SOLA5053 Wind Energy Converters

Wind Farm Project

Wind Farm Feasibility Study

by Vento
Astrid Palm z3476879
Ricardo Puerta de Gregorio z3476841
Usman Hassan z3424747
Victor Chen z3329196
Hanne Linde z3476949

May 25, 2014

Abstract
In this project a wind farm feasibility study with a production of 150
MW was done upon a site located near Woomera in South Australia. The
wind resource was studied to find the average wind speed at hub height
using the Weibull distribution of wind data measured. The proposal of
turbine selection and wind farm layout shows the design of the wind farm.
The cost for the turbines, transportation of the turbines and payback time
was discussed giving a reasonable overview to the investors. Environmental impacts shows that a wind farm would not give a large impact on
landscape and wildlife. Further a wind farm will have positive impacts
regarding job opportunities for the local community.
The result of this study was that the site chosen is fully viable to build a
profitable wind farm.

Contents
1 Introduction
by Victor Chen

2 Siting
by everybody

3 The Wind Resource

by Ricardo Puerta de Gregorio

4 Wind Turbine Selection and Layout

by Astrid Palm
12
4.1 Turbine selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
4.2 Site design and optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
4.3 Losses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5 Financial Analysis
by Usman Hassan
5.1 Transportation Cost
5.2 O&M Costs . . . . .
5.3 Operational Revenue
5.4 Subsidies . . . . . .
5.5 Decommission Costs
5.6 Cost and payback . .

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6 Environmental Impacts
by Hanne Linde

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7 Social Impacts
by Victor Chen
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7.1 Local impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7.2 Labour costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7.3 Electrical system and grid connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
8 Conclusion
by everybody

24

9 References

25

Introduction
by Victor Chen

Vento is a consultancy group that have done a feasibility study on building

a wind farm near Woomera in South Australia. This report thoroughly covers
the literature review, concept design, social and environmental impact, economic
and legal issues. Project Vento will import wind turbines from a company in
Denmark called Vestas Wind systems A/S. And the wind farm site is located
at 313221.14S 1364844.85E.
The report is structured as following:
Wind resource is covered by Ricardo Puerta de Gregorio. In this part, he thoroughly discuss the wind situation that our wind farm would experience.
Wind turbine selection and layout is covered by Astrid Palm. In this paragraph, she covers the technical reason for selecting the turbine from Vestas, and
also states the layout of the wind farm.
Financial analysis is covered by Usman Hassan. In his part, he covers the total
cost of the wind farm and discuss the payback period of the wind farm. He also
states the reasons for the investors to invest in this project.
Environmental impact is covered by Hanne Linde. In this part, she states the
pollution and environmental impact that might take place in this area, and discuss objectively about building a wind farm for local residence.
Social impact is covered by Victor Chen. In this part he discuss local impact
from a noise pollution point of view. Also he discuss about the salary and labour
cost to build a wind farm.

Siting
by everybody

We have chosen to look at wind farm sites mainly in South Australia because
of the strong winds that occur there. After some research we have decided to
go with a site near Woomera.
The pros for choosing this site are:
Transmission lines available (53.4 km away)
Desert area; no disturbance
Flat area
Infrastructure; roads already exists for transport
No other wind farms at this site
Acceptance from inhabitants is not considered as a problem since there already are a lot of wind farms in South Australia
Easy access of wind data
The cons for choosing this site are:
Some parts of Woomera are used by the Australian Governement as a test
range and is thereby restricted for public access
Potentially increase of maintenance costs due to sand and dust
The new Australian Government are planning to abolish the carbon tax which
can decrease our profitability
The average speed of our weather station varies in a range from 4.7 m/s to
5.3 m/s, depending on the number of samples that we are considering. It is
possible to see our weather station location in figure 1.

Figure 1: Location of weather stations in SA (BoM 2014).

