MEC600 –ENGINEER IN SOCIETY

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (WIND ENERGY)

NAME : IZZAT KAMIL ANWAR BIN KHAIRIL ANUAR

ID : 2015263244

CLASS : EMD7M11

LECTURER : IR. DR. AMIRUL ABD RASHID

Contents
PROBLEM STATEMENT .......................................................................................................................... 1
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 2
1.1 How Wind Energy Is Generated ................................................................................................ 2
1.2 Advantages of Wind Power....................................................................................................... 3
1.3 Challenges faced when trying to harvest Wind Energy ............................................................ 4
2. Solutions to the Challenges faced in harvesting wind energy ...................................................... 6
3. Potential Un-ethical Problems and Its Solution ............................................................................ 9
3.1 Ethical problem: ........................................................................................................................ 9
3.2 Solution: .................................................................................................................................... 9
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................ 10

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PROBLEM STATEMENT

Sustainable development is defined as development that satisfies the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to satisfy theirs. Sustainable development insists
on the need to protect the diversity of genes, species, and all terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in
nature. This is possible in particular to protect the quality of the environment, and by the
restoration, development, and maintenance of habitats that are essential to species.

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 1. Introduction

Wind is an easily accessible source of energy. We can feel the wind all around us at night or
even during the night. The wind is a form of solar energy which is caused when the atmosphere
is heated unevenly by the sun, the rotation of the earth on its axis, and irregular earth surface. All
this factors combined will produce wind that can be harvested by using modern wind turbines to
generate electricity based on its flow or its motion energy. This wind flow are effected and
influenced by the earth’s terrain, its bodies of water, and their vegetative cover.

1.1 How Wind Energy Is Generated

Wind energy or wind power is usually used to describe the process of transforming wind into an
energy source to generate mechanical power or electricity. This can be achieved with the help of
wind turbines which functions as a converter of kinetic energy stored in the wind and
transformed into mechanical power. Generally, there are three types of wind energy:

 Utility-scale wind: Wind turbines that range in size from 100 kilowatts to several
megawatts, where the electricity is delivered to the power grid and distributed to the end
user by electric utilities or power system operators.
 Distributed or "small" wind: Single small wind turbines below 100 kilowatts that are
used to directly power a home, farm or small business and are not connected to the grid.
 Offshore wind: Wind turbines that are erected in large bodies of water, usually on the
continental shelf. Offshore wind turbines are larger than land-based turbines and can
generate more power.

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1.2 Advantages of Wind Power

 Wind power is cost-effective. Land-based utility-scale wind is one of the lowest-priced

energy sources available today, costing between two and six cents per kilowatt-hour,
depending on the wind resource and the particular project’s financing. Because the
electricity from wind farms is sold at a fixed price over a long period of time (e.g. 20+
years) and its fuel is free, wind energy mitigates the price uncertainty that fuel costs add
to traditional sources of energy.

 Wind enables industry growth and competitiveness.

 It's a clean fuel source. Wind energy doesn't pollute the air like power plants that rely on
combustion of fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, which emit particulate matter,
nitrogen oxides, and sulfur dioxide—causing human health problems and economic
damages. Wind turbines don't produce atmospheric emissions that cause acid rain, smog,
or greenhouse gases.

 Wind is a domestic source of energy. The nation's wind supply is abundant and
inexhaustible. Over the past 10 years, cumulative wind power capacity in the United
States increased an average of 30% per year, and wind now has the largest renewable
generation capacity of all renewables in the United States.

 It's sustainable. Wind is actually a form of solar energy. Winds are caused by the
heating of the atmosphere by the sun, the rotation of the Earth, and the Earth's surface
irregularities. For as long as the sun shines and the wind blows, the energy produced can
be harnessed to send power across the grid.

 Wind turbines can be built on existing farms or ranches. This greatly benefits the
economy in rural areas, where most of the best wind sites are found. Farmers and
ranchers can continue to work the land because the wind turbines use only a fraction of
the land. Wind power plant owners make rent payments to the farmer or rancher for the
use of the land, providing landowners with additional income.

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1.3 Challenges faced when trying to harvest Wind Energy

 Citizen acceptance
One of the main issues in developing a wind farm which is a farm filled wind turbines
which generates the wind generators to produce electricity is that with the development
of technology, the wind farms have become more efficient but at the same time bigger.
The earliest wind farms in the 1980-90s were of 75 kW capacity and about 30 m tall with
a rotor diameter of 17m. The size of wind turbines has continued to increase. According
to the International Energy Agency, the largest commercial wind turbine available today
is 7, 500 kW, with a rotor diameter of 127m. However, turbines with a rated capacity of
ranging from 1, 5000 kW to 2, 5000 kW still make up the largest segment of the market.
Such huge structures commonly located in the rural upland areas create a powerful visual
contrast between wind turbines and the landscape, and many people regard them as a
‘blot on the landscape’

 Cost Issues
Even though the cost of wind power has decreased dramatically in the past 10 years, the
technology requires a higher initial investment than fossil-fueled generators. Roughly
80% of the cost is the machinery, with the balance being site preparation and installation.
If wind generating systems are compared with fossil-fueled systems on a "life-cycle" cost
basis (counting fuel and operating expenses for the life of the generator), however, wind
costs are much more competitive with other generating technologies because there is no
fuel to purchase and minimal operating expenses.

