Incentives and community benefits

General information

Wind power is obtained from air flows using wind turbines or sails to produce mechanical or electrical power. Wind power is an alternative to fossil fuels. It is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, and uses little land.

Turbine types

As a result of years of developing windmills and modern engineering technologies, today's wind turbines are manufactured in a wide range of horizontal axis and vertical axis types. The smallest turbines are used for battery charging. A bit larger ones can be used for making small contributions to a domestic power. Arrays of large turbines, known as wind farms, have become a very important modern source of energy and are used in many countries.

Turbine design

The shape and dimensions of the blades of the wind turbine are determined by the aerodynamic specifications that require both an efficient extraction of energy from the wind and a great resistance to the forces pressing on the blades.

1 - Foundation

2 - Connection to the electric grid

3 - Tower

4 - Access ladder

5 - Wind orientation control

6 - Nacelle

7 - Generator

8 - Anemometer

9 - Electric or Mechanical Brake

10 - Gearbox

11 - Rotor blade

12 - Blade pitch control

13 - Rotor hub.

Wind farms

A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines distributed over an area. A wind farm may also be located offshore.

World’s wind power capacity

Worldwide there are now over two hundred thousand wind turbines operating, with a total nameplate capacity of 282,482 MW as of end 2012. The European Union alone passed some 100,000 MW nameplate capacity in September 2012, while the United States surpassed 50,000 MW in August 2012 and China's grid connected capacity passed 50,000 MW the same month. World wind generation capacity more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006, doubling about every three years.

Economics

Wind turbines reach grid parity (the point at which the cost of wind energy corresponds to the traditional sources) in parts of Europe in the mid-2000s, and in the US at about the same time. Falling prices continue to maintain levelized cost down and it was suggested that it achieved total parity grid in Europe in 2010, and will reach the same point in the US about 2016 because of the expected reduction in capital expenditures of about 12%.

Electricity cost

Wind power is capital intensive, but has no fuel costs. The price of wind power is much more stable than the volatile prices of fossil fuel sources. The marginal cost of wind energy once a station is constructed is usually less than 1-cent per kW·h. However, the estimated average cost per unit of electricity must overweight the cost of construction of the turbine and transmission facilities, borrowed funds and other investments. This means that electricity produced with wind power isn’t free It has cost but cost of production isn’t very high.

Incentives and community benefits

The U.S. wind industry generates tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity. Wind projects provide local taxes and strengthen the economy of rural communities by providing income to farmers with wind turbines on their land. Wind energy in many jurisdictions receives financial or other support to encourage its development.

Secondary market forces also provide benefits for businesses to use wind-generated power, even if there is a premium price for the electricity. For example, socially responsible manufacturers pay utility companies a premium that goes to subsidize and build new wind power infrastructure. Companies use wind-generated power, and in return they can claim that they are undertaking strong "green" efforts.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 599