With the objective of considering the wind direction of the site, it is necessary
to look at the wind direction measured from the weather station. This can be
represented by a wind rose as viewed in figure 2 and 3. It is made by analyzing
the wind direction for 1 year, at 2 different hours of the day, 9am and 3pm
(BoM 2014):

Figure 2: Wind rose at 9am (BoM 2014).

Figure 3: Wind rose at 3pm (BoM 2014).

It is possible to say that the wind direction maintains constant during all
day and year, predominantly blowing from the South, South East and South
West. This information helps when building the turbines in such a manner that
they can use most of the wind during the day by facing them towards the wind.

Other sites that we considered was Port Augusta which had transmission lines
and infrastructure but because of the low average wind speed and the lack
of wind data we could not go for this site. The city of Carnarvon, located
in Western Australia, had a huge wind speed always blowing from the South.
However the area to build the wind farm was not big enough for our project.

The Wind Resource

by Ricardo Puerta de Gregorio

As our site is located near the small city of Woomera, the wind data used is
taken from the Weather Station of Woomera, gathered from 1998 to 2011 by
the Bureau of Meteorology. The level of the anemometer is 10 meters so all
the wind velocities were taken at this height, and the roughness factor of the
surface is 0.3 metres (BoM 2014). The weather station is located at the airport
of Woomera and by Google Earth the existence of small trees can be noticed,
which could explain the higher value of the roughness as well as the influence of
the airport. Firstly, the average wind speed at the weather station was found
by Excel, using the following formula:
va =

N
1 X
vi = 4.86m/s
N i=1

(1)

where N = 115072 is the number of observations and vi is the wind speed

at each observation. The standard deviation of the sample can be calculated as
well:
v
uN
X
1 u
t (v v )2 = 2.368
v =
(2)
i
a
N 1 i=1
In order to correctly evaluate the wind speed distribution and fluctuations
during the day, the Weibull distribution can be used. Then two parameters has
to be figured out, c and k, which is the scaling and shape factor respectively.
These are controlling how the function will spread out. The formulas to calculate
these parameters are (Kay 2014):

k=

v
va

1.086
= 2.18

c10m = va (0.568 + (0.433/k))1/k = 5.49m/s

(3)
(4)

The roughness of semi desert areas and tall grass can be set to 0.1 m (Douglas
et al 2009, p. 67, 117-128) and this will be assumed for our chosen wind farm
site. As the roughness is not the same for the wind farm site and the weather
station, it is necessary to calculate the factor c at free stream height i.e. where
there is no influence by the roughness:

cf s = c10m

ln(Hf s /z0 )
= 10.82m/s
ln(H/z0 )

(5)

The free stream height Hf s depends on the terrain and it will be considered
to be 300 m, which is the height of open grassland area (Kay, 2014). This corresponds well with our flat weather station with small trees. z0 = 0.3m is the
roughness factor and H = 10m is the height of anemometer.
Now it is necessary to calculate the factor c at hub height. The majority
of the wind turbines considered in our project have a hub height of HH = 94m,
therefore the c factor was scaled to that height. With a roughness factor of
zH = 0.1m at the wind turbine site we get:
cH = cf s

ln(HH /zH )
= 9.25m/s
ln(Hf s /zH )

(6)

And then, the average wind speed at hub height can be figured outby rearranging (4):
va = cH (0.568 + 0.433/k)1/k = 8.18m/s

(7)

One thing to notice is that the average wind speed at the site chosen is almost twice as encountered at the weather station, 4.86 m/s and 8.18 m/s. Most
of the wind turbines work between 3 m/s and 25 m/s, therefore an average wind
speed of 8.18 m/s indicates that this site has a good power potential. However,
just knowing the average is not enough to determine whether a wind farm can
be projected or not. Other factors can be explored in order to define better the
frequency of the wind, which is really important. Sometimes the wind direction
keeps changing a lot during the day and this can have a negative influence on
the power generated by the wind farm.
The Weibull probability density function, PDF, can be used to get a more
complex view of the wind data. The probability for a particularly windspeed v
is:
  
   
k
v k1
v k
p(v) =
exp
(8)
c
c
c
in Excel it is possible to find the values of the PDF when varying v, and
plot the graphs related to the weather station and the site chosen, see figure 4:

