AN Renewable Energy Physics@CityCollege

Chapter 3

Wind Energy

1. Wind Energy and Its Importance

Wind energy (or wind power) refers to the process of creating electricity using the wind, or air
flows that occur naturally in the earth’s atmosphere. Modern wind turbines are used to capture
kinetic energy from the wind and generate electricity.
There are three main 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.

2. Fundamentals of Wind Energy

Wind Energy: Wind is caused by flow of air from high pressure area to low pressure area and
this difference in pressure is result of heating of the uneven earth's surface by sun. So we can say
that wind energy is a form of solar energy.
Wind power: Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such
as using wind turbines to make electrical power, windmills for mechanical power and wind
pumps for water pumping.

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Wind Turbine: A turbine is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow
and converts it into useful work. A turbine is a turbo-machine with at least one moving part
called a rotor assembly, which is a shaft with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades so
that they move and impart rotational energy to the rotor. A wind turbine is a device that converts
kinetic energy from the wind into electrical power.

3. Working of Wind Turbine

Wind turbines work on a simple principle: instead of using electricity to make wind—like
a fan—wind turbines use wind to make electricity. Wind turns the propeller-like blades of a
turbine around a rotor, which spins a generator, which creates electricity.
A wind turbine turns wind energy into electricity using the aerodynamic force from the rotor
blades, which work like an airplane wing or helicopter rotor blade. When wind flows across the
blade, the air pressure on one side of the blade decreases. The difference in air pressure across
the two sides of the blade creates both lift and drag. The force of the lift is stronger than the drag
and this causes the rotor to spin. The rotor connects to the generator, either directly (if it’s a
direct drive turbine) or through a shaft and a series of gears (a gearbox) that speed up the rotation
and allow for a physically smaller generator. This translation of aerodynamic force to rotation of
a generator creates electricity. A typical modern turbine will start to generate electricity when
wind speeds reach six to nine miles per hour (mph), known as the cut-in speed. Turbines will
shut down if the wind is blowing too hard (roughly 55 miles an hour) to prevent equipment
damage.
Over the course of a year, modern turbines can generate usable amounts of electricity over 90
percent of the time. For example, if the wind at a turbine reaches the cut-in speed of six to nine
mph, the turbine will start generating electricity. As wind speeds increase so does electricity
production. Another common measure of wind energy production is called capacity factor. This
measures the amount of electricity a wind turbine produces in a given time period (typically a
year) relative to its maximum potential.
Parts of a Wind Turbine
1. Foundation: Its the basement of a wind turbine on which the whole self weight of wind
turbine's will come. It is normally under the surface and it cannot be seen.

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2. To Electric Grid: This is the connection from which the generated power is sent to
electric grid with the help of electric wires.
3. Tower: It is the supporting structure for nacelle and rotor. The nacelle is placed above
this tower. Tower is a assembly of number of cylindrical hallow structure which are
assembled at the site (wind farm).
4. Access Ladder: There will be a ladder inside the tower from basement to the top so that
one can get access to the nacelle for any kind of repair or inspection work.
5. Yaw Control: Since the direction of wind keeps on changing with respect to time and the
rotor should be placed in the direction of wind to get the maxim power output, this yaw
control helps in o changing the direction of the rotor and will place it in the direction of
the wind.
6. Nacelle: It is a rectangle like structure that contains generator, controller system, cooler
etc. When yaw controls activates the whole nacelle is rotated in the direction of wind.
7. Generator: It is the unit responsible for power generation.
8. Anemometer: It is a device that is used for wind speed measurement. This data is sent to
control system.
9. Brake: It is used to stop the rotor that is rotating. Usually brakes are applied when
weather conditions are not good to generate power or the rpm of the rotor is above
normal speed which may not suite to generator.
10. Gear Box: It consist of gears that increases the rpm of the rotor to suite to the rpm of
generator.
11. Rotor Blade: Blades are the rotating member of wind turbine that makes the shaft to
rotate which is connected to gearbox and then to generator. Blades are of aerofoil shape
and length will vary from 30 m to 80m (approx.) depending on the rated power of wind
turbine.
12. Pitch Control: It is used to change the angle of inclination, pitch angle which are
responsible for getting maximum efficiency.
13. Rotor Hub: It is the one which holds the rotor blade and it will also rotate along with
blades.

