The Examination of Wind Power Technology - Coursework Example

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Name Date Abstract The focus of this paper is the examination of wind power technology in order to establish its numerous farm designs; its underlying advantages and disadvantages. The paper notes that wind power technology can adopt either an offshore or on-shore wind technologies. Most of these technologies adopt a horizontal axis model due to its reliability. Some of the advantages of the technology include; the fact that is green; renewable and utilises less space and is currently enjoying rapid growth. It is however; faced with such challenges as wind unpredictability; higher costs that relate to installation a well as the fact it results to unnecessary noise that could pollute the environment. Keywords; wind power technology on-shore and off-shore technologies, Introduction Renewable energy technologies can help countries to accomplish their immediate goals and objectives that relates to attaining a secure; reliable and much affordable energy-base that can extend the current electricity access while still promoting development (Gipe 629). It is crucial to note that energy is the fundamental and most-viable measure of all forms of work that has been developed by humans and nature in general. Energy is of paramount importance to the overall sectors of a given economy. In fact, it can be noted that the standard of living is closely linked to the per capital energy consumption of a given population base. Considering the robust increase in the level of population and way of living, the world is faced directly within an energy crisis (Rao, Usha, & Kishore 985). Traditional sources of energy have continued to be depleted thereby availing a need for coming up with non-conventional energy sources. Amongst the most notable non-traditional energy sources is wind energy, which has continued to attract lots of attention in regards to providing imminent source of energy for possible growth. Wind possesses energy by virtue of its underlying motion, any given equipment that is deemed to be capable for slowing down on mass of moving air can be successfully extracted and later, converted into useful work. The output of wind energy conversion rate is controlled by such factors as the wind speed, cross-section of the wind that is swept by rotor; the existing conversion efficiency of rotor; the generator in use as well as overall transmission system. On a theoretical background, it is imminently possible to achieve at least 100% efficiency by way of halting and preventing the overall passage of moving air through the rotor (Rao, Usha, & Kishore 987). However, it is notably clear that a rotor is only able to decelerate the air column by only a third of its free velocity. Certainly, a 100% efficient wind generator can easily convert maximum of up to 60% of the available energy in wind into energy. Additionally, the losses that are incurred within the generator or even pump, is able to decrease the underlying efficiency levels of power generation by at least 35% (Zhang 23). In the modern era, wind power technology is characterised by scale increase; commercialisation, competitiveness and grid integration. The focus of this paper is the examination of wind power technology in order to establish its numerous farm designs; its underlying advantages and disadvantages. Overview of Wind Power Technology & Design Approaches Wind power technologies have been able to transform the overall kinetic energy of the wind into meaningful mechanical energy. Kinetic energy of the air flow avails a motion pressure that, in turns, is used to turn wind-turbine blades, which when passed through a shaft, is able to avail mechanical energy that is used to power generator within the turbine (Zhang 23). It is crucial to note that the modern era that relates to wind power commenced in 1979 with a distinctive mass production of wind turbines. These turbines had smaller capacities of between 10 and 30kW. The current average size of grid-connected wind turbines is positioned at 1.16MW while most of newly-created wind turbines range between 2MW and 3 MW (Musial & Bonnie 45). Even there are even larger set of models that are readily available like in the case of REPower’s 5MW wind turbine that has been on the market for close to 7 years now. Wind turbines that are grouped together are popularly known as wind farms. Wind turbines are made up of turbines; infrastructure for site access; buildings as well as overall grid connection point (Soter & Ralf 12). Wind power technologies is provided in a number of sizes and styles and can thus, be categorised by whether they come in horizontal or vertical axis turbines; HAWT and VAWT and whether they are positioned in onshore or offshore positions. The overall power generation of wind turbines is established through the capacity of the turbine in either kW or MW, wind speed as well as the overall height of the turbine as well as the diameter of the rotors. The current modern and large-scale wind turbines contain three distinctive blades that rotate around horizontal axis, which forms the axis of a drive shaft. The turbines account for almost all utility-scale wind turbines that have been installed (Soter & Ralf 