Chapter# 5

Wind Energy

• Wind energy resources and potential

• Wind machines and wind turbine physics

 Hoffert et al., Science, 298 (2002)

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excluded from our Creative Commons license. For more
information, see https://ocw.mit.edu/fairuse. Mancini TR. An overview of concentrating solar power.

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Tad W. Patzek (2004) "Thermodynamics of the Corn-Ethanol Biofuel Cycle",
Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, 23:6, 519-567, DOI:
10.1080/07352680490886905. 2
 Electrification Worldwide
 Less developed countries have 80% of world’s population, consume ~ 30% of
total energy
 ~2B people without consistent access to electricity
 The system is moving away from fuels and towards electricity, for many
reasons
 Opportunities and challenges Middle East
– 78.1%

Transition

Economie Developing
s Asia –
– 99.5% 72.0%

Latin
America
– 90.0%

Africa – 37.1%
Image courtesy of
NASA.

3
 Needs: Energy
Consumption
~ 600 EJ (~ 440 EJ in early 2000’s) produced by close to 18
TW Power (6.1 TW for electricity generation)
Biomass & waste, 10% Other renewables, 2%
• World primary energy consumption in 2014, 13,558 Mtoe (was 11,059 Mtoe in 2006).
Hydro, 3%
• Except for hydropower, primary energy measures the thermal energy equivalent in the
Coal, 26%

Nuclear, 5%
fuel that was used to produce a useful form of energy, e.g., thermal energy (heat),

mechanical energy, electrical energy, etc.

• When energy is obtained directly in the form of electricity, efficiency is used to convert
Gas, 23%
it to equivalent thermal energy.

Oil, 31%

IEA World Energy Outlook 2015, p57.

1 toe ~ 42 GJ. Mtoe (mega tons of oil equivalent

4
1 EJ (Exa joule) = 1018 J
 Renewable Sources and Their Utilization

Solar
Biomass Geothermal Wind/Wave

Chemical Thermal photo Kinetic

Combustion Windmills
heat T+ Photovoltaics Wave machine
Gasification
fuel
Biological
Rankine/thermomechanical cycle electric
T+ © Ahmed F.
Ghoniem
8
T+
Significant Potential for Wind

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9
Wind Energy Engineering handbook, T.M. Lectcher, ed., AP Press, 2017
The petawatt (PW) is equal to one quadrillion watts (10 W)
15
 Extracting Wind
Energy Modern horizontal axis
t wind turbine (3
blades)

Unusual vertical axis

wind machine
Old fashion wind mill
MacKay, Sustainable Energy-without the hot air, Cambridge, 2009.

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12
 Modern Wind turbines utilize lifting surfaces
(wings) to extract energy:
• Place your hand perpendicular to the wind: you experience ”bluffbody or wake drag”
• Place your hand at a small angle with the wind you experience lift force like a wing.
• This is a more efficient way to produce force without blocking the wind.
• Modern wind “turbines” (not old “windmills”) are made of blades that look like wings.

Vesta 7MW turbines, rotor D = 164 m, in an off-shore farm.

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Wind turbines utilize lifting surfaces (wings) to extract energy:
Lift: force perpendicular to the relative velocity Drag:
force in the direction of the relative velocity

1 r2 bl L , , e
l 
L  2 V A C   c R
 
1
D  Vr2 A bl C D  , l , R e
2 c
 
Abl  cl,
where c is the cord https://www.mpoweruk.com/flight_theory.htm
and l is the thickness 17
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 D
L

The pitch is the angle between the blade velocity (direction of Pitch 
motion) and cord, it is determined by the blade design.
The angle of attack ,  is between the relative wind velocity and 
the cord determines CL and CD.
The angle of attack changes as the wind speed changes.
The complement of  is .
)) determines the forces on the wing and
power.

Goswami and Kreith, Energy Conversion, CRC Press, 2008. 18

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 2 Power coefficients for drag-type (old
F VV
Cp
bl   L
C  C V
U D  U 1 
V
 
