International Symposium on Electrical and Electronics Engineering ISEEE-2017, Galati, Romania
Green energy - wind turbines
Triguc Rodion
ABSTRACT Wind power is the use of air flow through
wind turbines to mechanically power generators for
electric power. Wind power, as an alternative to burning
fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed,
clean, produces no greenhouse gas emissions during
operation, consumes no water, and uses little land.The
net effects on the environment are far less problematic
than those of nonrenewable power sources.
Index TermsGreen energy, energy, wind turbines.
I. INTRODUCTION
Wind farms consist of many individual wind turbines
which are connected to the electric power
transmission network. Onshore wind is an inexpensive
source of electric power, competitive with or in many
places cheaper than coal or gas plants. Offshore wind is
steadier and stronger than on land, and offshore
farms have less visual impact, but construction and
maintenance costs are considerably higher. Small onshore
wind farms can feed some energy into the grid or provide
electric power to isolated off-grid locations.
Wind power gives variable power which is very
consistent from year to year but which has significant
variation over shorter time scales. It is therefore used in
conjunction with other electric power sources to give a
reliable supply. As the proportion of wind power in a
region increases, a need to upgrade the grid, and a
lowered ability to supplant conventional production can
occur.
Power management techniques such as having excess
capacity, geographically distributed turbines, dispatchable
backing sources, sufficient hydroelectric power, exporting
and importing power to neighboring areas, using vehicle-
to-grid strategies or reducing demand when wind
production is low, can in many cases overcome these
problems.In addition, weather forecasting permits the
electric power network to be readied for the predictable
variations in production that occur.
Fig. 1. Wind Turbines in world .
II. HISTORY
Wind power has been used as long as humans have
put sails into the wind. For more than two millennia wind-
powered machines have ground grain and pumped water.
Wind power was widely available and not confined to the
banks of fast-flowing streams, or later, requiring sources
of fuel. Wind-powered pumps drained the polders of the
Netherlands, and in arid regions such as the American
mid-west or the Australian outback, wind pumps provided
water for live stock and steam engines.
The first windmill used for the production of electric
power was built in Scotland in July 1887 by Prof James
Blyth of Anderson's College, Glasgow (the precursor
of Strathclyde University). Blyth's 10 metres (33 ft) high,
cloth-sailed wind turbine was installed in the garden of
his holiday cottage at Marykirk in Kincardineshire and
was used to charge accumulators developed by the
Frenchman Camille Alphonse Faure, to power the lighting
in the cottage, thus making it the first house in the world
to have its electric power supplied by wind power. Blyth
offered the surplus electric power to the people of
Marykirk for lighting the main street, however, they
turned down the offer as they thought electric power was
"the work of the devil. Although he later built a wind
turbine to supply emergency power to the local Lunatic
Asylum, Infirmary and Dispensary of Montrose the
invention never really caught on as the technology was
not considered to be economically viable.
Across the Atlantic, in Cleveland, Ohio a larger and
heavily engineered machine was designed and
constructed in the winter of 18871888 by Charles F.
Brush, this was built by his engineering company at his
home and operated from 1886 until 1900.The Brush wind
turbine had a rotor 17 metres (56 ft) in diameter and was
mounted on an 18 metres (59 ft) tower. Although large by
today's standards, the machine was only rated at 12 kW.
Fig. 2 Charles Brush's windmill of 1888, used for generating electric
power.
 International Symposium on Electrical and Electronics Engineering ISEEE-2017, Galati, Romania
III. OFFSHORE WIND POWER
Offshore wind power refers to the construction of wind
farms in large bodies of water to generate electric power.
These installations can utilize the more frequent and
powerful winds that are available in these locations and
have less aesthetic impact on the landscape than land
based projects. However, the construction and the
maintenance costs are considerably higher.
Siemens and Vestas are the leading turbine suppliers for
offshore wind power. DONG Energy, Vattenfall and E.ON
are the leading offshore operators. As of October 2010,
3.16 GW of offshore wind power capacity was
operational, mainly in Northern Europe.
According to BTM Consult, more than 16 GW of
additional capacity will be installed before the end of
2014 and the UK and Germany will become the two
leading markets. Offshore wind power capacity is
expected to reach a total of 75 GW worldwide by 2020,
with significant contributions from China and the US.
