Wind energy offers many advantages, which explains why it’s one of the fastest-growing energy sources in the world. Research efforts are aimed at addressing the challenges to greater use of wind energy. Read on to learn more about the benefits of wind power and some of the challenges it is working to overcome.
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 1–2 cents per kilowatt-hour after the production tax credit. 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 creates jobs. The U.S. wind sector employs more than 100,000 workers, and wind turbine technician is one of the fastest growing American jobs. According to the Wind Vision Report, wind has the potential to support more than 600,000 jobs in manufacturing, installation, maintenance, and supporting services by 2050.
- Wind enables U.S. industry growth and U.S. competitiveness. New wind projects account for annual investments of over $10 billion in the U.S. economy. The United States has a vast domestic resources and a highly-skilled workforce, and can compete globally in the clean energy economy.
- 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, U.S. wind power capacity has grown 15% per year, and wind is now the largest source of renewable power 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.
CHALLENGES OF WIND POWER
- Wind power must still compete with conventional generation sources on a cost basis. Even though the cost of wind power has decreased dramatically in the past several decades, wind projects must be able to compete economically with the lowest-cost source of electricity, and some locations may not be windy enough to be cost competitive.
- Good land-based 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. However, building just a few already-proposed transmission lines could significantly reduce the costs of expanding wind energy.
- 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.
- Turbines might cause noise and aesthetic pollution. Although wind power plants have relatively little impact on the environment compared to conventional power plants, concern exists over the noise produced by the turbine blades and visual impacts to the landscape.
- Wind plants can impact local wildlife. Birds have been killed by flying into spinning turbine blades. Most of these problems have been resolved or greatly reduced through technology development or by properly siting wind plants. Bats have also been killed by turbine blades, and research is ongoing to develop and improve solutions to reduce the impact of wind turbines on these species. Like all energy sources, wind projects can alter the habitat on which they are built, which may alter the suitability of that habitat for certain species.
A wind farm is a site designated to be used for wind power generation. It’s made up of a group of wind generators ranging from 600 kW to 5 MW spread across the land in order to take maximum advantage of the wind.
There are three types of wind farms. On-shore (at least 3 km inland from the coast) is the most common, while near-shore (less than 3 km from the coast) and off-shore (in the open sea or in lakes many miles from the shore) are less frequent and are located in places where they do not infringe upon pre-existing businesses or important sailing routes.
How a wind farm works
The renewable energy produced by each wind turbine is channeled downward into electrical ground cables. The signals that control wind turbine functions are also transmitted via ground cables.
The wind turbines on a wind farm are connected to each other by an underground cable duct. Each wind farm has a delivery cabin-station. The renewable energy produced is channeled there and is then channeled into the electric grid to meet families’ and companies’ sustainable energy needs.
Contrary to popular belief, wind farms take up very little land in proportion to the amount of renewable energy that they can produce. According to a 2020 study in Italy, the total wind power needed to meet National Energy Plan objectives for all of 2030 would only require an area the size of the province of Prato, the smallest province in the nation.
Wind power is one of the fastest-growing renewable energy technologies. Usage is on the rise worldwide, in part because costs are falling. Global installed wind-generation capacity onshore and offshore has increased by a factor of almost 75 in the past two decades, jumping from 7.5 gigawatts (GW) in 1997 to some 564 GW by 2018, according to IRENA’s latest data. Production of wind electricity doubled between 2009 and 2013, and in 2016 wind energy accounted for 16% of the electricity generated by renewables. Many parts of the world have strong wind speeds, but the best locations for generating wind power are sometimes remote ones. Offshore wind power offers tremendous potential.
Wind turbines first emerged more than a century ago. Following the invention of the electric generator in the 1830s, engineers started attempting to harness wind energy to produce electricity. Wind power generation took place in the United Kingdom and the United States in 1887 and 1888, but modern wind power is considered to have been first developed in Denmark, where horizontal-axis wind turbines were built in 1891 and a 22.8-metre wind turbine began operation in 1897.
