Wind Energy

Introduction
Wind is air in motion and it derives energy from solar radiation. About 2% of the
total solar flux that reaches the earth’s surface is transformed into wind energy due
to uneven heating of the atmosphere. During daytime, the air over the land mass
heats up faster than the air over the oceans. Hot air expands and rises while cool air
from oceans rushes to fill the space, creating local winds. At night the process is
reversed as the air cools more rapidly over land than water over off-shore land,
causing breeze, as shown in Figure 7.1. On a global scale low pressure exists near
the Equator due to greater heating, causing winds to blow from subtropical belts
towards the Equator. Also, the axial rotation of the earth induces a centrifugal force
which throws equatorial air masses to the upper atmosphere, causing deflection of
winds.
 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
The concept of harnessing wind energy dates back to 4000 BC, when Egyptians
used wind power to sail their boats in the Nile river. By the tenth century the wind
mills were being used to grind grains in Iran and Afghanistan. Skilful technicians of
Iran introduced the windmills to China where they gained popularity and were used
to raise water for irrigation and sea water for production of salt. The technology to
harness wind energy reached western Europe via the Arabs. Wind machines became
popular because the energy can be used in a number of ways. In 1854, Daniel
Halladay in US introduced a wind pump. Windmills were in use for draining lakes,
raising water for irrigation, industrial uses like sawing timber, extracting oil from oil
seeds, and polishing stones. In West Indies, windmills were used for crushing
sugarcane.
It was P. La’cour (Denmark), who in 1880 for the first time used the windmill as a
source of electricity. A new era began after the First World War when experiments
were carried out with windmills having sails of aerofoil section. A French engineer
Darreius built an aerogenerator at Bourget in 1929 that had a tower 20 metres high
with blades of the same diameter. In the late 1950s, Danish electrical companies
successfully tested a 200 kW wind turbine with an asynchronous generator.
After the sudden price rise of fossil fuel in 1973, a number of countries were
stimulated towards the development and use of renewable energy sources. In 1974,
NASA constructed and operated a wind generator of 100 kW capacity with 38-m
diameter rotor installed over a 30 m high tower. Success encouraged the US firms to
manufacture a 2.5 MW generator in 1987. After 1990, the European and the Asian
countries like Denmark, Germany, China and India encouraged private and
cooperative sectors to install wind generators in capacities of 200 kW, and 500 kW
to 1.5 MW.
The wind power programme in India is working quite satisfactorily. Provision of
incentives instituted by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), has
made wind electricity competitive. As a result, wind electricity has emerged as an
option for quality power. As on 31st December, 2004, India is ranked 5th in the
world after Germany, USA, Spain and Denmark in terms of wind power generation.
Most of the capacity addition has been achieved through commercial projects by
private investors.
 WIND POWER PLANTS
Wind is air set in motion by small amount of insolation reaching the upper
atmosphere of earth.
— Nature generates about 1.67 × 105 kWh of wind energy annually over land area
of earth and 10 times this figure over the entire globe.
— Wind contains kinetic energy which can easily be converted to electrical energy.
The wind energy, which is an indirect source of energy, can be used to
run a wind will which in turn drives a generator to produce electricity.
Although wind mills have been used for more than a dozen centuries
for grinding grain and pumping water, interest in large scale power
generation has developed over the past 50 years. A largest wind
generator built in the past was 800 kW unit operated in France from
1958–60.
The flexible 3 blades propeller was about 35 m in diameter and produced the rated power in a
60 km/hour wind with a rotation speed of 47 r.p.m. The maximum power developed was 12
MW. In India the interest in the wind mills was shown in the last fifties and early sixties.
