Fu 1

CHAPTER 1
Introduction to Wind Power
R.S. Amano
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Madison, WI, USA.
Abstract
Wind power is a well-proven and cost-effective technology and expected to be the

main way in which industry responds to the Government’s targets – so becoming
an important source of electricity in years to come. In this book, we have focused
on basic and some advanced topics needed to understand the current situation in
the win power engineering. This chapter provides introductory materials for the
wind energy.
Keywords: Introduction to renewable energy, wind energy in the world, fundamen-
tals in wind turbines.
1 Introduction
As the clean energy industry emerges from initial stage caused by the global eco-
nomic downturn, it is entering a new stage of rapid change of business. The world-
wide demand for energy is expected to double by the year 2030 and triple by 2050,
when fossil fuels will account for no more than two-thirds of all energy consumed,
compared with 79% of the energy consumed today. Traditional fossil sources such
as oil, gas and coal are not renewable and cause pollution by releasing huge quanti-
ties of carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere, thereby damaging
the environment in many ways, from acid rain to climate change. To help combat
these problems, many states in the United States are seeking ways to use renewable
energy sources, such as wind, solar and biomass. Along with its environmental and
cost benefits, renewable energy is a rapidly growing industry with vast potential for
economic growth and job creation. In fact, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture has
identified wind, solar and biomass as key factors for advancing the U.S. economy.
Wind energy has recently become the world’s fastest growing source of renew-
able energy. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) expects that wind energy will
contribute to 20% of the U.S. electricity supply by 2030. As a result, there has been
WIT Transactions on State of the Art in Science and Engineering, Vol 81, © 2014 WIT Press
www.witpress.com, ISSN 1755-8336 (on-line)
doi:10.2495/978-1-78466-004-8/001
2 Aerodynamics of Wind Turbines
a revived interest in wind turbines because they are emissions-free and wind is
renewable and cost-free; however, the amount of electricity generated and obtained
by wind energy conversion systems is still unsteady, relatively expensive and dif-
ficult to integrate into traditional electricity systems because of the variation in
wind source and unresolved energy storage issues. On a large scale, spatial vari-
ability describes the fact that there are many different climatic regions in the world,
some much windier than others. These regions are largely dictated by the latitude,
which affects the amount of insolation. Within any one climatic region, there is a
great deal of variation on a smaller scale, largely dictated by physical geography –
the proportion of land and sea, the size of land masses and the presence of moun-
tains or plains, for example. The resource map of wind energy in the United States
[1] indicates that the vast majority of available wind is very unsteady; strong wind
zones are concentrated in certain regions and not uniformly distributed throughout
the nation, making wind power collection more difficult. Conversely, the easy-to-
collect wind energy is primarily confined to remote locations, making electricity
distribution difficult.
In the USA, while wind makes up only 2% of total electricity supply, it is one
of the largest sources of new power generation in the country, second only to
natural gas generation in terms of new capacity built each year since 2005.
During the last few years, wind power in the United States has been increasing
rapidly as shown in Fig. 1 [2]. Over 1,000 wind turbines >2 megawatts (MW) are
already in commercial operation in the United States, and the year-end order for
338 GE 2.5-MW wind turbines for the Shepherd’s Flat wind project in Oregon
is the harbinger of a shift in orders towards such larger turbines. This forecast
assumes that inventory will have been exhausted and that there will be a growing
market for wind turbine orders in 2011 and beyond, spurred by a national Renew-
able Electricity Standard (RES). The trend towards larger turbines is driven by
economics: taller turbines with larger swept areas produce more power at a
lower cost per kilowatt-hour. The rapid quest for more electrical power, moving
from 2 MW turbines in 2009 to 6 MW turbines being installed in early 2012 has
led to the tower head mass being increased from 140 to 360 tonnes, with
enhanced variations in structural loading and fatigue. Stabilisation at the current
power level will enhance opportunities for consistent design and manufacture of