 U
V
fashion) and lift-type (new designs)
machines.
 1 U 3Abl 
 2 

Modern Vs Old Mills
• Modern wind turbine operate on the principle of lifting
surfaces with high Cp, O(10).
• Old wind mills operated on the drag force created by a
wake and are much less efficient, with Cp < 1.0.
Conditions for better performance:
• (V/U) is known as the tip speed ratio (evaluated at the tip of
the blade).
• Good wind speed is 5-8 m/s.
• For large turbines, R is 10-100 m, and RPM is 10-30 (with
smaller turbines spinning faster). V is 50-100 m/s.
• Should choose blades with high CL (of the order of 1.0) and
low CD (of the order of 0.1). Goswami and Kreith, Energy Conversion, CRC Press, 2008.
19
• Higher values of V/U raise Cp. But very high values reduce Cp © Informa UK Limited. All rights reserved. This content is excluded from our
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• Previous analysis is applicable at some radius
along the blade.
• But blade speed increases along r (V=r) while
U remains constant, causing V/U or   and 
to change. © The Institution of Engineering and Technology. All rights reserved. This content is excluded
• For a good design, the blade pitch  must from our Creative Commons license. For more information, see https://ocw.mit.edu/fairuse.

change with radius to maintain optimal ()

or  almost constant, i.e., must use twisted
blades between the root and tip.
• For optimal performance, it is also necessary to
vary the overall blade angle as the wind speed
changes to maximize Cp, this is Pitch Control.
• Speed sensors are mounted on the nacelle to
measure the wind speed and adjust the blade
pitch.
• It is important that the horizontal turbine axis
is always aligned in the wind direction; this is
Yaw Control. increasing pitch
towards root 20
Fixed pitch angle
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Almost all modern wind turbine have 3 blades, optimized to operate at highest
efficiency at nominal wind speeds

• It is important to keep (V/U)max power low

to minimize stresses on blades, etc. (at U
~ 10 m/s, V ~ 100 m/s!)
Limitations of Old Wind Mills: “Old fashion”
wind mills operate more on the principle of
wake drag in which the blades are almost
perpendicular to the wind.
• This is less efficient and requires
wider blades, and more of them.
• They also spin slower and generate
higher torques; more suitable for
mechanical applications.

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 Wind turbine power-wind
speed
1
curve
n  1
Pturbine  Cp 3 blbl  A  Cp,tu U 3A, where A is the disc
A
2 A area r
U 
2  0.4 
Cp,Betz  0.593, Cp,tur
0.5
• Most modern wind turbines operate over a range
of wind speed, hence power (depending on the
generator, the RPM can be fixed or can vary).
• Must limit the forces on the turbine, and hence
the tip speed, to protect the structural integrity,
there is a maximum allowable tip speed.
• At this tip speed, the power is nearly constant,
determined mostly by the pitch angle of the
blade (can force the blade to stall to stop
extracting more power) until stall. Power curve for pitch-regulated and stall regulated wind turbine
22
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Goswami and Kreith, Energy Conversion, CRC Press, 2008.
 https://www.mpoweruk.com/wind_power.htm

1
Pturbin  Cp U3 A, Cp  0.4 
e 2 0.5

• For tall turbines, wind speed

changes with height outside the
atmospheric boundary layer, but
the pattern is seasonal.
Image courtesy of AWS Truewind, NREL, DOE.
• Most of the time, the impact of the
change on the power is not as
significant because of the change in
density.
• For large turbines, the height of the
tower is determine more by the
size of the blades. 23

The blue shows the pdf of wind speed, while

the red is the power at different wind speeds.
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Generators
• Most turbines (especially the larger ones) utilize induction
(asynchronous) generators. These generators have simple
rugged construction, and can be used as motors (reversing
the current) for starting up the turbine.
• Power electronics are used to condition the power
(frequency and voltage instabilities) before sending it to
the grid.
• The generators can operate with variable speed (in case
the rotational speed of the turbine varies in response to
changing the wind conditions, again using power
electronics to condition the power (especially the
frequency of the AC current) before feeding to to the grid.
• Synchronous generators are also used, which can be
24
directly connected with the turbine shaft.
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 What is inside the nacelle?

Advantages of Double fed Induction Generator (DFIG).

1. Most widely used because of efficiency, simplicity and price.
2. Can be used as a motor to start the turbine. https://www.mpoweruk.com/wind_power.htm 25
3. Produces high quality power.
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 NOISE: Mostly aerodynamic noise are
associated with flow over turbine blades:
Jianu et al, World Sustainable Forum, 2011
Sound pressure level is defiend
as: 2
SPL =10 log10 p rms 
/ pref2

pref
 10
Pa
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From Wind Turbines by Eric Hau 26

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 As always with noise,
The noise factor effectiveness depends
on frequency

Adding serration
to reduce noise
Using brushes can reduce
noise by up tp 10 dB

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Emitted
mostly
from
the tip
(highest
speed) Jianu et al, World Sustainable Forum, 2011

27
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 Image courtesy of NREL, DOE.

Horns Rev Wind Farm (Denmark) - Rated Power 160 MW – Water Depth 10-15m

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Vesta 7MW turbines, rotor D = 164 m
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