Renewable and Electrical Energy System

Third Year
Wind Turbine Site Evaluation.

Student: Shane Garland.

K Number: K00106104. Examiner: Keith Moloney

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 Introduction

The site that I have chosen for my project is situated about 6 to 10 kilometres away from my
home house; I have chosen the site in between lackagh and shallee east off the N7 just
before Boher, the reason why I have chose this site, there is good wind power available and
the site is situated away from historic heritages and is located in a remote location with a
small population situated a good distance from the site. The erection of the turbine will not
affect people to noise

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Fig: 1

From Fig: 1, the site that I am planning to erect a turbine is highlighted with the red marker.
We can also see in the box on the left hand side the mean wind speeds the map also
highlights historic monuments etc as we can see from my map there are no historic
markings which means my site is situated a good distance away from these secret locations
the website that I used to gather this information was http://shop.osi.ie/shop/

Fig: 2

I used the same website that was outlined above and changed the settings of the maps
operation; I am trying to establish a roughness class for my site in order to do so I need to

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know the distance my site is away from obstacles from the diagram above in Fig: 2 I can see
that my site is situated a good distance away from threes that would impose as an obstacle.

Fig 3:

I used the same website as previously highlighted above I changed the settings to satellite
mode the reason I done this to see if any houses were situated close to my site and we can
see in Fig: 3 that there is no houses / farms close to my site.

• I can now establish a roughness class and length with the information I have.

The roughness class that I have selected is 1 which has a length of 0∙03 which falls into the
category of, Open agriculture land no hedges only softly rounded Hills.

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 Fig: 4

I then proceeded onto the website http://maps.seai.ie/wind/ which I used to estimate the
wind speed at heights of 50m, 75m and a 100m the information can be seen in the top right
hand corner of Fig:4 the county and town land name was also recorded.

FIG 5 http://offshore.windpower.org/en/tour/wres/calculat.htm

I then proceeded onto the wind speed calculator which can be seen above in Fig 5 I used
the value of 9.5m/s which I took from the SEAI wind map in FIG 4 for a height of 50m by
placing this value into the calculator at a height of 50m and a roughness length of 0.03 I can
find out the wind speed with a height of a 100m and a roughness class of 1.

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 FIG 6 http://offshore.windpower.org/en/tour/wres/calculat.htm

I also used the wind speed calculator to plot the power curve as shown in FIG 6 the graph
show as the height increases so does the wind speed.

From using the SEAI wind map in FIG: 4 I took the value of 9.5m/s for a height of 50m, from
using the maps in FIG: 2 and FIG: 3 I was able to establish a roughness class, From having
this information I was then able to perform a calculation that would give an average wind
speed for a hundred meter height by using the log law. I will use the answer from this
calculation in the rest of the hand calculations.

Log Law Calculation

V1 Speed at 50m.

V2 Wind Speed At 100

H1 50m Hub Height

H2 100m hub height

Z0 Roughness class length 0.03

Ln Log

V2= v1*lnh2z0ln h1z0

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V2= 9.5*ln1000.03ln 500.03

V2= 77.06141679 7.418580904

V2=10∙3876m/s

FIG: 7

I then proceeded onto the wind shade calculator this is a tool that I used to analyse the
impact of obstacles. In order to use this calculator you must have establish a roughness
class which has been outlined as a class 1, with a length of 0.03 I then predicted the
distance between the obstacles and the turbine, the height of the obstacles and the width. I
used the maps in FIG 2 and FIG 3 to predict this and I assume that 90% to 100% of the
obstacles are mountain heather.

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FIG: 8

FIG: 8 shows the wind speed that is available without obstacles, if obstacles were present
there would be a shaded patch on the chart with the yellow highlighted area reading a
smaller value

FIG: 9

In FIG: 9 above I should have a 1% energy loss that is indicated in FIG: 7 I presume
because it was so low of a value the calculator rounded it off to 100% but it actually should
be reading 99% energy available

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The reason why obstacle are not effecting my turbine performance is because the hub I
have picked is a 100m height and I only put in a 1m height for the obstacle as I presumed
the obstacles to be mountain heather. The turbine hub height is 99m above the heather so
the heather is not really making any impact on the turbine

http://offshore.windpower.org/en/tour/wres/shelter/index.htm

Details of the turbine selected

The turbine that I have decided that was suitable for the site is the Nordex N80/2500 I have
picked this turbine with a hub height of a 100m I used the calculator as shown in FIG: 10 to
record the turbine details for calculations, The turbine was picked because there is a very
high average wind speed at the site the Nordex N80 was specially designed to withstand
high wind speeds the Turbine is designed with perfected robust technology and is IEC-1a
certified.

The turbine consists of

• Rotor
• Drive Train
• Gear Box
• Generator
• Cooling And Filtration
• Braking System
• Yaw Tower

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 • Control And Grid Connection
• Lighting Protection.

Rotor:

The rotor consist of three blades made out of glass fibber reinforced polyester and a hub the
rotor blades can be adjusted by slewing rings and drives pitch control is used to get the
optimum performance out of the turbine.

Drive Train:
Consist of gearbox, generator, elastic coupling and the rotor shaft
Gear Box:
The gear box that I have chosen is a differential gear box the bearing and tooth is
continuously sprayed with oil a spur gear stage is an option as well.
Generator:
The generator is a double-fed asynchronous machine. This type of generator will
keep the cost of the wind turbine down with the use of power electronics

Cooling and Filtration:

The generator, frequency converter and the gear box have their own independent cooling
system. The frequency converter and the gear box are cold by the use of a cooling water
circuit the generator is cold by the use of oil continuously.