In 2012, 1,662 turbines at 55 offshore wind farms in 10
European countries produced 18 TWh, enough to power
almost five million households.As of August 2013 the
London Array in the United Kingdom is the largest
offshore wind farm in the world at 630 MW. This is
followed by Gwynt y Mr (576 MW), also in the UK.
Fig. 3 Maritim Wind
IV. COLLECTION AND TRANSMISSION NETWORK
In a wind farm, individual turbines are interconnected
with a medium voltage (usually 34.5 kV) power
collection system and communications network. At a
substation, this medium-voltage electric current is
increased in voltage with a transformer for connection to
the high voltage electric power transmission system.
A transmission line is required to bring the generated
power to (often remote) markets. For an off-shore station
this may require a submarine cable. Construction of a new
high-voltage line may be too costly for the wind resource
alone, but wind sites may take advantage of lines installed
for conventionally fueled generation.
O penetration level low penetration requires daily storage,
One of the biggest current challenges to wind power grid
integration in the United States is the necessity of
developing new transmission lines to carry power from
wind farms, usually in remote lowly populated states in
the middle of the country due to availability of wind, to
high load locations, usually on the coasts where
population density is higher.
The current transmission lines in remote locations were
not designed for the transport of large amounts of
energy. As transmission lines become longer the losses
associated with power transmission increase, as modes of
losses at lower lengths are exacerbated and new modes of
losses are no longer negligible as the length is increased,
making it harder to transport large loads over large
distances.
However, resistance from state and local governments
makes it difficult to construct new transmission lines.
Multi state power transmission projects are discouraged
by states with cheap electric power rates for fear that
exporting their cheap power will lead to increased rates.
A 2005 energy law gave the Energy Department authority
to approve transmission projects states refused to act on,
but after an attempt to use this authority, the Senate
declared the department was being overly aggressive in
doing so. Another problem is that wind companies find
out after the fact that the transmission capacity of a new
farm is below the generation capacity, largely because
federal utility rules to encourage renewable energy
installation allow feeder lines to meet only minimum
standards.
These are important issues that need to be solved, as when
the transmission capacity does not meet the generation
capacity, wind farms are forced to produce below their
full potential or stop running all together, in a process
known as curtailment. While this leads to potential
renewable generation left untapped, it prevents possible
grid overload or risk to reliable service.
V. Energy storage
Typically,conventional hydroelectricity complements
wind power very well. When the wind is blowing
strongly, nearby hydroelectric stations can temporarily
hold back their water. When the wind drops they can,
provided they have the generation capacity, rapidly
increase production to compensate. This gives a very even
overall power supply and virtually no loss of energy and
uses no more water.
Alternatively, where a suitable head of water is not
available, pumped-storage hydroelectricity or other forms
of grid energy storage such as compressed air energy
storage and thermal energy storage can store energy
developed by high-wind periods and release it when
needed. The type of storage needed depends on the wind
 International Symposium on Electrical and Electronics Engineering ISEEE-2017, Galati, Romania
and high penetration requires both short and long term
storage as long as a month or more. Stored energy
increases the economic value of wind energy since it can
be shifted to displace higher cost generation during peak
demand periods. The potential revenue from
this arbitrage can offset the cost and losses of storage. For
example, in the UK, the 1.7 GW Dinorwig pumped-
storage plant evens out electrical demand peaks, and
allows base-load suppliers to run their plants more
efficiently. Although pumped-storage power systems are
only about 75% efficient, and have high installation costs,
their low running costs and ability to reduce the required
electrical base-load can save both fuel and total electrical
generation costs.
In particular geographic regions, peak wind speeds may
not coincide with peak demand for electrical power. In the
U.S. states of California and Texas, for example, hot days
in summer may have low wind speed and high electrical
demand due to the use of air conditioning. Some utilities
subsidize the purchase of geothermal heat pumps by their
customers, to reduce electric power demand during the
summer months by making air conditioning up to 70%
more efficient. widespread adoption of this technology
would better match electric power demand to wind
availability in areas with hot summers and low summer
winds. A possible future option may be to interconnect
widely dispersed geographic areas with an HVDC "super
grid". In the U.S. it is estimated that to upgrade the
transmission system to take in planned or potential
renewables would cost at least USD 60 bn, while the
society value of added windpower would be more than
that cost.