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4. Windmills vs. Wind Turbines

Sometimes people use the terms “windmill” and “wind turbine” interchangeably, but there are
important differences. People have been
using windmills for centuries to grind
grain, pump water, and do other work.
Windmills generate mechanical energy,
but they do not generate electricity. In
contrast, modern wind turbines are
highly evolved machines with more
than 8,000 parts that harness wind's
kinetic energy and convert it into
electricity.
Wind farm
Oftentimes a large number of wind
turbines are built close together, which
is referred to as a wind project or wind
farm. A wind farm functions as a single
power plant and sends electricity to the
grid.

5. How wind energy gets to us

The turbines in a wind farm are connected so the electricity they generate can travel from the
wind farm to the power grid. Once wind energy is on the main power grid, electric utilities or
power operators will send the electricity to where people need it.
Smaller transmission lines, called distribution lines, collect electricity generated at the wind
project and transport it to larger "network" transmission lines, where the electricity can travel
across long distances to the locations where it is needed. Finally, smaller distribution lines
deliver electricity directly to our town, home or business.
Recently In India, 100MegaWatt power producing windmills are established in the states
like Gujrat, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka and Kerala.

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6. Principle of Wind Energy Conversation:

A] Nature of Wind
Earth gets unevenly heated under sun which results in flow of wind in the atmosphere.
Wind layer adjacent to earth gets heated first and moves upward as it becomes lighter. Cooler
and heavier air from adjacent regions comes to fill that empty space left by hotter air. This results
in flow of wind. The main cause of wind is actually temperature. More specifically, it’s
differences in temperature between different areas. Because the sun hits different parts of the
Earth at different angles, and because Earth has oceans, mountains, and other features, some
places are warmer than others. Because of this, we get pockets of warm air and cold air. Since
the pressure of the gas depends on temperature we also get pockets with high pressure and
pockets with low pressure. In areas of high pressure, the gases in the air are more crowded. In
low pressure zones, the gases are a little more spread out. Gases move from high-pressure
areas to low-pressure areas. The bigger the difference between the pressures, the faster the air
will move from the high to the low pressure. That rush of air is the wind we experience. Since
the Earth is rotating, however, the air does not flow directly from high to low pressure, but it is
deflected to the right (in the Northern Hemisphere; to the left in the Southern Hemisphere), so
that the wind flows mostly around the high and low pressure areas. Wind can get even more
complex. Some parts of the Earth, near the equator, receive direct sunlight all year long and have
a consistently warmer climate. Other parts of the Earth, near the polar regions, receive indirect
rays, so the climate is colder. As the warm air from the tropics rises, colder air moves in to take
the place of the rising warmer air. This movement of air also causes the wind to blow. It’s a
dynamic, complex mechanism, which is why weather forecasting is not quite a precise science.
Coastal regions tend to have fairly strong winds blowing in from ocean to land during the day
and out from land to ocean during the night. The cause of this phenomenon is that land heats up
and cools down faster than water, again creating a pressure gradient. Another factor causing
wind to flow faster is elevation of a place. The main cause of it is at higher altitudes, the viscous
drag between earth and air is less.

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B] Wind Power
Wind energy is the kinetic energy of the air in motion. The kinetic energy of a packet of air of
mass m with velocity v is given by ½ m v2. To find the mass of the packet passing through an
area A perpendicular its velocity (which could be the rotor area of a turbine), we multiply its
volume after time t has passed with the air density ρ, which gives us m = A v t ρ. So, we find that
the total wind energy is:
1
𝐸 = 𝜌𝐴𝑣 3 𝑡
2
Differentiating with respect to time to find the rate of increase of energy, we find that the total
wind power is:
𝑑𝐸 1
𝑃= = 𝜌𝐴𝑣 3
𝑑𝑡 2
Wind power is thus proportional to the third power of the wind velocity.
𝜋
If the diameter of the blade of wind turbine is D, 𝐴 = 4 𝐷2
𝜋
So wind power 𝑃 = 𝜌𝐷2 𝑣 3
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Thus to get maximum power, the rotor diameter and wind velocity should be large.

C] Theoretical power captured by a wind turbine

Total wind power could be captured only if the wind velocity is reduced to zero. In a realistic
wind turbine, this is impossible, as the captured air must also leave the turbine. A relation
between the input and output wind velocity must be considered. Using the concept of stream
tube, the maximal achievable extraction of wind power by a wind turbine is 16/27 ≈ 59% of the
total theoretical wind power.

D] Practical wind turbine power

Further insufficiencies, such as rotor blade friction and drag, gearbox losses, generator and
converter losses, reduce the power delivered by a wind turbine. The basic relation that the
turbine power is (approximately) proportional to the third power of velocity remains.

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7. Grid Interconnection topologies: