571 – Daily Problem

2/8/2017

Renewables Power
Off Grid

By,
Udit Gupta
 No. of
Configuratio No. of Wind Batterie Convertor Initial Capital Diesel Burnt
n No. Turbines s (kW) ($) (L)
 1 1 64 30 216500 75107
2 2 64 30 346500 54434
3 1 48 30 200500 78061
4 2 48 30 330500 57654
5 2 32 30 314500 62394
6 2 96 60 401000 48139
7 2 64 60 369000 52999
8 0 64 30 86500 101290
9 1 96 30 248500 74193
10 0 48 30 70500 104009
11 1 32 30 184500 85310
12 2 96 30 378500 52442
13 2 48 60 353000 57316
14 2 32 60 337000 62312
15 2 128 60 433000 45596
16 1 64 60 239000 77753
17 0 96 30 118500 101003

Initial Cost ($) vs Diesel Burnt (L)

$500,000
$450,000
$400,000
$350,000
$300,000
Initial Capital ($)

$250,000
$200,000
$150,000
$100,000
$50,000
$0
1 07 4 1 4 4 9 9 0 3 9 0 2 6 2 6 3
43 806 765 239 813 299 129 419 400 531 244 731 231 559 775 100
3
75 54 7 5 6 4 5 10 7 10 8 5 5 6 4 7 10

Diesel Burnt (L)

Issue given: What financial and physical conditions are needed to convince the project developer
to select an option that has the lowest CO2 emissions from fuel burning?
If the project developer selects an option that has the lowest CO2 emissions, he/she is selecting
an option which involves the use of wind turbines or any other form of renewable source of
energy. The initial investment will be high but the expenditure over a duration of time will be
less as given in the tables included in figure 15.6 from the given text. This will help save money
and hence is financially a better option than those which emit more CO2 emissions. Subsidies can
also be provided by the government to convince the project developer to select an option that has
low CO2 emissions. These options are cleaner and more efficient as compared to their diesel
burning counterparts and hence maintenance will be easier and upgrading them based on new
technology will also be easier.