Abstract
The installation of wind power technology is growing steadily and the trend can be expected to continue if the objectives proposed by the European Commission are to be achieved. In some countries a considerable percentage of installed wind power capacity is near the end of its useful lifetime. In the case of Spain, the figure is 50% within five years. Over the last 20 years, wind energy technology has evolved considerably and the expected capacity factor has improved, thus increasing annual energy production, and capital expenditure and operational expenditure have decreased substantially. This paper studies the optimal decision under uncertainty between life extension and full repowering for a generic wind farm installed in the Iberian Peninsula when the future hourly electricity prices and the capacity factor evolve stochastically and seasonally. The results show that in economic terms, full repowering is the best option, with a net present value of €702,093 per MW installed, while reblading is the second best option. The methodology can be transferred to other specific wind farms in different electricity markets and can be used to develop national wind energy policy recommendations to achieve projected shares in the electricity mix.
Highlights
Fernández González and MaríaThe European Green Deal [1] is the European Commission’s strategy aligned with theParis Climate Agreement [2] to tackle climate and environmental challenges, with the goal of zero net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050
When a wind farm has been worked for nearly 20 years it is close to the end of its technical lifetime
That rate depends on many factors, such as component design margins, wind farm siting, wind and weather conditions, the maintenance record and the fatigue cycles supported by the components
Summary
Fernández González and MaríaThe European Green Deal [1] is the European Commission’s strategy aligned with theParis Climate Agreement [2] to tackle climate and environmental challenges, with the goal of zero net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. The Europe 2020 strategy includes a target of 20% of gross final energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020, and at least 32% by 2030. In 2018 the proportion of energy from renewable sources in gross final energy consumption was 18%. This is double the figure of 8.5% recorded in 2004 [3]. Wind power is one of the fastest growing renewable energy technologies, with a global increase of 16% from 2015 to 2016, which translates to a worldwide growth of. Europe installed 15.4 GW of new wind capacity in 2019, bringing its total to
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