Apart from importing a few from outside, new designs were also developed, but these were
not sustained. It is only in last 15–20 years that development work is going on in many
institutions. An important reason for this lack of interest in wind energy must be that wind, in
India is relatively low and vary appreciably with seasons. These low and seasonal winds
imply a high cost of exploitation of wind energy. In our country high wind speeds are
however available in coastal areas of Sourashtra, Western Rajasthan and some parts of
central India. In these areas there could be a possibility of using medium and large sized
wind mills for generation of electricity. Applications of wind plants :
Following are the main applications of wind plants :
1. Electrical generation.
2. Pumping.
3. Drainage.
4. Grinding grains.
5. Saw milling.
 Characteristics of Wind
The main characteristics of wind are :
• Wind speed increases roughly as 1/7 th power of height. Typical tower heights are
about 20–30 m.
• Energy-pattern factor. It is the ratio of the actual energy in varying wind to energy
calculated from the cube of mean wind speed. This factor is always greater than
unity which means that energy estimates based on mean (hourly) speed are
pessimistic.
 Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind
Energy
Advantages :
1. It is a renewable energy source.
2. Wind power systems being non-polluting have no adverse effect on the environment.
3. Fuel provision and transport are not required in wind energy conversion systems.
4. Economically competitive.
5. Ideal choice for rural and remote areas and areas which lack other energy sources.
 Disadvantages
1. Owing to its irregularity, the wind energy needs storage.
2. Availability of energy is fluctuating in nature.
3. The overall weight of a wind power system is relatively high.
4. Wind energy conversion systems are noisy in operation.
5. Large areas are required for installation/operation of wind energy systems.
6. Present systems are neither maintenance free, nor practically reliable.
7. Low energy density.
8. Favourable winds are available only in a few geographical locations, away from cities,
forests.
9. Wind turbine design, manufacture and installation have proved to be most complex due to
several variables and extreme stresses.
10. Requires energy storage batteries and/or stand by diesel generators for supply of
continuous power to load.
11. Wind farms require flat, vacant land free from forests.
12. Only in kW and a few MW range ; it does not meet the energy needs of large cities and
industry.
 Sources/Origins of Wind
Following are the two sources/origins of wind (a natural phenomenon) :
1. Local winds.
2. Planetary winds.
1. Local winds. These winds are caused by unequal heating and cooling of ground
surfaces and ocean/lake surfaces during day and night. During the day warmer air
over land rises upwards and colder air from lakes, ocean, forest areas, shadow areas
flows towards warmer zones.
2. Planetary winds. These winds are caused by daily rotation of earth around its
polar axis and unequal temperature between polar regions and equatorial regions.
The strength and direction of these planetary winds change with the seasons as the
solar input varies. Despite the wind’s intermittent nature, wind patterns at any
particular site remain remarkably constant year by year. Average wind speeds are
greater in hilly and coastal areas than they are well in land. The winds also tend to
blow more consistently and with greater strength over the surface of the water where
there is a less surface drag.
 Wind speeds increase with height. They have traditionally been measured at a
standard height of 10 metres where they are found to be 20–25 per cent greater than
close to the surface. At a height of 60 m they may be 30–60 per cent higher because
of the reduction in the drag effect of the surface of the earth.
 Wind Availability and Measurement
• Wind energy can only be economical in areas of good wind availability. Wind energy differs
with region and season and also, possibly to an even greater degree with local terrain and
vegetation. Although wind speeds generally increase with height, varying speeds are found
over different kinds of terrain. Observations of wind speed are carried out at meteorological
stations, airports and lighthouses and are recorded regularly with ten minute mean values
being taken every three hours at a height of 10 m. But airports, sometimes are in valleys and
many wind speed meters are situated low and combinations of various, other factors mean
that reading can be misleading. It is difficult, therefore, to determine the real wind speed of
a certain place without actual in-situ measurements.
• The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has accepted four methods of wind
recording :
(i) Human observation and log book.
(ii) Mechanical cup-counter anemometers.
(iii) Data logger.
(iv) Continuous record of velocity and direction.
1. Human observation and log book. This involves using the Beaufort Scale of wind
strengths which defines visible “symptoms” attributable to different wind speeds. The
method is cheap and easily implemented but is often unreliable. The best that can be said of
such records is that they are better than nothing.
