Electricity Generation With The Use of Wind Energy
Electricity Generation With The Use of Wind Energy
Electricity Generation With The Use of Wind Energy
To
Instructor
By
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October 29, 2013
Zamboanga City
I am submitting the attached report entitled “Electricity Generation with the use of Wind
Energy”, this report has been complete by the knowledge that I have gathered from the
course Electrical engineering, I would be happy if you read this report carefully and I will be
trying to answer all the questions that you have about the report.
Sincerely yours,
(Student)
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research project would not have been possible without the support and help of
many people. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who offered me the
Firstly. To God for the wisdom and knowledge he had given me.
Secondly. To my parents for the financial and moral support throughout the whole
process of the report and by keeping me pleasant and helping me to have the report done.
Lastly. To Engr. Alvin P. Miguel for the valuable guidance and advice.
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PREFACE
Given the endeavours to protect the environment and a constantly growing need for
energy, the supply of energy is one of the biggest challenges that will have to face in the
near future – politically, economically, but also scientifically. With depleting fossil fuel
Experts agree that energy from the wind will considerably contribute to the energy
mix of the future. Sustainably produced chemical fuels for aviation and heavy transport will
join the main energy carrier, electricity. In order to harness the wind’s full potential,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE - - - - - - i
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL - - - - - - ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT - - - - - - iii
PREFACE - - - - - - iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS - - - - - - v
SUMMARY - - - - - - vi
I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . 1
III. DISCUSSION
H. Other Issues . . . . . . . 12
IV. CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . 14
V. RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . 15
VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . 16
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SUMMARY
impacts caused by use of fossil fuels to generate electricity because, unlike fossil fuels, wind
energy does not generate atmospheric contaminants or thermal pollution, thus being
adverse environmental impacts of wind-energy facilities, which include aesthetic and other
impacts on humans and effects on ecosystems, including the killing of wildlife, especially
birds and bats. Some environmental effects of wind-energy facilities, especially those from
transportation (roads to and from the plant site) and transmission (roads or clearings for
transmission lines), are common to all electricity-generating plants; other effects, such as
This report provides analyses to help to understand and evaluate positive and
negative environmental effects of wind-energy facilities. Wind energy has a long history,
having been used for sailing vessels at least since 3100 BC. Traditionally, windmills were
used to lift water and grind grain as early as the 10th century AD. However, significant
electricity generation from wind in the United States began only in the 1980s, in California;
today, electricity is generated from wind in 36 states, including Alaska and Hawaii.
Wind energy is the fastest growing energy technology in the world. Wind energy is
here to stay, we cannot afford to wait to do the right thing anymore, we need solutions to
global warming problems now, and without doubt wind energy is one of these solutions.
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Introduction
Energy from the wind has been harnessed for thousands of years, making wind
power one of the oldest forms of renewable energy. Early windmills were used for pumping
water or grinding grain. With the onset of industrialization, people began adapting windmills
Wind farms are built in geographical areas that are conducive to consistent prevailing
winds. For utility-sized applications, many wind turbines are built in close proximity to one
another to form a “wind farm”. On these wind farms, giant wind turbines harness the kinetic
The process of wind-produced electricity generation begins when the force of the
wind pushes against the turbines’ blades, causing them to rotate, creating mechanical
energy. The spinning blades, attached to a hub and a low speed shaft, turn along with the
blades. The rotating low speed shaft is connected to a gearbox that connects to a high
speed shaft on the opposite side of the gearbox. This high speed shaft connects to an
electrical generator that converts mechanical energy from the rotation of the blades into
electric energy. Spinning between 11 and 20 times per minute, each turbine can generate a
residential homes
distributed, clean, produces no greenhouse gas emission during operation and uses little
land. The effects on the environment are generally less problematic than those from other
sources.
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Brief History
Wind power technology dates back many centuries. There are historical claims that
wind machines which harness the power of the wind date back beyond the time of the
ancient Egyptians. Hero of Alexandria used a simple windmill to power an organ whilst the
Babylonian emperor, Hammurabi, used windmills for an ambitious irrigation project as early
as the 17th century BC. The Persians built windmills in the 7th century AD for milling and
irrigation and rustic mills similar to these early vertical axis designs can still be found in the
region today. In Europe the first windmills were seen much later, probably having been
introduced by the English on their return from the crusades in the Middle East or possibly
transferred to Southern Europe by the Muslims after their conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.
It was in Europe that much of the subsequent technical development took place. By the late
part of the 13th century the typical ‘European windmill’ had been developed and this
became the norm until further developments were introduced during the 18th century. At
the end of the 19th century there were more than 30,000 windmills in Europe, used
The first wind powered electricity was produced by a machine built by Charles F.
