Chapter 7:

Wind Energy
Chapter 7: Wind
Energy
 INTRODUCTION
• Wind energy, the world's fastest growing energy source, is a clean
and renewable source of energy that has been in use for centuries in
Europe and more recently in the United States and other nations

• And in todays world, wind is one of the cheapest and cleanest energy
source.
 HISTORY of WIND MACHINES
Throughout history people have harnessed the wind.
 Over 5,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians used wind power to sail their ships on the
Nile River.
 Later people built windmills to grind their grain. The earliest known windmills were in
Persia (the area now occupied by Iran). The early windmills looked like large paddle
wheels.
 Centuries later, the people in Holland improved the windmill. They gave it propeller-type
blades and made it so it could be turned to face the wind. Windmills helped Holland
become one of the world's most industrialized countries by the 17th century.
 American colonists used windmills to grind wheat and corn, to pump water, and to cut
wood at sawmills.
 Last century, people used windmills to generate electricity in rural areas that did not have
electric service. When power lines began to transport electricity to rural areas in the 1930s,
the electric windmills were used less and less.
 Then in the early 1970s, oil shortages created an environment eager for alternative energy
sources, paving the way for the re-entry of the electric windmill on the world landscape.
Turbine Evolution
Used for
• Pumping water
• Grinding grain
Old-fashioned windmills.

Old-fashioned windmills.

Mainly used for

• Generating
Electricity
WIND RESOURCE
Where Wind Energy Comes From
 All renewable energy (except geothermal power), and even the
energy in fossil fuels, ultimately comes from the sun. The sun
radiates of 1.7417x 10 watts energy to the earth per hour.
 About 1 to 2% of the energy coming from the sun is converted into
wind energy. That is about 50 to 100 times more than the energy
converted into biomass by all plants on earth.
What Wind Is
• Wind is simply air in motion. It is caused by the uneven
heating of the earth's surface by the sun. Since the earth's
surface is made up of land, desert, water, and forest
areas, the surface absorbs the sun's radiation differently.

• some patches of air become warmer than others. These

warm patches of air rise, other air rushes in to replace
them – thus, wind blows.
 Wind Turbine
• A wind turbine extracts energy from moving air
by slowing the wind down, and transferring this
energy into a spinning shaft, which usually turns
a generator to produce electricity. The power in
the wind that’s available for harvest depends on
both the wind speed and the area that’s swept
by the turbine blades.

• “Betz' law’’’: less than 16/27 (or 59%) of

the kinetic energy in the wind can be
converted to mechanical energy using a
wind turbine.
• Also called Wind Turbine Generator (WTG).
 Main parts of a modern wind turbine

Blade

Hub
Nacelle

Tower

nacelle contains
generator, gearbox and
Foundation other machinery.
Schematics of a wind power
Wind Turbines Types
• Different types of wind turbine
 Rotor axis: horizontal, vertical;
 Alignment to the wind: upwind, downwind;
 Alignment to the wind: active (forced) or passive (free)
yawing system;
 Number of blades: even, odd; 3, 2, 1;
 Control of power: pitch, stall, active stall, yaw;
 Rotation transmission: with or without gearbox;
 Type of generator: synchronous, asynchronous;
 Grid connection: direct, indirect;
 Wind Turbines Types
• Rotor axis: horizontal, vertical; The only vertical axis turbine which has ever been
manufactured commercially at any volume is the
Darrieus machine, named after the French engineer
Georges Darrieus who patented the design in 1931.
advantages of a vertical axis machine are
1) you may place the generator, gearbox etc. on the
ground, and you may not need a tower for the
machine.
2) you do not need a yaw mechanism to turn the rotor
against the wind.
disadvantages are
3) Wind speeds are very low close to ground level, so
although you may save a tower, your wind speeds
will be very low on the lower part of your rotor.
4) The overall efficiency of the vertical axis machines
Horizontal axis rotor Vertical axis rotor is not impressive.
5) The machine is not self-starting (e.g. a Darrieus
Most grid connected machine will need a "push" before it starts. This is
turbines today are only a minor inconvenience for a grid connected
horizontal axis type
turbine, however, since you may use the generator
as a motor drawing current from the grid to to start
the machine).
• Horizontal Advantages
• Higher wind speeds
• Great efficiency
• Disadvantages
• Angle of turbine is relevant
• Difficult access to generator for repairs

Most grid connected turbines today are

horizontal axis type
 Wind Turbines Types
• Alignment to the wind: upwind, downwind;

