An Essay on Wind Energy and An Overall View on Its

Potential in Vietnam
By Duy Le Quang from Group 3
Hanoi Univ. of Science and Technology
 1. Introduction
Wind is one of the most sacred elements of nature. Earth’s wind is created by pressure differences across the earth’s
surface due to uneven heating and its atmosphere by solar radiation and the earth's rotation. There are some types of
wind, namely, global wind, local wind, etc… that affect the patterns of wind; large ocean and land masses are also
counted to that. Therefore, it is important to understand these wind patterns for the evaluation of potential wind sites.
Can someone imagines one day he wakes up with better sources of energy to start a working day, wind enery or power is
in store for that good purpose. Wind energy dates back to Ancient Civilization in the Near East / Persia when the first
wind energy system ever emerged for milling. Then came the Middle Ages for converting hoziontal motion to vertical
one. In 19th Century, horizontal-axis water-pumping wind-mills were found throughout rural America, and Charles Brush
builds first large-size wind electricity g (eneration turbine(17 m diameter wind rose configuration, 12 kW generator) in
1888. In the period 1920s- 1950s:P llropeller- t 2 & 3ype2&3- bl dade horizontal-axiswind electricity conversion
systems(WECS). Later, in 1940s – 1960s:Rural Electrification in US and Europe leads to decline in WECS use. Nowadays,
wind energy is of the fastest-growing sources of electricity globally. Furthermore, recent study showed that the average
cost of land-based wind decreased by 35%, which enhanced the feasibility of wind power. Consequentially, this success
is driving the inevitable change in power systems around the globe. Also, myriad of wind energy project have been
launched all over the wall with the fund supported from various sources. However, apparently, everything has it course,
there awaiting both tough challenges and opportunities ahead.

2. Challenges and Potentials

Evidently, the cost of wind power has decreased radically in the past 10 years. Nevertherless, however feasibile wind
energy is, it is still in a rash race with conventional energy sources on a diversified basis, especially cost, for example. The
wind farm might not be cost competitive when it comes to wind sites, and not to mention , the technology with a higher
initial investment than fossil-fueled generators. Additionally, good wind sites are often located in remote locations, in
which transmission lines must be a hard problem to crack. Even more, land site is an dilemmatic aspect touching the
installation of wind-turbines while there are plenty of other uses for land. Turning to social impact, turbines might cause
noise and aesthetic pollution although little environmental damage do they bring to society. However, whereever wind
exists, there is a way.

The Sky is clear after the storm, and to that, just put aside the difficulties in integrating wind energy. The potential of
wind energy all over the globe is provenly and widely achieved in many countries. Accordingly, Vietnam is a country with
high initiatives to be part of those successes. Vietnam’s wind energy potential is highly valued in South East Asia. With
the advantage of a coastline of more than 3,000 km and monsoonal climate zone, Vietnam has a paved way for
harnessing its wind resources. As seen from the graph Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, Vung Tau, Ben Tre, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu,Ca
Mau and the Central Highlands are the regions with the most potentials in Vietnam. Observations and calculations
showed that around 28 000 square kilometres of Vietnam have average wind speeds of 7 m/s to 9 m/s at a height of 65
meters. Some update projects of the wind map for Vietnam have been conducted by The World Bank ESMAP and the GIZ
project "Support to the Up-scaling of Wind Power in Vietnam" to better the implementations. Support mechanism is a
striking background to give back to various wind farm projects regarding non-tariff, financial incentives, subsidies from
the government. Also, the business climate is positively brought to the forefront with fine structure condition and
talented human resource. To date, more than 40 wind power projects(Phu Lac, Tuy Phong, Phu Quy, Phuong Mai, Cau
Dat, to name but a few) are in development or under construction in Vietnam, with capacities ranging from 6 MW to 800
MW. Four grid-connected wind power plants with capacities from 30 MW to 100 MW are in operation.
 3. Wind Turbines

A wind turbine is used to convert translational movement of the air into rotational movement of the turbine, then drive
a generator. Utility-scale turbines range in size from 50 to 9000 kW. Small turbines, up to 50 kW, are used for homes,
telecommunications stations, or for water pumping Wind power systems are composed of tower, rotor with 2 or 3 blades
(fiberglass reinforced plastics, epoxy laminates), yaw Mechanism such as a tail vane, low-speed shaft, high-speed shaft,
and gearbox (Mechanical Drive Train), electrical generator, speed sensors and control.