Figure 4: PDF for the wind farm site and the weather station.
We can see that the frequency of lower wind speed is higher at the weather
station compared to the wind farm site, the latter having more probability of
reaching huge values of wind velocities.
The Weibull cumulative probability, CDF, which is the integration of the
PDF, will facilitate to come up with the percentages of being at certain wind
speeds. This can be found by limiting an interval of the curve calculated by the
following formula:
   
v k
p(v) = 1 exp
(9)
c

Then a graph can be generated, see figure 5, to visualize the CDF when
varying v:

Figure 5: CDF for the wind farm site and the weather station.
The graph shows exactly what is expected; the weather station, with lower
wind velocities, grows faster and reaches the cumulative probability of 1 first,
thus the chances of finding huge wind speeds here is very low. On the opposite,
the wind farm site takes longer to develop and reaches the value 1 later, culminating in higher wind speeds encountered.
Further the CDF can be used to figure out the bins, which is the probability
of being between a certain range of wind speeds. In Excel, this can easily be
done with just calculating the difference of certain points of the curve. Finally,
the number of hours the wind will be blowing at a certain range of speeds can
be found by multiplying the bins by the number of hours in one year, 8760.
Below, figure 6 is showing this information:

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Figure 6: Histogram showing the binned wind speeds per year.

It can be noticed that the majority of hours in one year, the wind will be
blowing in a range from 3m/s to 25 m/s. This is within cut in and cut out
speed, which is really important to guarantee a stable power generation all the
time.
As mentioned in the siting section the constant wind velocities and direction
imply that Woomera would be a good place to construct a wind farm. The next
step to conclude our assumption would be to choose the wind turbine. The total
power generated and energy can be calculated and use the Weibull probabilities
to check the number of hours the wind will be blowing at certain speeds, making
a relation with the power curve of the wind turbine.

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4
4.1

Wind Turbine Selection and Layout

by Astrid Palm
Turbine selection

With an average wind speed at hub height of 8.18 m/s, we are within the range
of an IEC 61400-1 class III turbine. As a preliminary study, we have compared
6 turbines from 4 suppliers, all of varying size, speed characteristics and power
output, see figure 7 for the results. All turbines are in class II/III.

Figure 7: Turbine characteristics (Vestas 2009 and WinWinD 2014).

We wish to compare the capacity factor for each turbine. This metric is a
better basis for comparison than the annual energy output as a continuous power
output is essential. The distributed power output is obtained by calculating the
expected amount of hours within each power range based on the power curve for
each turbine and the scaled Weibull distribution for wind speeds at hub height.
The power curves are obtained using a wind energy calculator (Suisse Eole
Gesch
aftsstelle 2014). The power curves obtained in the calculator are based
on a standardized density of air. The actual density at hub height at our sight
will depend on the local Mean Sea Level Pressure and temperature and can be
calculated based on the data obtained from the weather station. We choose to
use the given power curves for each turbine as they primarily will be used to
compare our different options.
The expected power outtake for each power range can now be calculated,
from which the annual energy output Ea, the Power output Pw , the average
Power output Pavg and the capacity factor Cp can be found by the following
relations respectively (Nampalli 2013):

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Ea =

N
X

P wi vi t

(10)

i=1

Pavg =
Cp =

P wi ui
Hours/year

Ea
Prated Hours/year

(11)
(12)

Based on this analysis we see that, when only considering the capacity factor, the Vestas V112/3000 (possibly the V112/3075) turbine is the best option
for our site.
Further considerations will be done on the basis of the Vestas V112/3000
turbine, with characteristics given in figure 8. This turbine is designed for low
and medium wind speeds and is applicable all over the world.

