SFT 3013

Electromagnetism

ANUAL
GROUP ASSIGNMENT
WIND ENERGY

NAME: KHAIRUL AMRI BIN ZULKEPLE

(D20151070974) (AT16)
MOHD. MUSTAKIM BIN AHMAD OTHMAN
(D20162076386)
MUHAMAD BENYAMIN BIN ZULKEFLI
(D20162076385)
MOHAMAD QUYUM HAZMI BIN ABDUL RAHMAN
(D20162076382)
MUHAMAD ANWAR BIN ABDUL RAHMAN
(D20162075590)

GROUP: C

TITTLE: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE: REPORT IN

GENERATION OF ELECTRICAL POWER BY WIND

LECTURER: DR. SYED ABDUL MALIK BIN SYED MOHAMAD

Introduction

Fuel crises, concerns about global environmental threats, the urgent needs for energy
in the world have contributed to an increasing growth of renewable energy technologies.
Presently, wind energy is the most mature and cost effective of these. However, in a more
objective defence of that stance, it may be observed that by far the largest impact of wind
technology on the worlds energy supply presently comes from systems generating into
electrical networks.

Innovation is about new ideas and some quite unusual designs. Why give attention to
such designs which may not be in the mainstream? Exploring alternative concepts not only
deepens understanding of why the mainstream options are preferred but also suggests where
they should be challenged by alternatives that have significant promise.

The end purpose of innovation in wind turbine design is to improve the technology.
Usually this means reducing the cost of energy and this is the general basis of evaluating
innovation. However even this simply stated goal is not always the final criterion. In some
instances, for example the objective is to maximise energy return from an available area of
land. Sometimes capital cost has a predominant influence. The bottom line is that any
technology must be tailored accurately to an engineering design specification that may include
environmental, market, cost and performance issues.

To generate electricity, wind turbine requires the connection of such a rotor to an

electric generator. Electric motor or generator technology began in Faradays discoveries in the
middle nineteenth century. About 60 years ago and preceding the modern wind industry, the
average household in the US contained about 40 electric motors. The electric motor or
generator is therefore not ancient but has been in mass production for a long time in recent
history. To generate electricity cost effectively is the specification of a modern power
generating wind turbine. To meet economic targets, it is unthinkable for the wind turbine to be
permanently attended, and unacceptable for it to be much maintained. Yet each unit is a self-
contained mini-power station, requiring to output electricity of standard frequency and voltage
into a grid system. But the challenge of modern wind technology lies in two areas, the
specification of electricity generating wind turbine and the variability of the wind.
PAST

History of Wind Energy Application

Wind Power's Beginnings Part 1

(1000 B.C. - 1300 A.D.)

The history of wind power shows a general evolution from the use of simple, light devices
driven by aerodynamic drag forces to heavy, material intensive drag devices to the increased
use of light, material efficient aerodynamic lift devices in the modern era. But it shouldn't be
imagined that aerodynamic lift (the force that makes airplanes fly) is a modern concept that
was unknown to the ancients. The earliest known use of wind power, of course, is the sail
boat, and this technology had an important impact on the later development of sail-type
windmills. Ancient sailors understood lift and used it every day, even though they didn't have
the physics to explain how or why it worked.

The first windmills were developed to automate the tasks of grain-grinding and water-
pumping and the earliest-known design is the vertical axis system developed in Persia about
500-900 A.D. The first use was apparently water pumping, but the exact method of water
transport is not known because no drawings or designs only verbal accounts are available.
The first known documented design is also of a Persian windmill, this one with vertical sails
made of bundles of reeds or wood which were attached to the central vertical shaft by
horizontal struts (see Figure 1a).
 Figure 1a. Maximum efficiency of a "drag" device is obtained when the collector is pushed
away from the wind, as is a simple, drag-type sail boat. In this Persian panemone design, the
rotor can only harvest half of the wind striking the collection area. The panemone is one of
the least efficient, but most commonly reinvented (and patented) wind turbine concepts.

A 19th Century American approximation of this panemone device is shown below (Figure
1b).

Figure 1b. A 19th-century American knock-off of the Persian panemone that probably made a
wonderful clothes dryer.
 Grain grinding was the first documented wind mill application and was very
straightforward. The grinding stone was affixed to the same vertical shaft. The mill
machinery was commonly enclosed in a building, which also featured a wall or shield to
block the incoming wind from slowing the side of the drag-type rotor that advanced toward
the wind.