Germany has an installed capacity of wind and solar that
can exceed daily demand, and has been exporting peak
power to neighboring countries, with exports which
amounted to some 14.7 billion kWh in 2012.] A more
practical solution is the installation of thirty days storage
capacity able to supply 80% of demand, which will
become necessary when most of Europe's energy is
obtained from wind power and solar power. Just as the
EU requires member countries to maintain 90
days strategic reserves of oil it can be expected that
countries will provide electric power storage, instead of
expecting to use their neighbors for net metering.
VI. Materials and Durability
Materials that are typically used for the rotor blades in
wind turbines are composites, as they tend to have a high
stiffness, high strength, high fatigue resistance, and low
weight. Typical resins used for these composites include
polyester and epoxy, while glass and carbon fibers have
been used for the reinforcing material. Construction may
use manual layup techniques or composite resin injection
molding. As the price of glass fibers is only about one
tenth the price of carbon fiber, glass fiber is still
dominant.
As competition in the wind market increases, companies
are seeking ways to draw greater efficiency from their
designs. One of the predominant ways wind turbines have
gained performance is by increasing rotor diameters, and
thus blade length.
Retrofitting current turbines with larger blades mitigates
the need and risks associated with a system-level
redesign. By incorporating carbon fiber into parts of
existing blade systems, manufacturers may increase the
length of the blades without increasing their overall
weight. For instance, the spar cap, a structural element of
a turbine blade, commonly experiences high tensile
loading, making it an ideal candidate to utilize the
enhanced tensile properties of carbon fiber in comparison
to glass fiber.
Higher stiffness and lower density translates to thinner,
lighter blades offering equivalent performance. In a 10-
MW turbinewhich will become more common in
offshore systems by 2021blade lengths may reach over
100 m and weigh up to 50 metric tonnes when fabricated
out of glass fiber.
A switch to carbon fiber in the structural spar of the blade
yields weight savings of 20 to 30 percent, or
approximately 15 metric tonnes.The compressive
properties of carbon fiber do not differ significantly from
those of glass fiber. It is therefore not economical to
replace glass fiber components under compression with
carbon fiber components.
While the material cost is significantly higher for all-glass
fiber blades than for hybrid glass/carbon fiber blades,
there is a potential for tremendous savings in
manufacturing costs when labor price is considered.
Utilizing carbon fiber enables for simpler designs that use
less raw material.
The chief manufacturing process in blade fabrication is
the layering of plies. By reducing the number of layers of
plies, as is enabled by thinner blade design, the cost of
labor may be decreased, and in some cases, equate to the
cost of labor for glass fiber blades.
Materials for wind turbine parts other than the rotor
blades (including the rotor hub, gearbox, frame, and
tower) are largely composed of steel.
Modern turbines uses a couple of tonnes of copper for
generators, cables and such.Smaller wind turbines have
begun incorporating more aluminum based alloys into
these components in an effort to make the turbines more
lightweight and efficient, and may continue to be used
increasingly if fatigue and strength properties can be
improved.
Prestressed concrete has been increasingly used for the
material of the tower, but still requires much reinforcing
steel to meet the strength requirement of the turbine.
Additionally, step-up gear boxes are being increasingly
replaced with variable speed generators, increasing the
demand for magnetic materials in wind turbines.
In particular this would require an increased supply of
the rare earth metal neodymium. Reliance on rare earth
minerals for components has risked expense and price
volatility as China has been main producer of rare earth
minerals (96% in 2009) and had been reducing its export
quotas of these materials.In recent years, however, other
 International Symposium on Electrical and Electronics Engineering ISEEE-2017, Galati, Romania
producers have increased production of rare earth
minerals and China has removed its reduced export quota
on rare earths leading to an increased supply and
decreased cost of rare earth minerals, increasing the
viability of the implementation of variable speed
generators in wind turbines on a large scale
VII. Wind Turbines on public display
A few localities have exploited the attention-getting
nature of wind turbines by placing them on public display,
either with visitor centers around their bases, or with
viewing areas farther away. The wind turbines are
generally of conventional horizontal-axis, three-bladed
design, and generate power to feed electrical grids, but
they also serve the unconventional roles of technology
demonstration, public relations, and education. Fig.4.