Figure 8: Our chosen turbine. Operating Hours are based on wind speeds over
cut in speed and below cut out speed, i.e. the expected amount of hours that the
turbine will deliver power, and do not account for down time due to maintenance
or damages.
The Betz limit (wake neglected and steady state flow) yields an upper limit
for the capacity factor. Our capacity factor of 0.4998 lies fairly close to this
limit. As no wake losses or mechanical losses are accounted for, the actual capacity factor will be significantly lower.

4.2

Site design and optimization

After having selected a turbine, one can start looking at the site layout, the goal
being to maximize the power outtake.

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Firstly we wish to make maximum use of the available land. Obviously, the
more turbines we add, the higher the potential power outtake will be and the
higher the potential income. However this goal has to compromise with the wish
to maximize the turbine capacity factor as the spacing of the turbines affects
the wake losses. Also, when you place several turbines behind one another, the
down stream turbines are more prone to fatigue due to the induced turbulences.
Studies show that separating the turbines by 8-10 rotor diameters in the downstream direction and 5 rotor diameters in the crosswind direction leads to very
low wake losses, as the turbulences are reduced to about 10% (Bright Hub Inc.
2012). This coincides well with the suggested spacing of 7-10 rotor diameters in
the strongly predominant wind direction from the tutorial notes (Kay 2014).
We are aiming for a total installed capacity of about 150 MW. Due to downstream wake losses we wish to minimize the number of rows normal to the
predominant wind direction. With turbines of a rated capacity of 3 MW, a
spacing of 10 rotor diameters in the downstream direction and 5 diameters in
the cross-stream direction, we suggest the following layout for the wind farm:

Figure 9: The layout of our windfarm.

5 rows in the prominent wind direction with 10 columns in each give us a
total of 50 turbines and a total installed capacity of 150MW.

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4.3

Losses

The induced velocities and turbulences downstream and cross-stream of each

turbine affect the power output of the other turbines. The downstream array
losses are much larger than cross-stream so we mainly concentrate on the spacing of the turbines in this direction.
Using Katics empirical model for array losses (Kay 2014) we can determine
the losses between each row of turbines:

(1 1 cT )
ux
,
(13)
=
1
2
u0
(1 + 2k X
D)
where ux is the wind velocity at a distance x, u0 is incoming velocity, cT
is the thrust coefficient, k is the wake decay constant and X/D is the spacing
ratio of the turbines. Similarly, the relation between the scaling parameters in
the respective Weibull distributions is:

cx
(1 1 cT )
1
(14)
=
2
c0
(1 + 2k X
D)
Assuming a spacing of 10 rotor diameters in the downstream direction, the
change in Weibull parameter c and the corresponding losses for each row of
turbines are given in figure 10. We see that the wake losses increase for each
row, leaving the rear turbines with a fairly low average power output. Since we
in our site layout only have 5 rows in the downstream direction, the maximum
array loss will be of approximately 15% (between row 4 and 5).

Figure 10: Average power, total power per row and wake loss due to the difference in c.
Also, there will be annual losses due to both regular maintenance and repair
of unexpected damages. As the records of failures and the corresponding downtime for different turbines is not public, the estimation of losses due to technical
15

failure involves several error sources and imprecise assumptions (Walford 2006).
According to data obtained by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
(NREL 2013), there is no significant difference in availability between turbines
of different power class or from different manufacturers. Most of them lie over
90% and the average amount of downtime per year is 170 hours. Since our site is
located in a sandy area, a fairly higher assumption for expected downtime should
be done. On this basis we assume 190 downtime hours per year per turbine the
first 15 operating years. Subtracting this from the already estimated operating
hours we get 7865 operating hours per year. The power and energy output for
each row is given in figure 11.

