Abstract
In this study, a preliminary economic feasibility study of the project of wind power at the site of Al-Shehabi (Wasit-Iraq) was conducted using measured wind data at altitudes of 10, 30, 50 and 52 m per 10 minutes. For the purpose of comparison, data from NASA were used at the same location at 50 m height. The lowest unit cost of electricity from wind energy was found to be 0.028 $/Kwh and 0.0399 $/Kwh by using the standard methodologies of Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) equation and Net Present Value (NPV) procedure, respectively. Furthermore, RETScreen software was used to perform the economic prefeasibility study of a proposed wind farm. The study concludes that this site is economically feasible if a wind farm with 5.0 MW of ten wind turbines (EWT DW54) was established, with an NPV of $11,309,956, after-tax IRR of 24.7%, a simple payback period of 6.1 years, and a capacity factor of 38.34%. Finally, this wind farm development will result in a reduction in greenhouse gases of 31876 tCO2 per year. The sensitivity and risk analysis were performed and guarantee the safety of specified financial input parameters values.
Highlights
The renewable energy sources which include solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass are becoming competitive to decrease the consumption and to replace the conventional energies throughout the last years
The results showed that the wind turbine model (EWTDW54-500) had the highest power coefficient value 38 % which represents an excellent result from the viewpoint of wind energy production
It was found that the wind turbine model EWT DW54-500 could produce electricity at lowest cost value of 0.028 $/kWh and 0.061 $/kWh in both methods, respectively, and these results are acceptable based on the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) results [10, 16]
Summary
The renewable energy sources which include solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass are becoming competitive to decrease the consumption and to replace the conventional energies throughout the last years. Clean energy has minimal negative effects along with non-polluting generation on the environment, and is currently replacing a portion of the fossil-based power generation in many parts of the world. Among the clean energy technologies, wind energy is one of the fastest growing in the global market. It became essential to solve the energy shortage by solar and wind energy sources which provide an important source of income for the Iraqi government. The availability of wind is the most effective technical factor that affects the economic viability of the wind project. The deep knowledge of available wind resources is critical for investors to determine if a project is profitable in a specific site [1]. A proposed wind farm of 5.0 MW capacity of similar ten wind turbines (EWT DW54-500kw-50m height), located at AL Shihabi, was modeled using RETScreen software to demonstrate the financial viability of the construction
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