2. Mechanical cup-counter anemometers. The majority of meteorological stations use
mechanical cupcounter anemometers. By taking the readings twice or three times a day, it is
possible to estimate the mean wind speed. This is a low cost method, but is only relatively
reliable. The instrument has to be in good working order, it has to be correctly sited and
should be reliably read at least daily.
3. Data logger. The equipment summarizes velocity frequency and direction. It is more
expensive and prone to technical failures but gives accurate data. The method is tailored to
the production of readily interpretable data of relevance to wind energy assessment. It does
not keep a time series record but presents the data in processed form.
4. Continuous record of velocity and direction. This is how data is recorded at major
airports of permanently manned meteorological stations. The equipment is expensive and
technically complex, but it retains a detailed times-series record (second-by-second) of wind
direction and wind speed. Results are given in copious quantities of data which require
lengthy and expensive analysis.
 WIND TURBINE TYPES AND THEIR CONSTRUCTION
Wind turbines are broadly classified into two categories. When the axis of rotation is
parallel to the air stream (i.e. horizontal), the turbine is said to be a Horizontal Axis
Wind Turbine (HAWT), and when it is perpendicular to the air stream (i.e. vertical),
it is said to be a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT). The size of the rotor and its
speed depends on rating of the turbine. Some of the features of HAWT estimated at
wind speed of 12 m/s and CP = 30 per cent are given in Table 7.4.
 Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT)

HAWTs have emerged as the most successful type of turbines. These are being used
for commercial energy generation in many parts of the world. Their theoretical basis
is well researched and sufficient field experience is available with them.
• Main Components
The constructional details of most common, three-blade rotor, horizontal axis wind
turbine are shown in Fig. 7.18. Main parts are as follows:
(a) Turbine Blades Turbine blades are made of high-density wood or glass fiber and
epoxy composites. They have airfoil type cross-section. The blades are slightly
twisted from the outer tip to the root to reduce the tendency to stall. In addition to
centrifugal force and fatigue due to continuous vibrations there are many extraneous
forces arising from wind turbulence, gust, gravitational forces and directional
changes in the wind, etc. All these factors are to be taken care off at the designing
stage. Diameter of a typical, MW range, modern rotor may be of the order of 100 m.
Modern wind turbines have two or three blades. Two/three blade rotor HAWT are
also known as propeller type wind turbines owing to their similarity with propellers
of old aero planes. However, the rotor rpm in case of wind turbine is very low as
compared to that for propellers.
(b) Hub The central solid portion of the rotor wheel is known as hub. All blades ate
attached to the hub. Mechanism for pitch angle control is also provided inside the
hub.
(c) Nacelle The term nacelle is derived from the name for housing containing the
engines of an aircraft. The rotor is attached to nacelle, mounted at the top of a tower.
It contains rotor brakes, gearbox, generator and electrical switchgear and control.
Brakes are used to stop the rotor when power generation is not desired. Gearbox
steps up the shaft rpm to suit the generator. Protection and control functions are
provided by switchgear and control block. The generated electrical power is
conducted to ground terminals through a cable.
(d) Yaw Control Mechanism The mechanism to adjust the nacelle around vertical
axis to keep it facing the wind is provided at the base of nacelle.
(e) Tower Tower supports nacelle and rotor. For medium and large sized turbines,
the tower is slightly taller than the rotor diameter. In case of small sized turbine, the
tower is much larger than the rotor diameter as the air is erratic at lower heights.
Both steel and concrete towers are being used. The construction can be either
tubular or lattice type. The tower vibrations and resulting fatigue cycles under wind
speed fluctuations are avoided by careful design. This requires avoidance of all
resonance frequencies of tower, the rotor and the nacelle from the wind fluctuation
frequencies.
 Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT)
VAWTs are in the development stage and many models are undergoing field trial.
Main attractions of a VAWT are:
(i) it can accept wind from any direction, eliminating the need of yaw control.
(ii) gearbox, generator etc. are located at the ground, thus eliminating the heavy
nacelle at the top of the tower. This simplifies the design and installation of the
whole structure, including tower.
(iii) the inspection and maintenance also gets easier and
(iv) it also reduces the overall cost.