Figure 11: Average power and annual energy output for each row.
When array losses and downtime due to wind speeds outside the operating wind speed range are accounted for, we have an annual energy output of
464,908MWh.

5
5.1

Financial Analysis
by Usman Hassan
Transportation Cost

The weight of each turbine and with blades and tower comes out to be 90
tonnes. We are going to install 50 wind turbines thus the total weight comes
out to be 4500 tonnes. The average cost of shipping is 0.07/tonne/km (Bureau
of Transportation Statistics 2014). Considering our turbines are coming from
Denmark Aarhus to Adeliede we, find out the distance to be travelled is 20,800
km (Searates 2014), calculating we get:
4500 0.07 20800 = $6, 552, 000

5.2

(15)

O&M Costs

Our O&M costs include insurance, maintenance , repair, spare parts and administration, this cost is about 1.7 (Morthorst, P. 2014) cents/kWh for a mid
sized turbine. (700-1500kW). Assuming the O&M costs decrease by the use of
larger sized Wind turbine our cost would come to be around 1.5 cents/kWh.
16

We are hoping to produce about 464,900,000 kWh , thus total O&M comes out
to be $ 650,871,011

5.3

Operational Revenue

The amount of electricity produced by our wind farm in a year comes out to
be 464,907,865.6 kWh, the average spot price of wholesale electricity during
the year 2010-2014 was $ 48.82 /MWh. The line losses and transformer losses
would amount to about 2% which would give us a total revenue through sale of
electricity comes out to be $ 22.23 million.

5.4

Subsidies

Large-scale generation certificates can be obtained for wind farms, these are
calculated by the following formula (Clean Energy Regulator 2014):
T LEG(F SL + AU X + (DLEG (1M LF )))

(16)

where TLEG is the total amount of electricity (in MWh) generated by the
RET power station in the year, as measured at all generator terminals of the
power station in the year. 464,907.865 MWh for our plant.
FSL is the RET power stations may be using a combination of fossil fuels and
renewable energy sources. Does not apply to our plant.
AUX is the auxiliary losses relate to electricity used in the generation of electricity and electricity used in the operation and maintenance of the RET power
station. The auxiliary loss is not eligible for LGCs. However, electricity consumed in a manufacturing or production process can be eligible for LGCs. This
data is not provided by most large wind turbines company , thus it is very difficult to ascertain. In Colder climates it is estimated to go up to 20% but for
our site we take it 0%.
DLEG is the net eligible generation which is exported to a distribution network,
transmission network or a point of use. We are accounting for transformer losses
when connecting to the grid which can be about 1%(Hulshorst 2009).
MLF it the transmission losses are too be calculated through applying the
marginal loss factor (MLF) to the amount of exported electricity. The MLF
is calculated for each RET power station by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) in the National Electricity Market (NEM) regions. RET power
stations in non-NEM regions should contact their State or Territory government
for this information, where available - for example, the Independent Market Operator (IMO) in Western Australia. According to AEMO our plant is situated
where MLF turns out to be 0.9845
Using the formula we get 457773 LGCs. The price of weighted LGC for 2013
was $ 25 (Green Energy Trading 2014) , thus our total revenue for LGC comes
out to be $ 11,444,325

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5.5

Decommission Costs

The cost of decommissioning the wind turbines is offset by the salvage value of
the towers and turbine components to some part.
To decommission we have to remove the towers, remove concrete used in
foundation and seed and re-vegetation for the land. If the land is to be used
again for newer wind turbines this cost can be ignored.
Selling the scrap can be of significant value which includes,salvage value of
turbine , scrap value of tower steel, scrap value of generator components .
Estimated cost of decommissioning minus salvage value comes out to be
about $ 15,000.

5.6

Cost and payback

The capital cost for single wind turbine with installation comes out to be $ 3.75
million.
Using the costs above the simple payback comes out to be 6.3 years.

