Journal
WIND ENGINEERING
Volume 45, Issue 2, Pages 351-368Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0309524X19901012
Keywords
Specific power; levelized cost of energy; capacity factor; turbine design; long blades; large rotors; economics; geospatial modeling
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Funding
- US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office
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As the size of wind turbine rotor increases, its specific power decreases. In land-rich but capacity-constrained wind power markets like the United States, developers prefer turbines with lower specific power to maximize energy output. Geospatial analysis suggests that there is likely to be continued demand for low-specific-power turbines in the future, especially as wind penetration grows.
A wind turbine's specific power rating relates its capacity to the swept area of its rotor in terms of Watt per square meter. For a given generator capacity, specific power declines as rotor size increases. In land-rich but capacity-constrained wind power markets, such as the United States, developers have an economic incentive to maximize megawatt-hours per constrained megawatt, and so have favored turbines with ever-lower specific power. To date, this trend toward lower specific power has pushed capacity factors higher while reducing the levelized cost of energy. We employ geospatial levelized cost of energy analysis across the United States to explore whether this trend is likely to continue. We find that under reasonable cost scenarios (i.e. presuming that logistical challenges from very large blades are surmountable), low-specific-power turbines could continue to be in demand going forward. Beyond levelized cost of energy, the boost in market value that low-specific-power turbines provide could become increasingly important as wind penetration grows.
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