• Upwind machines have the rotor

facing the wind. The basic
advantage of upwind designs is
that one avoids the wind shade
behind the tower.
• Downwind machines have the
rotor placed on the lee side of the
tower. They have the theoretical
Downwind turbine
Upwind turbine advantage that they may be built
without a yaw mechanism.
 Wind Turbines Types
• Alignment to the wind: active (forced) or passive (free) yawing system;

Yawing-facing the wind

• Active Yaw (all medium & large
turbines produced today)
– Anemometer on nacelle tells controller
which way to point rotor into the wind
Active yaw mechanism
– Yaw drive turns gears to point rotor Free yaw mechanism

into wind
• Passive Yaw (Most small turbines)
– Wind forces alone direct rotor
• Tail vanes
• Downwind turbines
 Wind Turbines Types
• Number of blades: even, odd; 3, 2, 1;

2 blades 1 blade
3 blades
Rotation transmission: with or without gearbox;
 Wind Turbines Types
• Grid connection: direct, indirect;
direct

PCC

Grid frequency AC
Grid frequency AC

indirect

Rectifier Inverter PCC

Variable frequency AC
DC Grid frequency AC
(e.g. from synchronous generator) Irregular switched AC
 Calculation of Wind Power

Power in the Wind = ½ρAV3

This is the ideal – Effect of swept area, A
power available
in the in the – Effect of wind speed, V
wind
– Effect of air density, 
R
ρ = Density of air = 1.2
kg/m3 (.0745 lb/ft3), at sea
level, 20 oC and dry air
Swept Area: A = πR2
Area of the circle swept
by the rotor (m2).
 Derivation: Speed and Power Relations of Wind

• The kinetic energy in air of mass “m” moving with speed V is given by the following in SI units:

• The power in moving air is the flow rate of kinetic energy per second. Therefore:

• then, the volumetric flow rate is A·V, the mass flow rate of the air in kilograms per second is
ρ·A·V, and the power is given by the following:
 Wind Turbine Efficiency, η
Betz Limit
• It is the flow of air over the blades and through the rotor
area that makes a wind turbine function. The wind turbine
extracts energy by slowing the wind down.
• But turbines can’t extract all of the kinetic energy of the
wind. Why not? • If this was the case the air would stop as
soon as it passed through the blades and no other wind
would be able to pass through. If the blades were 100%
efficient, a wind turbine would not work because the air,
having given up all its energy, would entirely stop.
• The theoretical maximum amount of energy in the wind that
can be collected by a wind turbine's rotor is approximately
59.3%. This value is known as the Betz limit.
• Theoretical limit of rotor efficiency is 59%. In practice, the
collection efficiency of a rotor is not as high as 59%. That
means real wind turbines can never reach the Betz limit.
• Most modern wind turbines are in the 35 – 45% range
 Actual power output of a wind
Turbine
• Useful power which can be extracted by the turbine rotor is given by multiplying
the available power by a coefficient of performance Cp for the particular turbine.
Cp has a maximum theoretical value of 0.593 (Betz’ law). Cp is also called power
coefficient.
• Other losses incurred in conversion through the gearbox and generator.
• Thus the actual power output of a turbine rotor is:
• As can be observed from the pervious equation, there are three possibilities for
increasing the power captured by a wind turbine: the wind speed v, the power
coefficient Cp, and the sweep area A.
• Wind energy increases with the cube of the wind speed 10% increase in wind speed translates
into 30% more electricity or 2X the wind speed translates into 8X the electricity)

• Wind speed increases with height.

• wind turbine can be designed with larger sweep area (i.e., longer blades) to capture more
power. An increase in the blade length has a quadratic effect on the sweep area and the
captured power.

• captured power can be increased by improving the power coefficient of the blade through a
better aerodynamic design.
 Power Generated by HWind Turbine
How much power a wind turbine with 50 meters long blade can
generate with a wind speed of 12 m/s? The site of the
installation is about 1000 feet above sea level. Assume 40%
efficiency (η).

Air density is lower at higher elevation. For 1000 feet above sea
level, ρ is about 1.16 kg/m3

Power = ½ (ρ)(A)(V)3 (η)

= 0.5(1.16)(p502)(12)3(0.4)
= 3.15 x 106 Watt
= 3.15 MW

where we assumed the turbine efficiency is 40%.