Environmental Impacts
by Hanne Linde

When the turbines are in place there are several issues regarding their presence
in the landscape. This can cause conflict with the people living there as well
as wildlife and surrounding flora. For people it is the visual and noise of the
turbines and for wildlife such as birds a wind turbine can be fatal if they fly
into them (WEDPEIS 2014). These are subjects that needs to be carefully
considered before actually building a wind farm. The aesthetic pollution a
wind farm can bring to a landscape is for many people a big problem. A wind
farm is big and the towers can be over a 100 meters tall. They are very visible
in the landscape due to their location in windy sites such as on top of hills or
near the coast (WEDPEIS 2014). People are different and so are their views
on what is beautiful and what is not. It is impossible to make a wind turbine
that everybody will be satisfied with, but we believe that our desert location
will not get many protests since the population in the surroundings is low. We
also believe that getting a general acceptance from the people living in South
Australia to be a non-problem because of the many wind farms already existing
there.
When wind turbines operates the rotating blades makes noise. This noise is
fortunately not that prominent since the wind turbines only operate when the
wind is blowing. Again, since our wind farm will be in a desert area, not many
people is around to be annoyed by the noise.
The biggest problem with wind turbines is the impact that it can have on
birds and other flying wildlife such as bats. The findings of dead birds and bats

18

around wind farms in South Australia concludes that wind turbines are a threat
to the flying wildlife (Sharp 2010). The deaths of some species can have impacts
further down the ecological chain. For example if the population of raptors is
decreased, the population of rabbits and small mammals which is the raptors
food, can increase, leading to pest (Sharp 2010). To minimize this threat a lot
of things can be done. One thing is to build towers with smooth surfaces so it
is impossible for birds to lay nest there. Another possibility is to do research
on the different bird and bat types living in the area and have turbines with a
height that does not match with the birds flying height. And also not placing
the wind farm in sites where birds usually fly over i.e. their migration route.
There is a so called important bird area identified nearby Woomera and our
wind farm site (Birdlife 2012), around the Lake Torrens. This is an area where
the birds are very sensitive to disturbance to their habitat. Our wind farm will
be at least 110 kilometers away from this lake so we believe that it should not
have a large impact on the bird life there. One creative way to stop or at least
minimize the rate of birds and bats flying into turbines is to paint the tower and
rotor blades in bright colors which can scare them away. Colorful turbines will
of course be even more visible in the landscape which can be negative for some
people as discussed above, but on the other hand this could be the beginning
of a tourist attraction, creating more interest and enthusiasm of wind turbines
to the public. See figure 12 for an example illustration. To finance the cost
of building the wind farm, one or more of the turbines can be built with an
observation deck. This can attract tourists and create even more interest about
wind turbines.

Figure 12: Illustration for a wind farm with colorful rotor blades (Singh 2010).

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Our wind farm will be located near the highway A87 and because of the
flat desert area no big impacts on the environment needs to be done by making
new roads for transportation of the wind turbine components. Only some small
roads that goes to each turbine when setting up the wind farm and also for
maintenance later. Trees, bush and flowers will therefore not be affected in a
large scale. From a map of soil types of South Australia (Atlas 2012), Woomera
has a mix of calcareous earth and crusty red soil. We believe that this will
not have a negative effect when building the foundation for the turbines. The
only complication when building in a desert area is the extra maintenance of
the rotor blades because of the dust and sand that can stick to the blades an
decrease the efficiency.
The site where our wind farm will be set up is government land, but there
is one area in Woomera which is owned by the Australian Defense Force and
has strict entering regulations. It is the biggest military test range on land
(Department of Defense 2014) and it is called Woomera Prohibited Area. We
believe that some of the power from our electricity production can go to this
military base. That is also the reason why we chose to build a big wind farm
with a yearly production of 150MW.
In South Australia the consumption of 1 kWh gives 0.79 kg of CO2 (Department of Climate Change 2012). That means if this wind farm is to be built
then SA would save 118,500 kg of CO2 compared to the electricity coming from
a power plant.