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 Natural environment and habitats
Wind energy like any other forms of energy needs to be stored and transmitted to the
consumers. The sites of commercial wind farms are often located away from residential
areas with a view to lower their impacts on local people but resulting in extensive
infrastructure including access roads, storage facilities and transmission lines. The wind
farm developers often prefer to use existing infrastructure for these purposes so as to cut
the initial costs and end up with a smaller built footprint on the landscape. Nevertheless,
wind energy farms located in forest areas require clearing of the land and hence may
interrupt wildlife habitats. Another significant environmental impact is that of avian
deaths caused by collisions with the rotating turbine blades. Wind turbines located near
important habitats or migratory routes of birds and other avian species often lead to
change in wildlife habitat and migratory patterns, thus posing a possible threat to the to
the ecosystem. The wind farms do not require clearing of any land for their installation in
farmlands or pastures and farming and grazing can continue up to the base of the wind
turbine. However, shadow flickering may have some effects on the grazing animals.
Depending on the height of turbine tower and the angle of the sun, shadow flickering may
also have adverse effects on wildlife away from the vicinity of the wind farm.

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 2. Solutions to the Challenges faced in harvesting wind energy

Cost:
The world’s most powerful turbine

With a goal of reducing the cost of offshore wind and also the purpose of increasing the energy
output of each turbine, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind of Denmark has released a new and improved
nacelle to the market called V164-8.0 MW with a dimension of 20 metres long, 8 metres wide
and 8 metres high. The blades are measured at 80 metres long and weighs more than 35 tonnes. It
has already broken the record for energy generation in a commercial offshore wind tubine when
the prototype was set up at the Østerild National Test Centre for Large Wind Turbines which was
able to produce 216,000 kWh over a 24-hour period in December 2016. MHI Vestas has also
upgraded its product from 8MW to 9MW. The increased production will add value to projects
and save on Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) costs, as fewer turbines are needed to meet park
capacity

Citizen Acceptance:

Wind turbine cooperatives – citizens as co-owners

Prøvestenens Vindmøllelaug is the wind turbine cooperative formed when a new onshore wind
project was proposed in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2014.This project is a project which consists
of three 2MW turbine but one of the turbines are owne by private citizens while the other two
was owned by a Danish Company called HOFOR who initially developed and financed the
project but then offered 33% of the shares to the locals. According to the Danish Act on
Renewable Energy it is mandatory to offer at least 20% of the ownership in new onshore and
near shore wind farms to local citizens.The purpose of this provision is to promote local
acceptance from neighbours to wind farms through co-ownership and in the case of Prøvestenens
Vindmøllelaug, the cooperative consists of 4,055 shares owned by 516 shareholders. Each year,
the board of the cooperative is elected at the annual general meeting and the cooperative idea is
that one share equals one vote.

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Natural environments and habitats:

Although the number of avian deaths and impact on habitats caused by wind turbines are less
than those caused by other factors, such as bird impacts with high-rise buildings, the issue still
finds its place in discussions on environmental impacts of wind energy. However, avian deaths
and impacts on local wildlife can be reduced significantly using many different strategies. Marc
Bechard, a biologist at Boise State University in Idaho and his colleagues from Doñana
Biological Station in Seville, Spain, worked on reducing avian deaths caused by wind turbines in
Cádiz, Spain. They studied the migratory patterns of the birds and each time a raptor was spotted
heading towards a turbine, the blades were slowed down to a stop and the birds passed
unharmed. Bechard and his colleagues were able to lower the mortality rates at the Cádiz wind
farms by 50%, incurring only a 0.07% loss in energy production. Shawn Smallwood, an
ecologist suggested that the Buena Vista Wind Energy Project at Altamont, California avoid
ridge saddles between hills and other hotspots for raptor traffic when they replaced 179 turbines
with 38 taller ones in 2006. Since then, golden eagle fatalities at Buena Vista have dropped by
50% and other raptor deaths by 75%. According to Todd Katzner, a biologist at West Virginia
University in Morgantown, small changes like moving a turbine site by a few hundred meters
can substantially reduce the risks of avian collisions.While monitoring bird migration patterns
and planning spatial arrangement of wind turbines have proven instrumental in addressing avian
death issues, sometimes small procedural changes in the way turbines function can make a huge
difference. Most turbines are set to start rotating at a wind speed of 4.0 meters per second. But
Iberdrola Renewables Casselman Wind Project in Pennsylvania increased the threshold to 5.5
meters per second. Since bats don’t fly as much in high winds, bat deaths were reduced by 93%
with a loss of production by 1%. Stu Webster, director of permitting and environmental affairs at
Iberdrola Renewables, says that birds are most at risk during fog or similar low visibility
conditions. Otherwise, the birds actually react to the wind farms and avoid the turbines by
themselves.