Braking System:
The rotor blades can be set at full right angles to the rotation direction for
aerodynamic braking. The hydraulic disc brake provides additional support in the
event of an emergency stop.
Nacelle:

Yaw Tower:
Two sensors monitor the wind direction the sensors are on the nacelle and
is controlled with the use of 4 geared motors

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 Control And Grid Connection:
The wind turbine has two anemometers. One anemometer is used for
controlling the turbine, the second for monitoring the first. All operational
data can be monitored and checked on a control screen located in the
switch cabinet or via an external laptop. The data and signals are
transmitted via ISDN for remote monitoring. At the click of the mouse, the
operator can download all key data for the turbine from the Internet. The
necessary communications software and hardware is supplied by Nordex.

http://offshore.windpower.org/en/tour/wres/pow/index.htm

FIG: 10

I then proceeded onto the wind speed power calculator as shown in FIG: 10 I was able to
enter in the data that I establish as previously highlighted. I was able to pick a turbine from

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this calculator and all the information required was given to carry out the following hand
calculations to see if the manufactures values were realistic.

• To determine manufactures efficiency I took AEO value from the calculator and the
turbine details i got a 24% efficiency which I believe is a realistic value.

E=AE0A*V*T

E=111038065024*10.5*8766*1000

E=24%

FIG: 11

The above chart in FIG: 11 shows the cut in wind speeds and the cut out wind speeds of the
turbine the values in the table were used to plot the Power Curve FIG 12 in excel

http://offshore.windpower.org/en/tour/wres/pow/index.htm

FIG: 12

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FIG: 12 is taken from calculator in FIG: 11. and plotted by using excel from having this graph
I was able to calculate the power coefficient of the turbine assuming a 95% UPTIME and a
Raleigh distribution I can now plot a graph of wind speed vs. power coefficient with this detail

FIG: 12

The graph in FIG: 12 above shows the cut in and cut out winds speeds for the turbine once
the turbine reaches around 4m/s the power coefficient starts increasing which means the
turbine is begging to produce electricity this is a very important parameter to consider in
picking a turbine for a site as knowing the average wind speed is critical to pick a turbine the
turbine cuts out in high wind speeds above 25m/s to prevent damage to the turbine.

I then assumed the annual output of the turbine based on the Rayleigh method

Power density based on a Rayleigh I assumed the energy pattern factor of 1.91

I took my average wind speed as 10∙3873m/sec at a height of 100m which I calculated by

using the log law as highlighted on page 6.

• I then preceded onto find my average power density at this height.

Pavg=1.91*0.5*1.225*Vavg3

Pavg=1.91*0.5*1.225*10.38733

Pavg=1311.135 W/m2

• In this calculation I am assuming the leap year, I also am assuming that the turbine
will be out of operation 5% of the year due to maintenance etc.

T=365.25*24100*95

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T=8327.7h

I am now able to calculate my average AEO based on a Raleigh distribution as I have found
my efficiency of the turbine as highlighted on page 9.

AE0=Pavg*A*e*T

AE0=1311.135*5024*0.24*8327.7

13.165 GWh

My annual energy output is 13.156GWh based on a Raleigh distribution and 95%

uptime for the Nordex N80/2500.

• I then proceeded onto check the Capacity Factor for the turbine

Cp=AEO2.5MW*8327.7*100

Cp=(13.165*1092.5*106*8327.7)*100

Cp=61∙7%
• Pw

Pw=k*0.5*p*v3

Pw=2*0.5*1.225*10.38763

Pw=1373.035W/m2

Power Coefficient

Cp=AEOPw*A*T

Cp=13.156*1091373.05*5024*8327.7

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Cp=0∙23

Because I have a quite a high capacity factor I decided to cross check my answers
by doing the following equations to see if my calculations are incorect.

• AEO

AE0=Pw*A*e*t

AE0=1373.035*5024*0.24*8327.7

AE0=13.787GWh/yr

Cp=AEO2.5MW*8327.7*100

Cp=(13.787*1092.5*106*8327.7)*100

Cp=(13.787*1092.5*106*8327.7)*100

Cp=66.22%

Power Coefficient

Cp=AEOPw*A*T

Cp=13.787*1091373.035*5024*8327.7

Cp=0.24

Capacity Factor

Cp=AEO2.5MW*8327.7*100

Cp=(13.787*1092.5*106*8327.7)*100

Cp=(13.787*1092.5*106*8327.7)*100

Cp=66.22%

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From doing these simply calculations they have indicated to me that I am on the right track.
They have slightly a bigger value but they are not as accurate as the Rayleigh distribution
method. I am sticking with the Rayleigh distribution method for further calculations.

Wind Turbine Details.

Turbine Rotor Hub AEO AEO/m

name Diame Heig (kwh) ^2
ter ht

Nordex 80m 100 11103 2209

N80/2500 m 806

FIG:11

In FIG: 11 above the details of the turbine are available I used this information to perform
hand calculations to see if manufactures estimate are realistic.

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Pay Back of turbine

Typical Project Costs Breakdown

• % of Total Cost
•Wind Turbine Procurement 70%
•Civil Engineering Works 11%
•Electrical Infrastructure & Commissioning 7%
•Electrical Network Connection 5%
•Project Development and O & M Costs 7%

Turbine Capital Cost €4,072,500

E80 €3,250,000
Transport €400,000
Foundation €160,000
Crane €80,000
Transformer €74,000
Grid Compliance Tests €20,000
Lift €25,000
Signal Exchange Device €17,000
Low Inrush Current €8,000
Transformer Upgrade
Aviation Light €7,000
PROFIBUS SCADA Interface €6,000
Delay Enabled Switchgear €5,500
Upgrade
PSA Personal Protective €2,0000
Equipment

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Pr=P*Pf*t

Pr=686.52*1.91*8327.7

Pr=P*Pf*t

Pr=10.91MWh/m2

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