Ken Youssefi / Hsu Engineering 10, SJSU
Schematics of a wind power (Wind Power System
Components)
 Wind System Components
i. Tower: The wind tower supports the turbine and the nacelle containing the mechanical gear, the electrical generator, the
yaw mechanism, and the stall control. Both steel and concrete towers are available and are being used. The construction
can be tubular or lattice.
ii. Turbine Blades: The turbine blades are made of high-density wood or glass fiber and epoxy composites. Modern wind
turbines have two or three blades.
iii. Gear box: Gears connect the low-speed shaft to the high-speed shaft and increase the rotational
speeds from about 30 to 60 rotations per minute (rpm) to about 1200 to 1500 rpm, the rotational speed
required by most generators to produce electricity.
iv. Generator: The generator is connected to the high-speed shaft and is the component of the system
that converts the rotational energy of the shaft into an electrical output.
v. Nacelle: The rotor attaches to the nacelle, which sits top the tower and includes the gear box, low- and
high-speed shafts, generator, controller, and brake. A cover protects the components inside the nacelle.
Some nacelles are large enough for a technician to stand inside while working.
vi. Brake: A disc brake which can be applied mechanically, electrically, or hydraulically to stop the rotor in
emergencies.
vii. Controller: The controller starts up the machine at wind speeds of about 3.5 to 7.2 meters per sec (m/s) and
shuts off the machine at about 30 m/s.
viii.Pitch: Blades are turned, or pitched, out of the wind to keep the rotor from turning in winds that are
too high or too low to produce electricity.
ix. Yaw drive: the yaw drive is used to keep the rotor facing into the wind as the wind direction changes.
The yaw control continuously orients the rotor in the direction of the wind.
 Speed Control Mechanisms
• However, in case of stronger winds, it is necessary to waste part of the excess energy to
avoid damage on the wind turbine. Thus, the wind turbine needs some sort of power
control. This task is performed by the techniques listed below:
• passive stall Control: The blade is aerodynamically designed to ensure that stall
occurs only when the wind speed exceeds the rated value.
• yaw and tilt control, in which the rotor axis is shifted out of the wind direction
when the wind speed exceeds the design limit.
• pitch control, blades can be pitched out of the wind to an angle where the blade
chord is parallel to the wind direction.
• Active stall control. In this method of speed control, when the wind speed exceeds
the safe limit on the system, the blades are shifted into a position such that they
stall. The turbine has to be restarted after the gust has gone.
 Types of Generators used for Wind Turbines
• The most frequently used generators in the industry:

1. induction (asynchronous) generators-The most common type of generator

used in wind turbines is the induction generator.
 Type 1: Squirrel-cage Induction Generator (fixed speed)
 Type 2: Wound-rotor Induction Generator w/variable rotor resistance
 Type 3: Doubly-Fed Induction Generator (variable speed): The DFIG is
the current workhorse of the wind energy industry.

2. Synchronous generators.
• Type 4:Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Generators

• Wound rotor synchronous generators (WRSGs)

• The induction generator has several advantages such as robustness and

mechanical simplicity. Moreover, as it is produced in large series, it can be

purchased at a relatively low price.

• The major disadvantage is that the stator is dependent on a reactive

magnetising current. As the asynchronous generator does not contain any

permanent magnets and is not separately excited, it is bound to obtain its

exciting current from somewhere else - and thus to consume reactive power.

The reactive power may be supplied by the grid or e.g. by the capacitor bank.

Its magnetic field is only established when the generator is connected to the

grid.
 Synchronous generator
• Wound rotor type:
• is excited with direct current via slip rings
• The rotor winding, through which direct current flows, generates the exciter
field, which rotates with synchronous speed.
• The speed of the synchronous generator is determined by the frequency of the
rotating field and of the number of pole pairs of the rotor.
• Permanent Magnet Type:
• Contains permanent magnets

The synchronous generator has one clear advantage compared with the
induction generator: it does not need a reactive magnetising current.
However, compared to the induction generator it is much more expensive and
mechanically more complicated.
WIND TRIBUNE APPLICATIONS
• Electricity for homes and farms
• Electricity for communities
• Electricity in industry
• Supplying electricity for a nation
• Remote communities
• Energy to drive pumps
 Wind Power Advantages and
Disadvantages
• Advantages Wind Power
• No fuel provision and transport are required
• It is renewable source of energy and Free Of Cost
• Wind power is free of pollution (no greenhouse gases)
• Can be installed in remote villages, thus reducing costly transmission
lines
• Expanding Wind Power development brings jobs to rural communities
• Problems associated with wind energy
• Wind energy system are noisy
• Large area of land is needed to install wind farms
• Wind energy is fluctuating in nature
• Capital cost is very high
• maintenance cost is very high