12). Despite the fact that there are vertical-axis wind turbines, they are however; less aerodynamically efficient in comparison to the horizontal axis turbines and does not have a fairly-well represented market share. In addition to large-scale designs, there has been renewed interest in small-scale wind turbines with a distinctive and innovative design varieties being in development in the recent years. Wind farm designs involves; onshore wind power technologies, which is assumes an horizontal axis wind turbine that is made up of the three-blades pitch-regulated that operates under a near-fixed rotational speed. It however contains other designs like the case of a generator direct drive turbines with a variable speed generator. Power from rotor blades is controlled through pitch or stall- focused control aspect (Korpaas, Holen, & Hildrum 600). Secondly, there are the off-shore wind power technologies, which are mostly at the commercial deployment phase. Offshore wind farm design systems adopt three forms of foundation that include; single-pile, gravity and multi-pile structures. Third, there exists a small wind turbine, which has a capacity of 100kW or even less (Korpaas, Holen, & Hildrum 603). Small wind turbines can achieve the electricity needs of small homes; farms as well as small villages with relative small consumption rates of 0.2kW. Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Power Technology Advantages Green; Wind energy is a green source of energy given the fact that it does not results to the pollution of the environment when compared to such other sources as fossil fuels; coal and nuclear (Arulampalam et al 12). While it is true that the process related to production; transportation and installation of wind turbine slightly results to global warming however; the aspect related to generation of the energy in it does not involve any form of emissions of climate gases. Renewability: It is quite obvious that wind power is a renewable source of energy. Considering the fact that wind occurs naturally, there are zero-chances of this form of energy being depleted (Arulampalam et al 12). Wind energy is accessed from a process that relates to nuclear fusion processes that occurs in the sun hence it is likely to be harnessed for a period exceeding 6-7B years (Arulampalam et al 15). Space-Efficient: When compared to solar panels and hydro-power generation process, it can be ascertained that wind turbines utilise space efficiently hence the available land that is positioned in between can be adopted for use of other activities (Slootweg & Kling 13-15). It is in this regards, it is encouraged that farms should adopt installation of wind power turbines as opposed to solar panels. Rapid Growth: Despite the fact that wind power only accounts for at least 2.5% of the overall global electricity generation, the underlying capacity has continued to grow at a significant rate of more than 25% per year (Slootweg & Kling 15). This has helped to contribute to the fight against possible escalation of global warming and thereby lowering overall production costs. In fact, it is as a result of this that there has been a definite price decrease by at least 80% or so. Low Operational Costs: Wind power generation results to lower operational costs that tend to be far much lower especially in the event that the turbines have been manufactured and installed (Slootweg & Kling 15). However, wind turbine is developed in different models so that some are more susceptible to higher maintenance costs. Disadvantages Unpredictability: It is quite clear that wind is in itself unpredictable and the availability of wind energy is never a constant phenomenon. Following this line of reasoning, it can be ascertained that wind energy is thus not fairly-suited as a reliable energy source (European Wind Energy Association 1). In fact, the situation is made far much challenging since the process of storing wind energy is not impossible to attain. Costs: of wind power and in relation to its overall cost-competitiveness poses an imminent challenge to its development (European Wind Energy Association 1). It is crucial to note that both the utility-scale wind farms as well as residential wind turbines have always depended on heavy financial incentives. Noise; is an imminent challenge of wind power generation especially where there has been construction of wind turbines in urban environments (European Wind Energy Association 1). For most people, the amount of noise that results from the movement of wind turbines is a bother. Poses a threat to wildlife; especially to such marine animals like birds and other flying creatures, which, have time and again, been hit and killed by the rotating wind turbine blades. Recent studies indicate that the annual avian-related fatalities have continued increase overtime in the US. Future of Wind Power Technology The two most common limitations of wind power relates to the initial cost and, also the overall technology underdevelopment of the energy source as a whole. For instance, the process that relates to the construction of wind turbines and wind facilities is deemed to be an overly expensive affair as higher costs are incurred in addressing different technological advancements that seeks to improve on the reliability and