Brush in Cleveland, Ohio in 1888. It had a rated power of 12 kW (direct current - dc). Direct
current electricity production continued in the form of small scale, stand-alone systems until
the 1930's when the first large scale AC turbine was constructed in the USA. There was then
a general lull in interest until the 1970's when the fuel crises sparked a revival in research
and development work in North America (USA and Canada) and Europe (Denmark,
Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK). Modern wind turbine generators
are highly sophisticated machines, taking full advantage of state-of-the-art technology, led
mechanical, electrical and control engineering and capable of producing several megawatts .
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During the 1980's installed capacity costs dropped considerably and wind power has
become an economically attractive option for commercial electricity generation. Large wind
farms or wind power stations have become a common sight in many western countries. In
2001 Denmark alone had 2000 Megawatts of electricity generating capacity from more than
5,700 wind turbines, representing 14% of their national electricity consumption. Wind is a
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Wind Generation for Developing Countries
Unlike the trend toward large-scale grid connected wind turbines seen in the West,
the more immediate demand for rural energy supply in developing countries is for smaller
machines in the 5 - 100 kW range. These can be connected to small, localised micro-grid
systems and used in conjunction with diesel generating sets and/or solar photovoltaic
systems. Currently, the use of wind power for electricity production in developing countries
is limited, the main area of growth being for very small battery charging wind turbines (50 -
150 Watts). In Inner Mongolia there are over 30,000 such machines used by herders for
providing power for lighting, televisions, radios, etc. Other applications for small wind
generators for supplying electricity for battery charging, for stand-alone applications and for
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The power in the wind is proportional to:
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The wind systems that exist over the earth’s surface are a result of variations in air
pressure. These are in turn due to the variations in solar heating. Warm air rises and cooler
air rushes in to take its place. Wind is merely the movement of air from one place to
another. There are global wind patterns related to large scale solar heating of different
regions of the earth’s surface and seasonal variations in solar incidence. There are also
localised wind patterns due the effects of temperature differences between land and seas, or
mountains and valleys. Wind speed generally increases with height above ground. This is
because the roughness of ground features such as vegetation and houses cause the wind to
be slowed. Wind speed data can be obtained from wind maps or from the meteorology
office. Unfortunately the general availability and reliability of wind speed data is extremely
poor in many regions of the world. However, significant areas of the world have mean
annual wind speeds of above 4-5 m/s (metres per second) which makes small-scale wind
The formula used for calculating the power in the wind is shown below:
Where:
The fact that the power is proportional to the cube of the wind speed is very
significant. This can be demonstrated by pointing out that if the wind speed doubles then
the power in the wind increases by a factor of eight. It is therefore worthwhile finding a site
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Wind into Watts
Although the power equation above gives us the power in the wind, the actual power
that we can extract from the wind is significantly less than this figure suggests. The actual
power will depend on several factors, such as the type of machine and rotor used, the
sophistication of blade design, friction losses, and the losses in the pump or other
equipment connected to the wind machine. There are also physical limits to the amount of
power that can be extracted realistically from the wind. It can been shown theoretically that
any windmill can only possibly extract a maximum of 59.3% of the power from the wind
(this is known as the Betz limit). In reality, this figure is usually around 45% (maximum) for
a large electricity producing turbine and around 30% to 40% for a wind pump. So,
modifying the formula for ‘Power in the wind’ we can say that the power which is produced
PM = ½.Cp.ρ.A.V3
Where:
It is also worth bearing in mind that a wind machine will only operate at its maximum
efficiency for a fraction of the time it is running, due to variations in wind speed. A rough
estimate of the output from a wind machine can be obtained using the following equation:
PA = 0.2 A V3
Where:
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Principles of Wind Energy Conversion
There are two primary physical principles by which energy can be extracted from the
wind; these are through the creation of either lift or drag force (or through a combination of
the two). The difference between drag and lift is illustrated by the difference between using
a spinnaker sail, which fills like a parachute and pulls a sailing boat with the wind, and a
Bermuda rig, the familiar triangular sail which deflects with wind and allows a sailing boat to
travel across the wind or slightly into the wind. Drag forces provide the most obvious means
of propulsion, these being the forces felt by a person (or object) exposed to the wind. Lift
forces are the most efficient means of propulsion but being more subtle than drag forces are
• With a good aerofoil, the lift produced can be more than thirty times greater than the drag
There are two main families of wind machines: vertical axis machines and horizontal
axis machines. These can in turn use either lift or drag forces to harness the wind. The
horizontal axis lift device is the type most commonly used. In fact other than a few
experimental machines virtually all windmills come under this category. There are several
technical parameters that are used to characterise windmill rotors. The tip speed ratio is