the structures within a farm.
Total wind capacity in the USA reached 60,000 MW by the end of 2012, with
commercial-scale wind turbines operating in 38 states. Wind power accounted for
35% of the country’s new power-production capacity from 2007 to 2011, second
only to natural gas. According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA),
Texas leads the country as the state with the most installed wind power with 10,400
MW. Iowa remains a leader in wind generation with 3,675 MW installed; while
California and Minnesota continue to harvest significant amounts of wind with
4,322 MW and 2,733 MW, respectively [3].
Although this is a significant growth for wind energy, it still only accounts for a
small percentage of the U.S. electricity supply. The U.S. Department of Energy
recently released a report that laid out a plan to reach 20% wind energy power by
Introduction to Wind Power 3
Figure 1: U.S. wind power generation (MW-hr).
2030 to fuel the U.S. electricity grid. This would provide a major increase in jobs,
benefits to rural landowners and lead the Country to increased energy indepen-
dence. Factors pushing for growth in U.S. wind energy include the high cost of
fossil fuels and concern over national energy security. As a result, policy makers
are actively considering a wide range of legislation that would support and enhance
wind energy growth.
Progressive public policy has usually been a key ingredient both for encouraging
wind energy expansion and helping to determine what forms that growth will take.
Future growth will likely come from commercial-scale wind farms, which are typi-
cally vast arrays of turbines owned and operated by large corporations. Yet experi-
ence in Minnesota has shown that, with an encouraging policy environment, small
clusters of turbines or even single turbines can make significant contributions,
operated by local landowners, small businesses and community wind projects.
Worldwide there are now over two hundred thousand wind turbines operating,
with a total nameplate capacity of 282,482 MW as of end 2012 [4] The European
Union alone passed some 100,000 MW nameplate capacity in September 2012 [5],
while the United States surpassed 50,000 MW in August 2012 and China passed
50,000 MW the same month [6]. World wind generation capacity more than qua-
drupled between 2000 and 2006, doubling about every 3 years. The United States
pioneered wind farms and led the world in installed capacity in the 1980s and into
the 1990s. In 1997, German installed capacity surpassed the United States and led
until once again overtaken by the United States in 2008. China has been rapidly
expanding its wind installations in the late 2000s and passed the United States in
2010 to become the world leader.
At the end of 2012, worldwide nameplate capacity of wind-powered generators
was 282 gigawatts (GW), growing by 44 GW over the preceding year [7]. Accord-
ing to the World Wind Energy Association, an industry organisation, in 2010 wind
power generated 430 TWh or about 2.5% of worldwide electricity usage [8] up
from 1.5% in 2008 and 0.1% in 1997 [9]. Between 2005 and 2010, the average
annual growth in new installations was 27.6% [10]. Wind power market penetra-
tion is expected to reach 3.35% by 2013 and 8% by 2018 [10]. Several countries
Figure 2: Top 10 countries by name plate wind power capacity (2012 year-end).
have already achieved relatively high levels of penetration, such as 28% of station-
ary (grid) electricity production in Denmark (2011) [11] 19% in Portugal (2011),
16% in Spain (2011), 14% in Ireland (2010) and 8% in Germany (2011). As of
2011, 83 countries around the world were using wind power on a commercial
basis [12]. Figure 2 shows the top 10 countries by nameplate windpower capacity
by the end of 2012.
2 Why do we need wind energy
The world is getting hotter, in fact by 1°C on land over the last 100 years, and the
overwhelming consensus of scientific opinion is that human activities, particularly
the emission of greenhouse gasses, are the cause [13]. The energy sector is by far
the biggest source of these emissions, and if we are to tackle climate change it is
clear that we need to move away from burning limited fossil fuel reserves to more
sustainable and renewable sources of energy. As well as being good for the planet,
this is also good for economy as it reduces the dependency on oil and gas imports –
improving the balance of payments while also increasing energy supply security.
We need to see more renewable energy and the Government has set a binding tar-
get for 20% of the USA’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030 [14].
Wind power can play a major role in meeting USA’s increasing demand for
electricity, according to a ground-breaking technical report, 20% Wind Energy by
2030: Increasing Wind Energy’s Contribution to U.S. Electricity Supply, prepared