energy output (Dubarić et al 145). In this regard, there have been enormous investments made to lower the overall costs of this exercise while increasing the aspects related to reliability and energy generation at any given moment in time. The focus is also made towards solving the regional deployment challenges as well as extends their overall resource areas (Dubarić et al 145). Thus, there is no enough evidence to suggest that installation and development of wind power technology should be delayed till there has been an achievement in modern technological advancements needed for storing and maintaining the turbines to greater levels. Despite the fact that wind power energy is unpredictable, there is a still imminent possibility of future development of cost-effective ways of storing this form of energy. There is a positive possibility that there is going to be a breakthrough in massive energy storage technological advancements (Gu et al 336). Even so, wind turbines have to be in constant use with other forms of energy sources in order to continue meeting the current demand levels. To counter the costs related to the installation and maintenance of wind power technology, it is important to note that numerous efforts have been made to ensure its survival. There has been a continuous level of efforts that have been made in relation to provision of easily accessible financial incentives to encourage its expansion strategy (Gu et al 337). This has been ensured as the surest way of allowing wind power a relatively fair opportunity in the existing stiff competition that exists in relation to well-established energy sources like fossil fuels and coal. Numerous levels of campaigns have been made to present solar power as being the first-priority for all homeowners that are in need of generating own energy. Noise that results from the overall production of wind power from the turbines has been efficiently taken care of by the installation of wind turbines (Gu et al 337) Relatively, with the emergence of new designs; it is postulated that there is a significant level of improvement that is compared to older models, and which possibly results to the generation of this energy at low-levels of noise. Conclusion To sum up the discussion above, it can be ascertained that wind power technologies provides a reliable source of energy especially since it is renewable. There are basically two forms of wind farm designs that include; horizontal and vertical axis models. Most of the existing wind turbines adopt the horizontal axis model since it is relatively reliable though expensive to maintain over a long period. There are also both onshore and offshore wind turbine features that provide a relatively stable platform for the production of the wind energy. The paper has successfully argued that wind power technology is a reliable source that is renewable; it is a green form of source of energy; consumes relatively small space for massive production as well as operates on a low-cost model especially after initial purchase and installation process. On the contrast, wind power technology is noisy hence pollutes the environment especially in urban environment; it is unpredictable and poses a pertinent threat to wildlife and more so, flying creatures that are captured and killed by the ever-rotating wind turbines. However, it is argued that the adoption of the technology is still pertinent given that there is an enormous chance to develop future innovative ways of harnessing and storing wind energy. Works Cited Arulampalam, A., et al. "Trends in wind power technology and grid code requirements." Industrial and Information Systems, 2007. ICIIS 2007. International Conference on. IEEE, 2007. Dubarić, Ervin, et al. "Patent data as indicators of wind power technology development." World Patent Information 33.2 (2011): 144-149 European Wind Energy Association. Wind energy-the facts: a guide to the technology, economics and future of wind power. Rutledge, 2012 Gipe, Paul. "Wind power." Wind Engineering 28.5 (2004): 629-631. Gu, Xing-kai, et al. "Summarization of wind power prediction technology." Power System Technology 31.2 (2007): 335-338. Musial, Walter, & Bonnie Ram. Large-scale offshore wind power in the United States: Assessment of opportunities and barriers. No. NREL/TP-500-40745. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO., 2010. Musgrove, Peter, et al. Wind power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Korpaas, Magnus, Arne T. Holen, & Ragne Hildrum. "Operation and sizing of energy storage for wind power plants in a market system." International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems 25.8 (2003): 599-606. Rao, K. Usha, and V. V. N. Kishore. "Wind power technology diffusion analysis in selected states of India." Renewable Energy 34.4 (2009): 983-988. Soter, Stefan, & Ralf Wegener. "Development of induction machines in wind power technology." Proc. IEEE Int. Electric Mach. Drives Conf. Vol. 2. 2007. Slootweg, J. G., & W. L. Kling. "The impact of large scale wind power generation on power system oscillations." Electric Power Systems Research 67.1 (2003): 9-20. Zhang, Liying, et al. "Problems and measures of power grid accommodating large scale wind power [J]." Proceedings of the CSEE 25.002 (2010) Read More

