Viable Class 3 or above
Good Class 4 or above
THANK YOU!
FOR YOUR
ATTENTION