by the U.S. Department of Energy with contributions from the National Renew-
able Energy Laboratory, the AWEA, Black & Veatch and others from the energy
sector. To implement the 20% Wind Scenario, new wind power installations would
increase to more than 16,000 MW per year by 2018, and continue at that rate
through 2030, as shown in Fig. 3. Wind plant costs and performance are projected
to improve modestly over the next two decades, but no technological break-
throughs are needed. In the 20% wind scenario, 46 states would experience
significant wind power development.
The report finds that during the decade preceding 2030, the U.S. wind industry
could:
(a) support roughly 500,000 jobs in the United States, with an annual average of
more than 150,000 workers directly employed by the wind industry;
(b) support more than 100,000 jobs in associated industries (e.g. accountants, law-
yers, steel workers and electrical manufacturing);
(c) support more than 200,000 jobs through economic expansion based on local
spending;
(d) increase annual property tax revenues to more than $1.5 billion by 2030 and
(e) increase annual payments to rural landowners to more than $600 million in
2030.
The report explores one scenario for reaching 20% wind electricity by 2030 and
contrasts it to a scenario in which no new U.S. wind power capacity is installed.
It examines costs, major impacts and challenges associated with the 20% Wind
Scenario. It investigates requirements and outcomes in the areas of technology,
manufacturing, transmission and integration, markets, environment and siting.
The report finds that the Nation possesses affordable wind energy resources far in
excess of those needed to enable a 20% scenario [15].
Wind power is a well-proven and cost-effective technology and expected to be
the main way in which industry responds to the Government’s targets – so becom-
ing an important source of electricity in years to come.
Wind farms are created when multiple wind turbines are placed in the same loca-
tion for the purpose of generating large amounts of electric power. Due to rising
energy prices and the resultant search for alternatives, there are now thousands of
wind farms in many countries around the world. There is still a lot of controversy
surrounding the pros and cons of wind power and its local impact. The articles
listed on this page explore news and information about wind farms. Now major
electric companies are going green and proudly proclaiming it too from rooftops.
3 Current status on wind energy technology
Over the two decades, average wind turbine ratings have grown almost linearly
seven times as large as 1980s (see Fig. 3). Each group of wind turbine designers has
predicted that their machines are as large as they will ever be. However, with each
new generation of wind turbines, the size has increased along the linear curve and
has achieved reductions in life-cycle cost of energy. The long-term drive to develop
larger turbines stems from a desire to take advantage of wind shear by placing
rotors in the higher, more energetic winds at a greater elevation above ground (wind
speed increases with height above the ground). For this reason, the capacity factor
of wind turbines has increased. However, there are constraints to this continued
growth to larger sizes as in general it costs more to build a larger turbine. The pri-
mary argument for a size limit for wind turbines is based on the ‘square-cube law’.
Roughly stated, it says that ‘as a wind turbine rotor increases in size, its energy
Figure 3: The turbine blade size growth over 25 years [16].
output increases as the rotor-swept area (the diameter squared), while the volume of
the material, and therefore its mass and cost, increases as the cube of the diameter’.
In other words, at some size the cost for a larger turbine will grow faster than the
resulting energy output revenue, making scaling a losing economic game. Engi-
neers have successfully skirted this law by changing the design rules with increas-
ing size and removing material or by using material more efficiently to trim weight
and cost. Studies have shown that in recent years, blade mass has been scaling at
roughly an exponent of 2.3 instead of the expected 3, as shown by the WindPACT
blade scaling study. The WindPACT study shows how successive generations of
blade design have moved off the cubic weight growth curve to keep weight down
as illustrated in Fig. 3. If advanced research and development were to provide even
better design methods, as well as new materials and manufacturing methods that
allowed the entire turbine to scale as the diameter squared, then it would be possible
to continue to innovate around this limit to size [16].
4 VAWT and HAWT
Cross-wind-axis wind turbines most commonly oriented vertically and termed

Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) have emerged as a potential unit to our
need, after being shelved by wind turbine companies in the late 1980s as a result of
the greater success of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs). VAWTs present
several advantages over HAWTs, however, which are especially pertinent in the
built environment. There are, however, also significant challenges that have pre-
vented their widespread adoption. These challenges must be overcome if VAWTs
are to significantly contribute to meeting the 2030 wind power goal of the Depart-
ment of Energy.
VAWT’s have the equipment that needs maintenance nearer the ground. VAWT’s
are smaller (because if they were made bigger they would fly apart) and are used
only in small applications – homes, office buildings, etc. where the reason is to
make a statement. They make less than 50 kW. There are no commercial-sized
VAWT’s, because they do not make money, but if they existed they would spin at
speeds from 1 mph to 100s of miles per hour. VAWTs would, of course, fly apart as
soon as the wind went over about 20 mph, which is why they are not in commercial
operation, as centripetal forces would break the blades. There are lots of types of
VAWT’s, because they are really all ‘experimental’ in nature, although some are in
mass production. VAWTs cost less in total dollars, but significantly more in dollars
per kilowatt generated (because they do not make much power for their cost).
4.1 VAWT drawbacks
Although several large test facilities have been built, these are for the most part
no longer in operation. In addition to the principal advantages of wind turbines
with a vertical axis – for instance, the low levels of noise and the independence
from the wind direction – there are unfortunately several disadvantages. One of
these is that they must be installed close to the ground. Since the wind naturally
blows more strongly and evenly at greater heights, an installation that is not on a
mast loses a great deal of efficiency. If with this type of installation, the genera-
tor is housed in a machine room on the ground, then the maintenance is of course
simpler and cheaper. In spite of this, it is doubtful that the lower yield because of
the weaker winds close to the ground would be balanced out by the money saved
in maintenance costs. It still remains to be seen whether plans to use existing tall
structures to mount planned megawatt-level installations with vertical spindles can
be realized. It will probably not be easy to find buildings or structures that would
be able to handle the static and dynamic loads from a large wind power installation
with a vertical axis. And it goes without saying that these structures should be in
regions where the wind velocities are of interest. Another point against the current
conceptions of larger VAWTs is the greater material expenditure per square meter
of surface covered in comparison to installations with a horizontal spindle. This
is a significant additional cost factor that can hardly be compensated for by the
theoretically better possible exploitation of strong winds or gusts.
The main disadvantage of VAWTs is their low efficiency relative to HAWTs.
This is a result of the variable torque produced by dynamic stall experience by each
blade as it passes around the azimuth. The blades of a HAWT, on the other hand,
produce constant torque around the azimuth. A further disadvantage is the inability
to VAWTs to self-start. By improving the torque and therefore power produced by
VAWTs, and enabling self-start, the two main roadblocks to their adoption would
be removed. This would enable the widespread adoption of VAWTs for low-wattage
power generation in the urban and residential wind power markets. This will
increase renewable power generation in the locations where most power is con-
sumed, reducing the losses and costs associated with transmission. Furthermore, it
will reduce the reliability on fossil fuel based power generation and relieve consum-
ers from the price variations that result from this reliance.
4.2 VAWT advantage
VAWTs have several advantages over HAWTs in the urban environment. Because
they operate with a lower tip speed than HAWTs, they are less noisy. They also
Figure 4: H-Darrieus VAWT.
have a better aesthetic due to their three-dimensional shape, making them popular
with architects. HAWTs are sensitive to yaw and skew, experiencing decreases
in torque and power due to the aerodynamic asymmetry on the rotor disc under
such flow conditions. Due to the complexity of airflow in the urban environment,
the wind direction is generally not perpendicular to the vertical, making this issue
an important problem in this environment. VAWTs, however, are less sensitive
to both yaw and skew [17]. A further advantage of the VAWT is the simplicity
of the mechanical design and maintainability of the turbine system. Being based
on a vertical shaft, VAWTs can be designed with all heavy components located
at ground level, with the exception of a single bearing. This advantage is of par-
ticular interest to the residential power generation market, in which ease of repair
is critical. Of the various configurations of VAWT that exist, the simplest is the
H-Darrieus VAWT, illustrated in Fig. 4. One of its advantages is its ease of manu-
facture, since the blades can be extruded. This makes the H-Darrieus VAWT, in
particular, less expensive to build. Even the curved and helical blades of the more
common ‘egg-beater’ and helical VAWT designs are economic to manufacture
than the tapered blades of HAWTs. By reducing the manufacturing cost of wind
turbines for the home market, the installation cost is reduced, as is the return time
on investment. This time is one of the main barriers to most renewable energy
system in the home power market. On the other hand, the situation with smaller
installations with a nominal output up to approximately 10 kW can be considered
to be substantially different. At this level of output, there are very many appli-
cations, which until now could only be insufficiently covered with horizontal
systems. In particular, horizontal installations come up against their limits when
located in high mountain areas, in regions with extremely strong or gusty winds,
or in urban areas. But also in regions with relatively constant winds, that is, where
the conditions are ideal for systems with a horizontal axis, a VAWT can have its
advantages, at minimum if the neighbours complain about the annoyance of the
noise. There have already been reports of enraged neighbours who have settled
the acoustical problems with firearms.
5 Conclusions
The use of wind energy was an old practice since thousands of years ago. How-
ever, this technology has revived due to the shortage of fuels and the environ-
mental problems generated by the traditional energy resources. The last decade
has seen a sharp increase in wind turbine generated electricity globally and is
now well accepted with a large industry manufacturing and installing thousands of
MWs of new capacity each year. Although there are exciting new developments,
particularly in very large wind turbines, and many challenges remain, there is a
considerable body of established knowledge concerning the science and technol-
ogy of wind turbines. This book is intended to present some of this knowledge
and to present it in a form suitable for use by students and by those involved in the
design, manufacture or operation of wind turbines.
References
[1] Utility-Scale Land-Based 80-Meter Wind Maps. Wind Power America.