Vertical-axis windmills were also used in China, which is often claimed as their birthplace.
While the belief that the windmill was invented in China more than 2000 years ago is
widespread and may be accurate, the earliest actual documentation of a Chinese windmill was
in 1219 A.D. by the Chinese statesman Yehlu Chhu-Tshai. Here also, the primary
applications were apparently grain grinding and water pumping.

One of the most scenic and successful applications of wind power (and one that still exists),
is the extensive use of water pumping machines on the island of Crete (Figure 2). Here,
literally hundreds of sail-rotor windmills pump water for crops and livestock.

Figure 2. Water Pumping Sailwing Machines on the Island of Crete

Windmills in the Western World

(1300 - 1875 A.D.)

The first windmills to appear in Western Europe were of the horizontal-axis configuration.
The reason for the sudden evolution from the vertical-axis Persian design approach is
unknown, but the fact that European water wheels also had a horizontal-axis configuration
and apparently served as the technological model for the early windmills may provide part of
the answer. Another reason may have been the higher structural efficiency of drag type
horizontal machines over drag type vertical machines, which (remember) lose up to half of
their rotor collection area due to shielding requirements. The first illustrations (1270 A.D.)
show a four bladed mill mounted on a central post (thus, a "postmill") which was already
fairly technologically advanced relative to the Persian mills. These mills used wooden cog-
and-ring gears to translate the motion of the horizontal shaft to vertical movement to turn a
grindstone. This gear was apparently adapted for use on post mills from the horizontal-axis
water wheel developed by Vitruvius.

As early as 1390, the Dutch set out to refine the tower mill design, which had appeared
somewhat earlier along the Mediterranean Sea (Figure 3).

Figure 3.

The Dutch essentially affixed the standard post mill to the top of a multi-story tower, with
separate floors devoted to grinding grain, removing chaff, storing grain, and (on the bottom)
living quarters for the windsmith and his family. Both the post mill and the later tower mill
design had to be oriented into the wind manually, by pushing a large lever at the back of the
mill. Optimizing windmill energy and power output and protecting the mill from damage by
furling the rotor sails during storms were among the windsmith's primary jobs.

A primary improvement of the European mills was their designer's use of sails that
generated aerodynamic lift (see Figure 4). This feature provided improved rotor efficiency
compared with the Persian mills by allowing an increase in rotor speed, which also allowed
for superior grinding and pumping action.
 Figure 4. An operating Dutch windmill (1994) that features leading edge airfoil sections (at
top right). The mechanism used to turn the rotor into the wind and the windows of the first-
floor living quarters are easily seen.

The process of perfecting the windmill sail, making incremental improvements in

efficiency, took 500 years. By the time the process was completed, windmill sails had all the
major features recognized by modern designers as being crucial to the performance of
modern wind turbine blades, including 1) camber along the leading edge, 2) placement of the
blade spar at the quarter chord position (25% of the way back from the leading edge toward
the trailing edge), 3) center of gravity at the same 1/4 chord position, and 4) nonlinear twist
of the blade from root to tip (Drees, 1977). Some models also featured aerodynamic brakes,
spoilers, and flaps. The machine shown in Figure 4 (which was operating with two of its
buddies pumping water about one meter up from one irrigation pond to another in the
Netherlands in 1994) features leading edge airfoil sections.

These mills were the "electrical motor" of pre-industrial Europe. Applications were diverse,
ranging from the common waterwell, irrigation, or drainage pumping using a scoop wheel
(single or tandem), grain-grinding (again, using single or multiple stones), saw-milling of
timber, and the processing of other commodities such as spices, cocoa, paints and dyes, and
tobacco.

While continuing well into the 19th century, the use of large tower mills declined with the
increased use of steam engines. The next spurt of wind power development occurred many
thousands of miles to the west.
Role of Smaller Systems

For hundreds of years, the most important application of windmills at the subsistence level
has been mechanical water pumping using relatively small systems with rotor diameters of
one to several meters. These systems were perfected in the United States during the19th
century, beginning with the Halladay windmill in 1854, and continuing to the Aermotor and
Dempster designs, which are still in use today.

The first mills had four paddle-like wooden blades. They were followed by mills with thin
wooden slats nailed to wooden rims. Most of these mills had tails to orient them into the
wind, but some were weather-vaning mills that operated downwind of the tower. Speed
control of some models was provided by hinging sections of blades, so that they would fold
back like an umbrella in high winds, an action which reduced the rotor capture area to reduce
thrust. The most important refinement of the American fan-type windmill was the
development of steel blades in 1870 (Figure 5). Steel blades could be made lighter and
worked into more efficient shapes. They worked so well, in fact, that their high speed
required a reduction (slow-down) gear to turn the standard reciprocal pumps at the required
speed.

