Wind Energy Design and Fundamentals

In Wind Energy Design and Fundamentals, you'll learn ...

• Factors that influence wind energy
• Types of wind turbines and their components
• Wind turbine design parameters
• Wind farm design considerations

Overview

Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.

Credit: 5 PDH

Length: 102 pages

The rising concerns over climate change, environmental pollution, and energy security have seen increased interest in developing renewable energy, with wind energy being at the forefront. Wind energy refers to technology that converts the air’s motion into mechanical energy, usually for electricity production.

Wind energy captures the natural air in our environment and converts the air’s motion into mechanical energy. Wind is caused by differences in atmospheric pressure. Wind speeds vary based on geography, topography, and season. As a result, there are some locations better suited for wind energy generation than others. In general, wind speeds are higher near the coast and offshore since there are fewer objects like vegetation, mountains, and buildings to slow them down.

The mechanism used to convert air motion into electricity is referred to as a turbine, which is a large structure with several spinning blades. These blades are connected to a rotor, and an electromagnetic generator generates electricity when the wind causes the blades to spin. Traditionally, this energy was used for milling grain and pumping water, but today it is used to create electricity.

A major advantage of wind is that it is a clean and renewable form of energy. Its production of electricity has no direct carbon emissions or air pollutants and does not consume water. Wind also has relatively low operations and maintenance costs after initial construction. However, wind energy also faces several challenges. Wind speeds can vary throughout the day and year, causing intermittency issues for power grids. The price tag of wind power has traditionally been higher than conventional electricity generation sources, though the wind cost curve has declined significantly in recent years. Other concerns such as land use, noise, and bird disruption have also been raised.

In terms of technology, turbine design focuses on optimizing power output by focusing on two key parameters: blade length and average wind speed. The latter is affected by surface terrain and varies spatially, directionally, and seasonally. The effectiveness of a particular installation is quantified by the “capacity factor”—the ratio of actual annual energy output to the theoretical maximum output. Several basic designs are in use, but most commercial installations use a horizontal axis, upwind-facing design. Wind energy is expanding both onshore and offshore with bigger turbines—bigger in both physical size and generating capacity—to capture more stable winds and to maximize return on installation costs.

The purpose of this course is to introduce the general aspects of wind energy and wind turbines. The course discusses the wind turbine’s operating principles, the key components, technology & performance features, cost economics, and various environmental and social aspects.

Specific Knowledge or Skill Obtained

This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:

• Basic concepts of wind energy: source, site, measurement
• Factors influencing wind energy production
• Types of wind turbines—horizontal and vertical axis, onshore, and offshore configurations
• The key components of wind turbine and their functions - selection and specifications of rotor blades, gearbox, tower, etc.
• Theoretical, practical, and net energy output from wind turbine
• Energy calculations, limits on the efficiency and coefficient of performance of a turbine
• Wind turbine design parameters—power curve, TSR, number of blades, etc.
• Onshore and offshore wind farms—pros and cons
• Site analysis and selection—Weibull curve
• Economics of Wind Energy: the levelized cost of energy
• Control schemes of wind turbines
• Environmental and social aspects of wind turbines

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 30 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.