Abstract
Although the size of the wind turbine has become larger to improve the economic feasibility of wind power generation, whether increases in rotor diameter and hub height always lead to the optimization of energy cost remains to be seen. This paper proposes an algorithm that calculates the optimized hub height to minimize the cost of energy (COE) using the regional wind profile database. The optimized hub height was determined by identifying the minimum COE after calculating the annual energy production (AEP) and cost increase, according to hub height increase, by using the wind profiles of the wind resource map in South Korea and drawing the COE curve. The optimized hub altitude was calculated as 75~80 m in the inland plain but as 60~70 m in onshore or mountain sites, where the wind profile at the lower layer from the hub height showed relatively strong wind speed than that in inland plain. The AEP loss due to the decrease in hub height was compensated for by increasing the rotor diameter, in which case COE also decreased in the entire region of South Korea. The proposed algorithm of identifying the optimized hub height is expected to serve as a good guideline when determining the hub height according to different geographic regions.
Highlights
As two of the core factors in wind turbine design, hub height (HH) and rotor diameter (RD)have significant impact on power output and facility cost, thereby determining the cost of energy (COE) [1]
optimal hub height (OHH) in this study refers to a height that produces the minimum value of COE, which is calculated by dividing the total investment cost (TIC) in a year (Equation (1)) by annual energy production (AEP) (Equation (2))
This study calculated AEP according to the changes in HH, using the time-series wind speed profile data of the wind resource map in South Korea and proposed an algorithm to find the OHH
Summary
As two of the core factors in wind turbine design, hub height (HH) and rotor diameter (RD). Maki et al [9] and Mirghaed et al [10] calculated the minimized COE iteratively with regard to all cases by controlling a variety of variables, including generator’s revolutions per minute (RPM) and turbine pitch, in addition to HH and RD This was complicated, and incurred high calculation cost. This method has nothing to do with government policies and external factors, such as incentive programs or electricity price, and the calculated OHH is dependent only on AEP and COE according to the characteristics of wind resources in the target region. The proposed method produced OHH that was lower than 80 m as the general hub height (GHH) of MW-capacity wind turbines in high wind sites The power generation loss due to OHH was compensated for by increasing RD, but COE did not increase even with such compensation
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