Social Impacts
by Victor Chen

Figure 13 shows the investment amount by states in Australia since year 2000.
South Australia attracts the most investors throughout Australia in Wind Energy industry. In this report, it can be observed that there is more than 3000
jobs created in 2012 for wind energy for all 5 states in Australia, and around
750 direct jobs created. This indicates that South Australia cares about wind
energy, and also shows a great advantage throughout Australia.
The South Australian government help investors to discover opportunities
there (Department of Manufacturing, Innovation, Trade, Resources and Energy
2014). The government works with investment banks and encourage various
of investment methods, and also provide excellent service for international investors. The wind turbines that we are choosing provide a 24/7/365 surveillance.
Service include detecting potential errors and disruptions, as well as the maintenance for the turbine.

20

Figure 13: Table showing investment by state since year 2000.

7.1

Local impact

The site that we are choosing is close to a small town and feedback from local
citizen would be essential for renewable energy projects. It is believed that as
much as 80% of farmers and land owners would get important income from
building a wind farm (Clean Energy Counsil 2012). Also, a small majority,
57%, of residents thought it is likely having a wind farm in the local area to
provide the growing of local business. Another important point that should be
considered for the local residents is the noise problem from the wind turbines
might influence their lives. Noise levels should not exceed 35 dB at the receivers
with rural living, and 40 dB at receivers in other zone (Environment Protection
Autorithy 2009). The wind turbine that we are choosing gives a 100 dB-106.5
dB sound level range. The distance from the site that we are choosing and
to the closest residence at the small city of Pimba would be about 120 km
estimated from google maps. Therefore the sound that it generate would not
be a problem for residents living there, since sound level decreases 6 dB per unit
length (Sengpiel 2014).

7.2

Labour costs

Concerning the salary it is the wind technician that has the most important role
while building and operating a wind farm (Hubpages 2014). The salary would
normally be offered $45,000-$48,000 annually. To become a wind technician, one
should complete a wind energy training program specific for wind technicians.
And this would offer a high standard of work quality, and provide a stable wind
farm operating period. For wind site labor, the normally payment is $22-$25
per hour. This gives a clear financial plan for labor cost beforehand.
Turbines would be constructed by Vestas, the provider of the chosen wind
21

turbine. Even with the 54.6 meter blades there are no special fees. (Vestas
2009)

7.3

Electrical system and grid connections

The electrical parts inside the turbine containing the inverter and the connection grid is great for the wind situation in the chosen wind farm. There is only
two parts that requires attention in the electrical system we have on the wind
site, which are the control and supervision and transmission efficiency.
Connection is necessary for wind site, therefore, strong powerful and efficient
cables are located to connect all the wind turbine. The closest substation is
located at 311404.0S 1364953.0E.

22

According to Google maps, the closest substation would be 53.4 km away

from the wind site. It is relatively far from the wind site, but on the other hand
it would be convenient to install due to the location of the substation near the
highway A87. See figure 14.

Figure 14: The nearest sub station, red marker.

After comparing with several dealers, a cable company in China called
SREXACT would provide a low price cable. Which is around $1 per meter.
For a 53.4 km connection, it would cost around $110,000.

23

Conclusion
by everybody

Overall, the wind resource was discussed for this wind farm, having a dominate
wind direction from the South and an average wind speed of 8.18 m/s at hub
height. The wind turbine chosen has a cut in speed of 3 m/s and a cut out speed
of 25 m/s which will generate energy rated power at 3kW. Doing the financial
analysis, it can be stated that the initial cost and the possible payback time of
6.3 years are suitable according to the interests of our investors. Finally, the
impact on environment and social was thoroughly discussed, neither having any
negative impacts considering the local residents, live stock and wild animals.
To conclude, it is possible to say that the wind farm feasibility discussed in this
report would be viable and perfectly designed.

24

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