U.S. Department of Energy—Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, 2013.
[2] American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). AWEA 3rd quarter 2012 Pub-
lic Market Report, 2012.
[3] Wind Power in the United States. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_
in_the_United_States
[4] GWEC Global Wind Statistics 2012. Global Wind Energy Commission.
Retrieved 18 February 2013. 2012.
[5] EU wind power capacity reaches 100GW. UPI. October 2012. Retrieved
31 October 2012.
[6] China’s on-grid wind power capacity grows. China Daily. 16 August 2012.
[7] Wind Power by Country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_by_
country. 2013
[8] World Wind Energy Report 2010. World Wind Energy Association Report.
2011.
[9] Wind Power Increase in 2008 Exceeds 10-year Average Growth Rate. World-
watch.org. August 2010.
[10] BTM Forecasts 340-GW of Wind Energy by 2013. Renewableenergyworld.
com. August 2010.
[11] Månedlig elforsyningsstatistik. Danish Energy Agency. January 2012,
Vols. summary tab B58-B72.
[12] Wind Power. Gree and Independent Future. http://windivaenergy.com/index.
php/wind-energy, 2008.
[13] Coriolis Energy. http://coriolis-energy.com/wind_energy/wind_index.html.
2013.
[14] 20 percent wind energy by 2030. http://www.20percentwind.org/20p.aspx?
page=Overview. 2013.
[15] Energy efficiency and renewable energy. http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy08osti/
41869.pdf. 2013.
[16] Thresher, R., Robinson, M. & Veers, P., Wind Energy Technology: Current
Status and R&D Future. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. 2008,
NREL/CP-500-43374.
[17] Ferreira, C., Simão, J., et al., Simulating dynamic stall in a 2D V modeling
strategy, verification and validation with particle image velocimetry data.

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Wind Power

Wind power is a well-proven and cost-effective technology and expected to be the

Figure 1: U.S. wind power generation (MW-hr).

2 Why do we need wind energy

3 Current status on wind energy technology

4 VAWT and HAWT

Cross-wind-axis wind turbines most commonly oriented vertically and termed

4.1 VAWT drawbacks

4.2 VAWT advantage

Figure 4: H-Darrieus VAWT.

[1] Utility-Scale Land-Based 80-Meter Wind Maps. Wind Power America.

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