Speicficially, Modern wind power systems also include power electronics, control electronics, batteries to improve the
load availability when in stand-alone model, transmission link connecting to the area grid. Wind Turbine Subsystems
contains foundation, tower, nacelle, hub & rotor, drivetrain, gearbox, generator. Generally, there are two types of wind
turbine: vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) Savonius, VAWT Darrius and horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT). Firstly,
VAWT comprises Egg-Beater (lift force driven) and Savonius (drag force driven). Whereas, HAWT is composed of single to
many blades(- 2, 3 most efficient), upwind downwind facing, solidity / Aspect Ratio – speed and torqe. Another factor to
be pointed out is the technology of wind turbines such as fixed-speed generator, variable-speed generator, and full-rated
converter.

As pointed to wind turbine efficiency, the maximum extractable power is 16/27 (59.3%) of the total wind power.
Likewise, an efficiency for the conversion from mechanical to electrical power in the generator is an important part.

Touching on wind turbine economics, the cost of energy from the wind is mostly a function of the wind resource - how
fast it blows, how often, and when. Higher-speed winds are more easily and inexpensively captured. The more winds
blows, the more power will be produced by wind turbines. In a more specific way, there are capital costs and annual
costs in wind power systems. Capital costs per kW for one are gradually reduced, due to higher turbine ratings and better
sites with higher heights. More more,, labor required to build a larger turbine is slightly higher than for a smaller one,
and the cost of electronics are moderately different. Also, the cost of a rotor is roughly proportional to the while the
power produced is proportional to the diameter squared; taller towers increase energy faster than costs increase. Thus,
it is more economic if large turbines are used, instead of smaller ones. Next to come, the annual costs are used for
operations and maintenances through the turbine lifetime. Cleary, annual costs per kW for turbines in a wind farm is
lower than that of a single turbine, and larger turbines are also newer-generation machines with less maintenance. In
fact, the annual costs for current turbines are just a few per cent of the capital cost. Plus, in the evaluation of the level of
cost of energy (LCOE) for wind farms, and a 20-year loan is presumed. In the 2015 Cost of Wind Energy Review (by NREL),
a land-based 200 MW wind farm would have LCOE in the range of 4.8 to 10.8 cent / kWh, while a 600 MW offshore wind
farm would have LCOE in the range of 18.1 is 22.9 cent / kWh.

4. Advantage and Disadvantage of Wind Farms

The advantages of wind energy is that the world will be better off and while-worthing with a fresh and
unlimited source of energy. Wind energy is also popular to the public. With various wind farms arising
everywhere, work demand has been obviously on the rise, which helped partially tackle the labour problem.
Economically, wind energy is a relatively low cost replacement of the traditional one, and it also brings in short
period of break-even point. More than that, wind energy is of low life cycle carbon footprint.
In a negative way, distress may come when the wind is inconsistent, unsteady and unpredictable. Also, it is
considered an eyesore with the complain of noise from the turbines and the bad impact on aesthecity and landscape.
Even bird life is affected with fatalities. Final comes the localized impact on night-time temperatures and weather.

However, a plenty of steps have been taken to resolve theses. For example, modern large wind turbines now spin so
slowly that birds can easily avoid them, or aesthetic impacts can be reduced by arranging same-size turbines in simple,
uniform rows and columns, and painting with light grey color to blend with the sky. More importantly, Modern turbines
have been designed to control the noise, so that at a distance of just a few rotor diameters away from the turbine, the
sound level is comparable to a person whispering.
 5. Conclusion
To quote a case study in UK: “97 MW wind farm incorporating 47 turbines and 14km2 of nearby managed land has been
sited on degraded moorland previously used in opencast mining, in Scotland, UK. The project is a partnership between a
national electricity supplier, wildlife organisations and a university. Non-native Sitka spruce trees were cleared to make
way for regeneration of blanket bog – a globally rare habitat that is important for carbon storage. A monitoring
programme has shown that plants including heather and bog cotton have started to recolonise the site, which is also
intended to provide habitat for locally important populations of breeding waders and farmland birds. Further research is
underway to identify measures needed to restore the site to ‘active bog’, a key habitat type listed under the Habitats
Directive. (Sources: EC (2011), Scottish Renewables/Scottish National Heritage/SEPA/Forestry Commission Scotland
(2010) and RSPB (2014).)”. Evidentaly, it is totally worth it that renewable energy, especially wind energy is a major trend
in the future of energy. From the above case study, it is duduced that wind energy can be improved on over any
shortcomings to better fit to the conditions. Therefore, the foresight and potentials of wind energy all over the globe as
well as in Vietnam will blossom out to bring better value to lives.

6. References
i. Chapter 3 from ECORED Renewable Energy Course 1
ii. Wind energy 101 MIT Wind Energy Group & Renewable Energy Projects in Action Energy Projects in Action

iii. Next Generation Wind and Solar Power IEA

iv. Science for Environment Polices: “Future brief: wind and solar energy and nature conservation” from European
Comission.

v. Wind Energy Country Analysis Vietnam from https://energypedia.info