Fig. 4 The Nordex N50 wind turbine and visitor centre of Lamma
Winds in Hong Kong, China
VIII. Small wind turbines
Small wind turbines may be used for a variety of
applications including on- or off-grid residences, telecom
towers, offshore platforms, rural schools and clinics,
remote monitoring and other purposes that require energy
where there is no electric grid, or where the grid is
unstable.
Small wind turbines may be as small as a fifty-watt
generator for boat or caravan use. Hybrid solar and wind
powered units are increasingly being used for traffic
signage, particularly in rural locations, as they avoid the
need to lay long cables from the nearest mains connection
point. The U.S. Department of Energy's National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) defines small
wind turbines as those smaller than or equal to 100
kilowatts.
Small units often have direct drive generators, direct
current output, aeroelastic blades, lifetime bearings and
use a vane to point into the wind.
IX. References
1. Global Wind Report Annual Market Update 2011" (PDF).
Gwec.net. Retrieved 14 May 2011.
2. Abbess, Jo (28 August 2009). "Wind Energy Variability and
Intermittency in the UK". Claverton-
energy.com. Archived from the original on 25 August 2011.
3. Armaroli, Nicola; Balzani, Vincenzo (2011). "Towards an
electricity-powered world". Energy & Environmental
Science. 4 (9): 3193
4. Chanban, Matt A.V.; Delaqurire, Alain. Turbines Popping
Up on New York Roofs, Along With Questions of
Efficiency, The New York Times website, 26 May 2014, and
in print on 27 May 2014, p. A19 of the New York edition.
5. Buller, Erin (11 July 2008). "Capturing the wind". Uinta
County Herald. Retrieved 4 December 2008."The animals
don't care at all. We find cows and antelope napping in the
shade of the turbines." Mike Cadieux, site manager,
Wyoming Wind Farm
6. "Global Wind Report 2014 Annual Market
Update" (PDF). report. GWEC. 22 April 2016. p. 9.
Retrieved 23 May 2016. 2015 was an unprecedented year for
the wind industry as annual installations crossed the 60 GW
mark for the first time, and more than 63 GW of new wind
power capacity was brought on line. The last record was set
in 2014 when over 51.7 GW of new capacity was installed
globally. In 2015 total investments in the clean energy sector
reached a record USD 329 bn (EUR 296.6 bn). The new
global total for wind power at the end of 2015 was 432.9 GW
7. Watts, Jonathan & Huang, Cecily. Winds Of Change Blow
Through China As Spending On Renewable Energy
Soars, The Guardian, 19 March 2012, revised on 20 March
2012. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
8. Morthorst, Poul Erik; Redlinger, Robert Y.; Andersen, Per
(2002). Wind energy in the 21st century: economics, policy,
technology and the changing electricity industry.
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire:
Palgrave/UNEP. ISBN 0-333-79248-3.
9. Watson, James; Serrano, Juan. "Composite Materials for
Wind Blades". windsystemsmag.com. Retrieved 6
November 2016.
10. Frost and Sullivan, 2009, cited in Wind Generator
Technology, by Eclareon S.L., Madrid, May 2012;
www.eclareon.com; Available at Leonardo Energy Ask an
Expert; http://www.leonardo-energy.org/ask-expert
11. Wilburn, David. "Wind Energy in the United States and
Materials Required for the Land-Based Wind Turbine
Industry From 2010 Through 2030" (PDF). U.S. Department
of the Interior.
12. Patel, Prachi (22 June 2009). "Floating Wind Turbines to Be
Tested". IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved 7 March 2011. will test
how the 2.3-megawatt turbine holds up in 220-meter-deep
water.
13. See Erich Hau: Windkraftanlagen: Grundlagen, Technik,
Einsatz, Wirtschaftlichkeit. Berlin/ Heidelberg 2008, pp. 621.
(German). (For the english Edition see Erich Hau, Wind
Turbines: Fundamentals, Technologies, Application,
Economics, Springer 2005)