Curso Instructor Del Viento

Training Module
SPEAKER’S NOTES

WIND ENERGY PROJECT ANALYSIS
CLEAN ENERGY PROJECT ANALYSIS COURSE
This document provides a transcription of the oral presentation (Voice & Slides) for this training module and it can be used as speaker's notes. The oral presentation includes a background of the technology and provides an overview of the algorithms found in the RETScreen Model. The training ®material is available free-of-charge at the RETScreen International Clean Energy Decision Support Centre Website: www.retscreen.net.

SLIDE 1: Wind Energy Project Analysis This is the Wind Energy Project Analysis Training Module of the RETScreen Clean Energy Project Analysis Course. In this presentation, we examine the use of wind energy, as generated by wind turbines, such as the one shown inthis photo.

Slide 1

SLIDE 2: Objectives This module has three objectives. These are first, to review the basics of wind energy systems; second, to illustrate key considerations in wind energy project analysis; and third, to introduce the RETScreen Wind Energy Project Model.

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SLIDE 3: What do wind energy systems provide? Quite simply, they provide electricity. This electricity canbe used on central-grids or isolated-grids, or the turbine can serve as a remote power supply or source of energy for water pumping. Many turbines around the world feed the electricity they generate onto the central-grid, by which we mean the interconnected network of generating stations and transmission facilities that provide electricity to consumers dispersed over a large area. For example, inthis photo, wind turbines located in Palm Springs, California, are connected to the North American power grid. The electricity generated by such “central grid-tied” wind turbines may be used by consumers located far from the turbines themselves.
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SLIDE 3: What do wind energy systems provide? (cont.) An isolated-grid is a smaller network of generation anddistribution facilities, not interconnected with the central-grid, that supplies electricity to a limited area, such as a single remote community or the communities on an island. Wind turbines can be a very attractive power source for these isolated-grids, since the cost of electricity generation on such grids is typically quite high. Sometimes, electricity is needed at a location far from any grid.A few examples of such loads are mountain top telecommunication repeater stations, navigation lights on small islands or reefs, and remote homes and cabins. Wind turbines can be cost-effective power sources for such loads. Water often needs to be pumped from wells or sloughs, as a source of drinking water for people or livestock, or for irrigation. If the electricity grid is not nearby, windpower can be used to pump this water. In the past, North American agricultural areas were littered with hundreds of thousands of multi-vaned wind pumpers. While most of these mechanical pumpers have disappeared or fallen into disuse, in some locations the wind is today being used to generate electricity for remote water pumping. Thus, the primary benefit delivered by wind turbines is electricity. Butthere are secondary benefits as well. Depending on the wind resource, wind turbines can be distributed around a grid, shoring up weak areas of the grid that are far from central generating stations. Many large-scale turbines are now being designed to improve grid power quality and stability. Distributed around a grid, wind turbines tend to feed electricity to loads relatively close to the point ofgeneration, as opposed to massive conventional power plants, where economies of scale often dictate that one plant service an enormous area. As a consequence, the loss of electrical power when it is carried by transmission lines over a long distance can be reduced. Finally, wind, the fuel for wind turbines, is free, and thus protected from the price volatility that is always a concern with...