Wind is used to produce electricity using the kinetic energy created by air in motion. This is transformed into electrical energy using wind turbines or wind energy conversion systems. Wind first hits a turbine’s blades, causing them to rotate and turn the turbine connected to them. That changes the kinetic energy to rotational energy, by moving a shaft which is connected to a generator, and thereby producing electrical energy through electromagnetism.
The amount of power that can be harvested from wind depends on the size of the turbine and the length of its blades. The output is proportional to the dimensions of the rotor and to the cube of the wind speed. Theoretically, when wind speed doubles, wind power potential increases by a factor of eight.
Wind-turbine capacity has increased over time. In 1985, typical turbines had a rated capacity of 0.05 megawatts (MW) and a rotor diameter of 15 metres. Today’s new wind power projects have turbine capacities of about 2 MW onshore and 3–5 MW offshore.
Commercially available wind turbines have reached 8 MW capacity, with rotor diameters of up to 164 metres. The average capacity of wind turbines increased from 1.6 MW in 2009 to 2 MW in 2014.
According to IRENA’s latest data, the production of wind electricity in 2016 accounted for a 6% of the electricity generated by renewables. Many parts of the world have strong wind speeds, but the best locations for generating wind power are sometimes remote ones. Offshore wind power offers tremendous potential.
BRAZIL WIND GENERATION is GROWING by the minute
Good winds are blowing strong in northeastern Brazil and the sector has accumulated record power generation. This has helped to reduce the consequences of the water crisis currently facing the country — due to the dry rains — and also to stimulate the economic recovery, creating jobs.
Brazil occupies seventh place in the global ranking of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) with 19GW of installed capacity. To get an idea of growth, the sector had less than 1GW installed in the country a decade ago and is currently the second-largest source of energy in the country, accounting for 10% of the electricity matrix.
According to the Brazilian Association of Wind Energy (ABEEólica), the expectation is that by 2024 Brazil will have at least 30 GW of installed wind energy capacity, considering only auctions already held and contracts signed. New auctions will add more installed capacity for years to come.
Figure 1: Evolution of Installed Capacity in MW from 2005 to 2024. The future data presented in the chart above refer to contracts made possible in auctions already held and in the free market. Source: Brazilian. Electricity Regulatory Agency (ANEEL) and ABEEólica
Northeast has 80% of Brazilian wind farms
With the lack of rain, reservoir levels are low, and the activation of thermoelectric plants is necessary, which further increases the price of energy.
For this reason, specialists claim that diversifying Brazilian energy sources is essential since the country is abundant in natural resources and has great energy potential.
The favourable quality of Brazilian winds for wind power generation stands out globally. Brazil has a capacity factor (wind productivity) above average, as you can see below.
The Northeast accounts for 80% of Brazilian wind energy farms. This is because the region has more constant winds, has a stable speed and does not change direction very often.
The state of Rio Grande do Norte is the largest producer of wind energy in the country, and installed capacity is expected to grow in the coming months. The wind is more intense from June to December, coinciding with the months with less intensity of rain.
Today, the region consumes just over 1GW of energy, while wind production capacity exceeds 5GW. Thus, the state contributes to the entire national system.
The Secretary of Economic Development of Rio Grande do Norte, Jaime Calado, said: “It will be a record investment. Last year it was around R$ 7 billion and this year it will exceed R$ 12 billion.”
The great potential of the Brazilian energy and electrical matrix
Clean and renewable energies account for 48% of Brazil’s total primary energy supply, while the world average is 14%.
Wind, solar, hydro and biomass sources account for 85% of the electricity matrix, a level almost without equivalence in the world. Despite this, Brazilians feel the heavy cost of tariffs in their pockets.
Figure 2: Brazilian electricity matrix updated on June 15, 2021. Source: ANEEL/ABEEólica
Is electricity expensive in Brazil?
According to a study by Global Petrol Prices, carried out in 2019, energy in Brazil is the 37th most expensive in the world, in a ranking of 110 countries. The cost is US$ 0.18 per Kwh. Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Bermuda have the highest fares, with more than US$0.30 per kWh.