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Challenges In Adapting Wind Power In Malaysia

 Wind power must still compete with conventional generation sources on a cost
basis. Depending on how energetic a wind site is, the wind farm might not be cost
competitive. Even though the cost of wind power has decreased dramatically in the past
10 years, the technology requires a higher initial investment than fossil-fueled generators.
 Good wind sites are often located in remote locations, far from cities where the electricity
is needed. Transmission lines must be built to bring the electricity from the wind farm to
the city.
 In Malaysia, even the remote areas of the country has populations living in these remote
areas. This is a challenge due to the fact that this wind farms will disturb their homes and
livelihood.
 Wind resource development might not be the most profitable use of the land. Land
suitable for wind-turbine installation must compete with alternative uses for the land,
which might be more highly valued than electricity generation.
 Malaysia is a smaller country compared to Denmark. This may prove to be a challenge
due to the fact that they may not be enough location for wind farms to be built in
Malaysia.
 Malaysia geographic landscape is also a challenge in adapting wind power because the
geographic landscape of Malaysia is mostly filled with the rainforest and uneven surface
which is unsuitable for a wind farm because wind farms needs a flat surface.

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3. Potential Un-ethical Problems and Its Solution
3.1 Ethical problem:

 Corruption and abuse of power

A wind farm is a multi-million Ringgit project which may be a source for corruption. To
get the tender for the project a certain party might be inclined to bribe the selection
committee of the project to ensure that they will get the project. This is a very serious
ethical issue because if a party is selected through corruption, the party may not be able
to complete the project and it will block the opportunity of a party that is capable of
completing the project.

 Conflict of interest
This may happen when the government electing the contractors for the wind farm project
are chosen from the friends of family of the officials of the government this is also
unethical and consider as corruption.

 Deforestation
Deforestation is an act of clearing the rainforest for development. Even though it is
required to clear the forest to build a rainforest, but it may be a loophole for certain
parties to participate in illegal logging which is clearly unethical.

3.2 Solution:

 Ensure that proper enforcement is done when there is suspected corruption. This is
because to ensure the project success and to stop corruption from the roots.
 Proper procedure in choosing the contractors and kick the officers involved in conflict of
interest out of office.
 Enforce the law on deforestation to preserve the rainforest of Malaysia.

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REFERENCES

 Arnett, Edward B., Manuela MP Huso, Michael R Schirmacher, and John P Hayes. 2011. "Altering
turbine speed reduces bird mortality at wind-energy facilities." www.esajournals.org. May.
http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/100103.
 de Lucas, Manuela, Miguel Ferrer, Marc J. Bechard, and Antonio R. Muñoz. 2012. "Griffon
vulture mortality at wind farms in southern Spain: Distribution of fatalities and active mitigation
measures." Biological Conservation 184-189.
 Smallwood, K. Shawn, and Brian Karas. 2009. "Avian and Bat Fatality Rates at Old-Generation
and Repowered Wind Turbines in California." www.bioone.org. September.
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.2193/2008-464.
 Subramanian, Meera. 2012. "The trouble with turbines: An ill wind." www.nature.com. June 20.
http://www.nature.com/news/the-trouble-with-turbines-an-ill-wind-1.10849#/b1.
 https://stateofgreen.com/en/partners/state-of-green/news/10-examples-of-successful-
wind-energy-solutions/
 http://windeis.anl.gov/guide/basics/

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 MEC600 –ENGINEER IN SOCIETY
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (PO7)

Lecturer Name Remarks

IR. DR. AMIRUL ABD RASHID -On Time/- Late
Tittle : Turnitin / Similarity %-

WIND ENERGY
Student Name / UiTM ID Group No
IZZAT KAMIL ANWAR BIN KHAIRIL ANUAR/ EMD7M11
2015263244

Guidelines Level Very Poor Satisfactory Good Excellent

Poor
Scale 1-2 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10

PO PART Assessment Criteria (Report) Weight Scale Total=

(w) (y) w*y
Content/ Diagrams/Figures/ Discussion and Conclusion
PO7 I. Introduction. The effect to human society, 10
world, health, culture, legal etc.
PO7 II. Suggestion/Solution and challenge for 40
implementation and support United Nation
Sustainable Goal
PO7 III. Identify potentials un-ethical problems and 10
suggestions to overcome (Do’s and Don’ts)
PO7 IV. Format, Language and Organization, 10
References and citation
PO7 V. Promote information for public awareness 30
TOTAL 100%

REMARKS:

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