In the modern era, wind power technology is characterised by scale increase; commercialisation, competitiveness and grid integration. The focus of this paper is the examination of wind power technology in order to establish its numerous farm designs; its underlying advantages and disadvantages. Overview of Wind Power Technology & Design Approaches Wind power technologies have been able to transform the overall kinetic energy of the wind into meaningful mechanical energy. Kinetic energy of the air flow avails a motion pressure that, in turns, is used to turn wind-turbine blades, which when passed through a shaft, is able to avail mechanical energy that is used to power generator within the turbine (Zhang 23).

It is crucial to note that the modern era that relates to wind power commenced in 1979 with a distinctive mass production of wind turbines. These turbines had smaller capacities of between 10 and 30kW. The current average size of grid-connected wind turbines is positioned at 1.16MW while most of newly-created wind turbines range between 2MW and 3 MW (Musial & Bonnie 45). Even there are even larger set of models that are readily available like in the case of REPower’s 5MW wind turbine that has been on the market for close to 7 years now.

Wind turbines that are grouped together are popularly known as wind farms. Wind turbines are made up of turbines; infrastructure for site access; buildings as well as overall grid connection point (Soter & Ralf 12). Wind power technologies is provided in a number of sizes and styles and can thus, be categorised by whether they come in horizontal or vertical axis turbines; HAWT and VAWT and whether they are positioned in onshore or offshore positions. The overall power generation of wind turbines is established through the capacity of the turbine in either kW or MW, wind speed as well as the overall height of the turbine as well as the diameter of the rotors.

The current modern and large-scale wind turbines contain three distinctive blades that rotate around horizontal axis, which forms the axis of a drive shaft. The turbines account for almost all utility-scale wind turbines that have been installed (Soter & Ralf 12). Despite the fact that there are vertical-axis wind turbines, they are however; less aerodynamically efficient in comparison to the horizontal axis turbines and does not have a fairly-well represented market share. In addition to large-scale designs, there has been renewed interest in small-scale wind turbines with a distinctive and innovative design varieties being in development in the recent years.

Wind farm designs involves; onshore wind power technologies, which is assumes an horizontal axis wind turbine that is made up of the three-blades pitch-regulated that operates under a near-fixed rotational speed. It however contains other designs like the case of a generator direct drive turbines with a variable speed generator. Power from rotor blades is controlled through pitch or stall- focused control aspect (Korpaas, Holen, & Hildrum 600). Secondly, there are the off-shore wind power technologies, which are mostly at the commercial deployment phase.

Offshore wind farm design systems adopt three forms of foundation that include; single-pile, gravity and multi-pile structures. Third, there exists a small wind turbine, which has a capacity of 100kW or even less (Korpaas, Holen, & Hildrum 603). Small wind turbines can achieve the electricity needs of small homes; farms as well as small villages with relative small consumption rates of 0.2kW. Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Power Technology Advantages Green; Wind energy is a green source of energy given the fact that it does not results to the pollution of the environment when compared to such other sources as fossil fuels; coal and nuclear (Arulampalam et al 12).

While it is true that the process related to production; transportation and installation of wind turbine slightly results to global warming however; the aspect related to generation of the energy in it does not involve any form of emissions of climate gases.

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