1. Main Components
The constructional details of a vertical axis wind turbine (Darrieus type rotor) are
shown in Fig. 7.23. The details of main components are as follows:
(a) Tower (or Rotor Shaft) The tower is a hollow vertical rotor shaft, which rotates
freely about vertical axis between top and bottom bearings. It is installed above a
support structure. In the absence of any load at the top, a very strong tower is not
required, which greatly simplifies its design. The upper part of the tower is
supported by guy ropes. The height of the tower of a large turbine is around 100 m.
(b) Blades It has two or three thin, curved blades shaped like an eggbeater in profile,
with blades curved in a form that minimizes the bending stress caused by centrifugal
forces-the so-called ‘Troposkien’ profile. The blades have airfoil crosssection with
constant chord length. The pitch of the blades cannot be changed. The diameter of
the rotor is slightly less than the tower height. The first large (3.8 MW), Darrieus
type, Canadian machine has rotor height as 94 m and diameter as 65 m with a chord
of 2.4 m.
(c) Support Structure Support structure is provided at the ground to support the
weight of the rotor. Gearbox, generator, brakes, electrical switchgear and controls
are housed within this structure.
Horizontal Axis versus Vertical Axis Turbines
Wind Data
Variation of Wind Speed with Height
 Estimation of Wind Energy at a Site
• Power in Wind
• Wind Data Statistics
• Capacity Factor
 Important Terms and Definitions
Figure 7.11, shows the position of rotor blade and various forces acting over it along with various
components of speed, for the purpose of illustration and indicating the correlation among these factors.
• Blade Element Incremental cross-section of the rotor blade as shown in Fig. 7.11(a)
• Chord Width of the blade or distance from one edge (fore) of the blade to the other (aft) (i.e. length of
blade element as shown in Fig. 7.11 (b))
• Wind Velocity, uo Velocity of free air in the neighbourhood of wind turbine (at a distance where the
disturbances due to rotation of turbine does not reach)
• Incident Wind Velocity, u1 Velocity of air passing through the rotor, i.e. the velocity at which the
wind strikes the blade, which is slightly less than uo
• Blade Element Linear Velocity, v Linear circumferential velocity of the blade element due to rotation
of blade
• Relative Wind Velocity, vr Velocity of air relative to the blade element as both the air and blade
elements move
• Angular Speed, ω Angular speed of rotor in rad/s
• Angle of Attack (or Angle of Incidence), α Angle between central line of the blade element and
relative wind velocity vr as shown in Fig. 7.11 (c)
• Blade Setting Angle (or Pitch Angle), γ Angle between central line of the blade element and
direction of linear motion of the blade element or angle between relative wind velocity vr and
normal to the plane of blade
• Drag Force, Δ FD Incremental force acting on the blade element in the direction of relative velocity
of wind
• Lift Force, Δ FL Incremental force acting on the blade element in a direction perpendicular to the
relative velocity of wind
• Axial Force, Δ FA Incremental force acting on the blade element along the axis of rotation of blade
• Tangential Force, ΔFT Incremental force acting on the blade element tangential to circular path of
rotation
• Solidity Solidity is defined as the ratio of the projected area of the rotor blades on the rotor plane to
the swept area of the rotor. Thus solidity = nC/πD, where n is the number of blades, C is average
breadth of a blade and D is the diameter of the rotor. Details and the relative positions of the above
quantities are illustrated in Fig. 7.11. The incremental axial and tangential forces acting on the blade
element are given by:
• Δ FA = Δ FL cos  + Δ FD sin 
• ΔFT = Δ FL sin  – Δ FD cos 
• where,  = α + γ.
Power Extraction from Wind
• Axial Thrust on Turbine, FA
• Torque Developed by the Turbine, T
• Dynamic Matching for Maximum Power Extraction
As per Betz criterion, a turbine can theoretically extract a maximum of 59 per cent of the available power in
wind. However, this criterion tells nothing about dynamic rotational state of the turbine required to reach this
maximum power condition. This aspect will be explored here.