The techno-economic analysis of vertical axis wind turbine implementation for scattered electricity loads

Abstract

The Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) can generate electricity by low wind speed and it can be simply implemented for scattered electricity loads. The objective of this study was to determine the specification, quantity, power capacity, capacity factor, and optimum production cost of the VAWT. Based on historical data of the wind speed, the future wind speed distribution can be simulated by using the Weibull and Rayleigh distribution approach. The parameters varied in this simulation included turbine specification, power capacity, and wind speed. The result showed that the optimal design of VAWT to implement in Raja Ampat was 10 kW turbine Type-H darrieus, with 3.5 m/s cut-in speed, 12 m/s rated speed and 9.49% capacity factor. This individual turbine can generate 8313 kWh Annual Energy Production or can supply the demand amount 432,983 kWh by 39 units with LCOE 20.5 Cent USD/kWh/unit or lower than Production Cost Regulated (21.34 cent USD/kWh). This indicated that the vertical axis wind turbine was the techno-economically appropriate alternative for archipelago countries that had scattered electricity loads such as Indonesia.