defined as the ratio of the speed of the extremities of a windmill rotor to the speed of the
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free wind. Drag devices always have tip-speed ratios less than one and hence turn slowly,
whereas lift devices can have high tip-speed ratios (up to 13:1) and hence turn quickly
The proportion of the power in the wind that the rotor can extract is termed the
coefficient of performance (or power coefficient or efficiency; symbol Cp) and its variation
mentioned earlier there is an upper limit of Cp = 59.3%, although in practice real wind
Solidity is usually defined as the percentage of the area of the rotor, which contains
material rather than air. Low-solidity machines run at higher speed and tend to be used for
electricity generation. High-solidity machines carry a lot of material and have coarse blade
angles. They generate much higher starting torque (torque is the twisting or rotary force
produced by the rotor) than low-solidity machines but are inherently less efficient than low-
solidity machines. The wind pump is generally of this type. High solidity machines will have
Start-up wind speed - the wind speed that will turn an unloaded rotor
Cut-in wind speed – the wind speed at which the rotor can be loaded
Rated wind speed – the wind speed at which the machine is designed to run (this is
Furling wind speed – the wind speed at which the machine will be turned out of the
Maximum design wind speed – the wind speed above which damage could occur to
the machine
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The choice of rotor is dictated largely by the characteristic of the load and hence of the
end use. Some common rotor types and their characteristics are shown in Table below.
Horizontal
Axis
Vertical
Axis
A typical small wind generator has rotor that is directly coupled to the generator
which produces electricity either at 120/240 volt alternating current for direct domestic use
or at 12/24 volt direct current for battery charging. Larger machines generate 3 phase
electricity. There is often a tail vane which keeps the rotor orientated into the wind. Some
wind machines have a tail vane which is designed for automatic furling (turning the machine
out of the wind) at high wind speeds to prevent damage. Larger machines have pitch
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controlled blades (the angle at which the blades meet the wind is controlled) which achieve
the same function. The tower is of low solidity to prevent wind interference and are often
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Grid Connected or Battery Charging
can be carried out in one of various ways. Commonly, larger machines are connected to a
grid distribution network. This can be the main national network, in which case electricity
can be sold to the electricity utility (providing an agreement can be made between the
producer and the grid) when an excess is produced and purchased when the wind is low.
Using the national grid helps provide flexibility to the system and does away with the need
wind is used for supplying electricity to such a grid, a diesel generator set is often used as a
backup for the periods when wind speeds are low. Alternatively, electricity storage can be
used but this is an expensive option. Hybrid systems use a combination of two or more
energy sources to provide electricity in all weather conditions. The capital cost for such a
system is high but subsequent running costs will be low compared with a pure diesel
system.
In areas where households are widely dispersed or where grid costs are prohibitively
expensive, battery charging is an option. For people in rural areas a few tens of watts of
power are sufficient for providing lighting and a source of power for a radio or television.
Batteries can be returned to the charging station occasionally for recharging. This reduces
the inconvenience of an intermittent supply due to fluctuating wind speeds. 12 and 24 volt
direct current wind generators are commercially available which are suitable for battery
charging applications. Smaller turbines (50 -150 watt) are available for individual household
connection.
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Other Issues
Environmental concerns
Wind power is a clean renewable energy source. There are, however some
environmental considerations to keep in mind when planning a wind power scheme. They
• Noise - wind rotors, gearboxes and generators create acoustic noise when functioning;
• Visual impact - modern wind machines are large objects and have a significant visual
impact on their surroundings. Some argue that it is a positive visual impact, others to the
contrary.
Cost - economics
The cost of producing electricity form the wind is heavily dependent on the local wind
regime. As mentioned earlier the power output from the wind machine is proportional to
cube of the wind speed and so a slight increase in wind speed will mean a significant
increase in power and a subsequent reduction in unit costs. Capital costs for wind power are
high, but running costs are low and so access to initial funds, subsidies or low interest loans
used a careful cost-benefit analysis needs to be carried out. A careful matching of the load
and energy supply options should be made to maximise the use of the power from the wind
- a load which accepts a variable input is ideally matched to the intermittent nature of wind
power.
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Pros and Cons
ground around the turbines can warm up at night. This is due to the mixing, by the
turbines, of the cool night air at ground level with the warmer air above. While the effect is
real, the concern is not, since this phenomenon does not introduce new heat into the
planet’s atmosphere, as the carbon dioxide layer does by trapping heat that would
otherwise escape into space. Rather, this small, localized effect is simply mixing heat that is
already there, with cooler air below it. If you think of it as a pot of soup on a stove, the sun
provides the heat, the greenhouse gases form the lid, and the action of the windmills would
be like you stirring the soup, albeit with a very small spoon. Life on Earth, as we know it
today, evolved at temperatures that were present before the lid was on.