Burma, Egypt, Iran and Qatar cost less than US$ 0.05 per kWh. Brazil is ahead of Argentina, China, India and Mexico (US$ 0.08), South Korea (US$ 0.11), the United States (US$ 0.14) and most developing countries.
Although these data provide an important panorama of the electricity sector, they do not completely answer the question: is electricity expensive in Brazil? After all, comparing prices between countries is always a hard challenge, given the differences in income, energy matrix, exchange rates and broader economic policies.
The growth of the internet of things (IoT) has the potential to offer significant advantages to offshore wind power maintenance, with sensor technology able to provide constant data on the functioning of turbines. César Yanes, project coordinator of the ROMEO Project, discusses the use of IoT to move from corrective to condition-based maintenance with World Wind Technology writer Kerry Taylor-Smith.
Wind provides a clean and renewable source of energy, and is relatively simple: the wind spins blades attached to a turbine that turns and generates power.
Except it’s not that simple, as turbines are expensive – around $1m each – and complex pieces of equipment that can include up to 1,000 sensors, actuators, integrating strain gauges, bearing monitors and power conditioning technology.
The turbine can control blade speed and power generation – a sophisticated task demanding numerous cooperating processors closing high-speed loops and implementing intelligent monitoring and optimisation algorithms.
There’s a lot that could go wrong during normal, everyday functioning.
IoT technology can monitor and regulate the operation of offshore wind power turbines
Offshore wind farms are often shown to be calm, tranquil places consisting of hundreds of wind turbines slowly turning in the breeze – if at all. It is a challenge to integrate these turbines so that they all work together in these hard to reach places out at sea. Key to achieving this could be hidden in the latest advances in information and communication technologies, such as the internet of things.
IoT is an interconnection via the internet of computing devices embedded in everyday objects – think fridges, heating systems and similar technology – with the ability to send and receive data.
It extends our current internet connectivity beyond standard devices to any range of traditionally non-internet-enabled devices to allow them to communicate and interact – it also allows them to be remotely monitored and controlled.
This is where IoT could be really useful, as it could be employed to monitor and regulate the operation of infrastructure like offshore wind farms. It can monitor events or changes in the structural conditions that might affect safety or increase risk, schedule repair and maintenance activities, or improve incident management and emergency response efforts.
Optimise the performance of offshore wind farms.
Extend their lifetimes and reduce its costs.
One such project intending to take advantage of these recent technological advances is ROMEO: reliable operations, maintenance decision tools and strategies for high levelised cost of electricity/energy (LCOE) reduction on offshore wind.
The EU Horizon 2020 venture hopes to reduce the cost of maintaining offshore wind turbines using predictive machine- learning algorithms, IoT and cloud computing.
The main objective of the five-year project is to develop a platform for the analysis and management of data gathered from offshore wind power generation plants during their operation and use this data to develop methods of improving the operation and maintenance (O&M) of wind farms.
“ROMEO intends to advance towards the optimisation of operation and maintenance of offshore wind power farms, the lifetime extension of wind turbines and the reduction of the levelised cost of energy,” explains César Yanes, coordinator of ROMEO project for Iberdrola, a Spanish public multinational electric utility company and one of the partners in the project.
To accomplish this, the project is developing advanced monitoring strategies and tools, in addition to analysing the performance of the wind farm turbines in real time. A cloud-based IoT analytics ecosystem platform will include models for detecting, diagnosing and prognosing faults in wind turbine components.
The flexibility and interoperability of the platform will provide an advanced analytics network to promote better understanding of the performance of the main wind turbine components in operation in real time, and for failure diagnostics and prognosis, helping to maximise turbine lifespan and minimising O&M costs.
The high-level confidence on the executive relationship established along the process was crucial for such agreement to happen, given the fact that it has been signed on July 2004, almost one year before the launch of the satellites itself, on February 2005. That kind of deal known as a pre-launch agreement.
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