Abstract
This paper presents an economic analysis on the viability of harnessing wind power for power generation in Kaduna State, based on wind data analysis of Kaduna and Zaria. The available wind power density of both Kaduna and Zaria of 246.69 W/m<sup>2</sup> and 296.76 W/m<sup>2</sup> respectively shows that Kaduna and Zaria can harness wind power for power generation at utility scale. How economical this would be in the long run is what this paper seeks to analyse. The one-time cost of planting a 300MW capacity wind turbines in either Kaduna or Zaria was found to be $716,680,000, which does not include the annual variable costs of $17,927,750.2. With the assumption that capital would be loaned from a bank at 7% interest to pay back in 30 years, the annual capital payment is estimated to be $57,754,663.67. Considering capacity factor, line losses, and a total annual costs of $90,121,079.79, the average cost of electricity per kWh was estimated as $0.0909.
Highlights
The underlying question when installing wind turbines at a particular location for wind power generation is, ‘is it economically viable?’ This is because, the motivation of investors is hardly ‘protecting the environment from climate change’ but ‘making monetary profit’
This paper presents an economic analysis of the viability of wind power generation in Kaduna State
It is based on a statistical analysis of wind-speed data obtained from an 11 year period (2004-2014) wind speed data obtained from the Kaduna Meteorological Station and the Zaria Meteorological Station located at the Kaduna Airport, Kaduna and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria respectively
Summary
The underlying question when installing wind turbines at a particular location for wind power generation is, ‘is it economically viable?’ This is because, the motivation of investors is hardly ‘protecting the environment from climate change’ but ‘making monetary profit’. The economic viability of wind power generation of a particular location, is the determining factor as to whether a viabilityresearch would be just another academic treatise to be abandoned on the ‘shelf’ or whether it would be implemented. This paper presents an economic analysis of the viability of wind power generation in Kaduna State. It is based on a statistical analysis of wind-speed data obtained from an 11 year period (2004-2014) wind speed data obtained from the Kaduna Meteorological Station and the Zaria Meteorological Station located at the Kaduna Airport, Kaduna and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria respectively. On cost analyses of exploiting wind power for power generation in Kaduna State
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