It is true that this mixing of air could impact local weather in the vicinity of the
windmills, but experts believe that this effect can be reduced with enhanced turbine blade
designs that minimize mixing and by siting the turbines in areas that are naturally more
turbulent.
Pros
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Cons
Wind power is not cheap and like many energy sources, rely on government
Wind farms are generally located in rural areas that might be otherwise picturesque.
Wildlife impact. Not only birds, but bats have experienced fatalities.
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CONCLUSION
earth’s resources. The current use of natural gas and fossil fuels combined with increasing
global population has caused the earth’s resources to be abused and depleted. The effects
on the environment are exhausting and threatening to the sustainability of the earth. In
2009, the world consumed approximately 76 million barrels of oil per day, and this number
continues to increase (Nation Master 2010). Our oil reserves are diminishing, and energy
production currently depends too highly on oil and fuels, which contribute to greenhouse
gas emissions. Pollutants emitted into the atmosphere have dire consequences, including
global warming. The first step to protecting our world is to take action in renewable, eco-
friendly energy sources. One way to do this is to invest in and expand the wind power
industry, which is one of the most promising renewable energy sources. Wind power helps
to maintain low energy costs comparable to cheap fossil fuels and natural gas, while
In summary, wind power, is not a perfect solution, but it is far better than just about
anything else we have available at the moment. I would consider it a good long term
The other good thing about wind: unlike nuclear power, or tar sands oil, which will each
leave a long term toxic legacy, when we are finally done with wind, we can simply take
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Like other renewable energy sources, wind energy has many advantages. It reduces
greenhouse gas emissions by using turbines, which produce energy and electricity when
moved by the wind, and can reduce electricity costs (Energy Informative 2012). All the
turbines need to be able to function is wind, which is just air in natural motion, and air is
everywhere. People could not escape air even if they wanted to. It is a component of life,
and will be present in our lives for as long as we live. On almost any day, a step outdoors
constitutes an encounter with wind. That wind signifies a promise, a free, abundant, and
sustainable promise that will not depreciate if we take advantage of it. We are encouraged
to maximize the benefits of this resource because it can only help make our world a better,
cleaner place. It will also foster domestic growth for multiple reasons. First, the native
materials used to construct the turbines promote the domestic economy. Second, the
turbines are a profitable investment; growth and development in the technology predict a
high potential return, and increases in investment augment the country’s GDP. Lastly, wind
energy opens new markets and new prospects. Right now, mechanics are working to
increase capacity factors so that energy can be stored for times when there isn’t much wind.
Based from these facts, Electricity generation through the use of wind is very
economical and nature friendly it will be helpful for the Filipino people especially us which
are suffering crisis from power shortage, but a further must be done since Wind Power
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power
http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/story/chapter16.html
http://www.canwea.ca/wind-energy/index_e.php
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Wind/wind.htm
http://energybible.com/wind_energy/glossary.html
PDFs:
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DEFINITION OF TERMS
alternator designs, it carries the magnets and is attached to the blades and hub. Also
called a Rotor.
Balancing — with wind turbine blades, adjusting their weight and weight distribution
through 2 axes so that all blades are the same. Unbalanced blades create damaging
vibration.
Blades— the flat panels on a wind turbine that are connected to a center shaft that
converts the push of the wind into a circular motion in a wind turbine.
Cut-in speed — the wind speed at which the turbine blades begin to rotate and
Cut-out speed — the wind speed at which the turbine automatically stops the blades
from turning and rotates out of the wind to avoid damage to the turbine, usually
Power curve — the instantaneous power output of a specific turbine design at various
wind speeds. Used with wind resource data to determine the potential for electricity
Rotor — comprises the spinning parts of a wind turbine, including the turbine blades
Thrust bearing — A bearing that is designed to handle axial forces along the centre
line of the shaft--in a wind generator, this is the force of the wind pushing back
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Tower — the base structure that supports and elevates a wind turbine rotor and
nacelle.
Turbine — A device for converting the flow of a fluid (air, steam, water, or hot gases)
Watt — the rate of energy transfer equivalent to one ampere under an electrical
pressure of one volt. One watt equals 1/746 horsepower, or one joule per second. It
Waveform — the shape of the phase power at a certain frequency and amplitude.
Wind speed — the rate at which air particles move through the atmosphere,
Windmill — A device that uses wind power to mill grain into flour. But informally used
as a synonym for wind generator or wind turbine, and to describe machines that
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