Energetic, exergetic, economic and environmental (4 E) assessment process of wind power generation

Abstract

Wind energy is an important renewable source with promising development perspectives worldwide. Multi-criteria assessment studies can effectively assist the decision-making process for a profitable implementation of wind energy projects. This paper presents a new comprehensive process for assessing wind power generation based on a multidimensional analysis covering energetic, exergetic, economic and environmental aspects. For comparison purposes, the wind power plant is investigated for two Moroccan coastal zones with substantially different outdoor meteorological conditions. The three-bladed horizontal axis commercialized wind turbine Enercon-48 with a rated power of 800 kW is considered in the analysis. The developed computation tool can predict hourly energy/exergy flows and efficiencies of wind power generation at any location. The Levelized Cost of Electricity and its sensitivity to key financial and operational parameters was investigated as well. A geometrical technique applied to wind power generation was for the first time established to determine the combination of meteorological variables leading to the best compromise between energy efficiency maximization and exergy destruction minimization. Site comparison elucidated that the southern Moroccan zone (Dakhla) allows a higher sustainability index of 1.74 (a 7.4% higher than the predicted value for Tangier) with an LCOE value of 13.42 c$/kWh against 20.95 c$/kWh for Tangier. Environmentally, wind power generation operating in Dakhla has the potential to mitigate up to 42.73 tonnes CO2-eq/kW compared to 23.31 CO2-eq/kW in Tangier.