LARGE SCALE WIND POWER : A REVIEW

ABSTRACT In the last 7 years, approximately 100 manufacturers world-wide have supplied in excess of 100,000 wind turbines and wind pumps of all sizes and types of which approximately 20,000 are connected to the grid. These machines have a total rating of approximately 2000 MW and represent a total investment cost of in excess of US$3 billion of which US$2 billion went to the manufacturers. All this has been achieved for a relatively modest investment in Research, Development and Demonstration and has created an average of 16,000 new jobs. European manufacturers have already been major beneficiaries with exports already worth in excess of $1 billion. In terms of energy contribution, the approximately 20,000 grid connected machines generated about 2.2 billion kilowatt hours in 1989 saving about 3.8 million barrels of oil and offsetting the emission of more than 2 billion pounds of CO2 and 13 million pounds of other pollutants. The operational experience gained has yielded data which has demonstrated that generation costs of about US 5 to 7 cents/kWh are achievable whilst windfarms can currently be built for a total ‘turnkey’ investment cost of as low as US$1400 per installed kilowatt. These costs make wind energy competitive with conventional forms of generation. Mature turbine designs are now demonstrating availabilities exceeding 95 per cent, capacity factors of 30 to 35 per cent (at 8-9 m/s annual mean wind speed sites) and operations and maintenance costs of 1 US cent/kWh are achievable. The world market for wind turbines peaked at about 570MW in 1985 and in spite of the removal of energy and investment tax credits in the U.S.A., over 300 MW of turbines were sold worldwide in 1989. There is still much to be achieved. Europe alone has 400,000 sites suitable for MW rated machines which together would generate 4000 TWh/annum, equivalent to about 3 times the total electricity needs of Europe. Further investment in the technology will drive down costs and increase reliability still further.