BASICS OF WIND ENERGY GENERATION

• How does the diameter of the blade set affect a wind turbine’s performance? The circular area that the blades move through is called the swept area. The bigger the blade swept area, the more power the blades can harvest from the wind.
• How does the height of the tower affect a wind turbine’s performance? As wind speed increases with height, the higher the turbine is mounted, the more power it will generate in comparison to another turbine mounted at a lower height.
• How does wind speed affect a turbine’s performance? The power available in the wind is related to the cube of the wind speed. If you double the wind speed then you get 8 times the power e.g. 23 = 2x2x2 = 8
• What is Wind Speed Distribution? This is the annual pattern of wind speeds that exist at a given site. It’s a profile of how frequently the wind blows at different speeds over the course of a year.
• Do obstructions affect wind turbines? Trees, houses, silos all affect wind flow up to 15 times the height of the obstruction away from the obstruction. Wind turbines should ideally located on open flat land.
• What’s the difference between power and energy? Power is the instant output of a system, e.g. 6kW (kilo-watts) and energy is the amount of power measured over a period of time e.g. 6kWh (kilo-watt-hours). If a turbine produces 6.0kW of power continuously over an hour it has generated 6.0kWh of energy. This is the same as 6 Units of electricity.
• What is a power curve? This is a graph showing the relationship between the wind speed and the instantaneous power that a generating system produces.