Energy and Environment

(MECH 433):

Wind Energy (Introduction)

Ming Li
School of Engineering
The University of Liverpool

Introduction
Aims and objectives:

To give students an understanding of the advantages and

disadvantages of wind energy generation methods;

To develop detailed knowledge of wind energy capture;

To develop skills in quantitative analysis of wind energy generation

methods.

Learning outcomes:

Impact of wind energy generation methods on the environment

Quantitative analysis techniques for energy generation methods

Applying analytical methods to wind power generation problems

Decision making in complex and unpredictable situations

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Sustainable Civil Engineering Group Design (CIVE488)

Syllabus

0-2hr: Wind and wind energy (Power)

0-2hr: Basics of wind turbines
2-3hr: Aerodynamics & component design
3-5hr: Power and energy from wind turbines
3-5hr: Environment impacts
5-6hr: Economics and future

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Sustainable Civil Engineering Group Design (CIVE488)

Assessment

CA: 1 Q&A 5% Thursday 12th March, due Friday

2wks after.

Exam: 1 question 20%

Main references: Boyle, G. (2012) Renewable

Energy, Power for a sustainable future, 3rd ed.
Oxford University Press.

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Sustainable Civil Engineering Group Design (CIVE488)

The wind

All our energy comes from the Sun in the form of

light.
Because of the Earths spinning axis is tilted at an
angle to its orbiting plane, it receives different
amounts of sunshine at different time of the year.

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Energy and Environment (MECH433)

The wind

The differential solar heating of the Earths surface

causes variations in atmosphere pressure, and leads
to the movement of air masses as the principle of the
Earths wind systems.

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Energy and Environment (MECH433)

The wind
Air flow is driven from
high pressure area to
the low pressure area.
Warm air rises and cool
air descends.
Wind is influenced by
the terrain and shapes
the terrain in turn.
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Energy and Environment (MECH433)

The wind

Wind is very unpredictable in magnitude and direction;

Wind shear: increase of wind speed with height;
Wind speed and direction affected by heat (sunshine);
Terrain friction causes Turbulence;
Extreme wind (gust) can cause damage and even
disasters.

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Wind energy

Wind mills has been used for thousands of years

for milling grain, pumping water and other
applications.
Wind turbines are used as a pollution-free means
of generating electricity on a significant scale.

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Energy and Environment (MECH433)

Wind energy

The total amount of economically extractable power

available from the wind is considerably more than
present human power use from all sources.

Advantages:

Free and renewable

Has been used over many centuries (proven technology)

Disadvantages:

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Intermittent and unsteady in direction and speed

Very low energy density and use of large surface
Noise and vibration from wind turbines
Visual intrusion of wind turbines
Initial construction and subsequent maintenance cost
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Wind energy
1
2
Kinetic energy = mV0
2

Area A

m AV0
1
3
Kinetic energy = AV0
2

(in joules per sec.)

Total power:

P 0.5AV0

: air density
A : swept rotor area
V0 : (free stream) wind speed
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Wind energy
Example: wind at 10 m/s through a circular area
of 1 m in radius
P 0.5AV0 0.5 1.2 3.14 12 103 1884W
3

However, not all the power available in the

wind can be extracted. So the true power that
can be extracted is a fraction of the above:
1
3
P C p AV0
2
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Cp: power coefficient

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Wind energy

Normally 5 m/s wind is required to turn a wind turbine.

An average wind speed of 6 m/s to turn wind into electricity.
On-shore:
Easy to access for construction and maintenance
Easy to connect to the Grid
Wind quality may not be high
Land use
Environmental issues
Offshore:
Large area and stronger wind
Shipping
Corrosive environment
Maintenance cost

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Wind energy
Price of Electricity

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4 ~ 12p per unit (1 kW hour), depending on suppliers

and fuel market.
Unit price of electricity is largely influenced by gas price
(40%).
Onshore wind power at around 3.2p.
Small-scale wind turbines at 12p.
Domestic customers pay 24p per unit up to 900 units
and 12p per unit above (depending on suppliers)

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Wind energy

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Wind turbines

Earliest design of wind turbine is by James Blyth

of Strathclyde University in 1887, built at Marykirk
(Scotland).
Since 1980s, wind power technology have
become one of fastest growing Renewable
Energy technology worldwide, with 194GW
capacity built by 2010.
To understand the mechanism and system,
multidiscipline knowledge is required:
meteorology, aerodynamic, electrical, structural,
civil and mechanical engineering.

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Wind turbines

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Wind turbines
Horizontal Axis (HAWT)

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industrial standard design of 3-bladed and 2-bladed

turbines
On-shore
Off-shore

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Wind turbines
Solidity is used to describe the fraction of
the swept area that is solid (blade).

Multi-blade turbines have high-solidity rotors

Modern electricity generating wind turbine have
low solidity rotors.

Speed of rotation:

Revolution per minute (RPM)

Angular velocity (radians per second)
2
1rpm
reds 1 0.10472rads 1
60

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Wind turbines
Tip speed U: tangential velocity of the rotor
at the tip of the blades (m/s)
Tip speed ratio : ratio between tip speed U
and upstream wind velocity V0
U

V0

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Wind turbines

To extract energy efficiently, the blades need to interact

with wind as much as possible through the rotors swept
area.
High-solidity multi-blade wind turbines interact with all
wind at very low tip speed ratio.
Low-solidity turbine have to travel fast to virtually fill up
the swept area to interact with wind passing through.
Optimum tip speed ratios for modern low-solidity turbines
range between 6-20.
However, large number of blades can interfere with air
flow and cause much stronger turbulence, hence reduce
the efficiency of the turbine.

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Wind turbines
Vertical Axis (VAWT)

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various designs and creative

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Wind turbines
Vertical Axis (VAWT)

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At present, the VAWTs are not economically

competitive with HAWTs.
However, they offers significant advantages
over HAWTS in blades loading and fatigue.
They are not subjects to the major gravitational
cyclic loadings that the large diameter HAWTs
experience.
They often can be operated with high reliability.
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Wind turbines
Foote Creek Wind Farm, U.S.

Lillgrund Wind Farm, Sweden

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