Figure 5. A steel-bladed water pumping windmill in the American Midwest (late 1800's)
Between 1850 and 1970, over six million mostly small (1 horsepower or less) mechanical
output wind machines were installed in the U.S. alone. The primary use was water-pumping
and the main applications were stock watering and farm home water needs. Very large
windmills, with rotors up to 18 meters in diameter, were used to pump water for the steam
railroad trains that provided the primary source of commercial transportation in areas where
there were no navigable rivers.

In the late 19th century, the successful "American" multi-blade windmill design was used
in the first large windmill to generate electricity.

Part 2 - 20th Century Developments

The most obvious influence on 20th century wind power was the increasing use of electricity.
But this started with a look to the past.

First Use of Wind for "Large-Scale" Generation of Electricity

The first use of a large windmill to generate electricity was a system built in Cleveland,
Ohio, in 1888 by Charles F. Brush. The Brush machine (Figure 6) was a postmill with a
multiple-bladed "picket-fence" rotor 17 meters in diameter, featuring a large tail hinged to
turn the rotor out of the wind. It was the first windmill to incorporate a step-up gearbox (with
a ratio of 50:1) in order to turn a direct current generator at its required operational speed (in
this case, 500 RPM.)

Figure 6. The Brush postmill in Cleveland, Ohio, 1888. The first use of a large windmill to
generate electricity. Note the man mowing the lawn at lower right.

Despite its relative success in operating for 20 years, the Brush windmill demonstrated the
limitations of the low-speed, high-solidity rotor for electricity production applications. The
12 kilowatts produced by its 17-meter rotor pales beside the 70-100 kilowatts produced by a
comparably-sized, modern, lift-type rotor.
 In 1891, the Dane Poul La Cour developed the first electrical output wind machine to
incorporate the aerodynamic design principles (low-solidity, four-bladed rotors incorporating
primitive airfoil shapes) used in the best European tower mills. The higher drive train speed
of the La Cour rotor made these mills quite practical for electricity generation. By the close
of World War I, the use of 25 kilowatt electrical output machines had spread throughout
Denmark, but cheaper and larger fossil-fuel steam plants soon put the operators of these mills
out of business.

By 1920, the two dominant rotor configurations (fan-type and sail) had both been tried and
found to be inadequate for generating appreciable amounts of electricity. The further
development of wind generator electrical systems in the United States was inspired by the
design of airplane propellers and (later) low windspeed monoplane wings.

Small System Pioneers

The first small electrical-output wind turbines simply used modified propellers to drive
direct current generators. By the mid-1920's, 1 to 3-kilowatt wind generators developed by
companies like Parris-Dunn and Jacobs Wind-electric found widespread use in the rural areas
of the midwestern Great Plains. (A 3-kilowatt Jacobs unit is shown at figure 7, being adjusted
by a cigarette-puffing M.L. Jacobs at Rocky Flats, Colorado in 1977.) These systems were
installed at first to provide lighting for farms and to charge batteries used to power crystal
radio sets. But their use was extended to an entire array of direct-current motor-driven
appliances, including refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, and power tools. But the
more appliances were powered by the early wind generators, the more their intermittent
operation became a problem.

Figure 7. A 3-kilowatt Jacobs unit is shown at figure 7, being adjusted by a cigarette-puffing

M.L. Jacobs at Rocky Flats, Colorado in 1977.

The virtual demise of these systems was hastened during the late 1930s and the 1940s by
two factors: the demand of farmsteads for ever larger amounts of power on demand, and the
Great Depression, which spurred the U.S. federal government to stimulate the depressed rural
economies by extending the electrical grid throughout those areas.
 A lot is made of this development and how horrible it was for the government to intervene.
(At this point in most wind energy documentaries, there's a plaintive whine of a harmonica
and a shot of a rusting wind turbine hulk.) But I doubt the farmers who were helped by the
new electrical grids would share this feeling. And the growing demand for electrical power
created by the wind generator, combined with the inability of the technology to adapt, helped
make the situation inevitable. The early success of the Midwest wind turbines actually set the
stage for the possibility of more extensive wind energy development in the future.

While the market for new small wind machines of any type had been largely eroded in the
United States by 1950, the use of mechanical and electrical system continued throughout
Europe and in windy, arid climates such as those found in parts of Africa and Australia.

"Bulk" Power from Wind

The development of bulk-power, utility-scale wind energy conversion systems was first
undertaken in Russia in 1931 with the 100kW Balaclava wind generator. This machine
operated for about two years on the shore of the Caspian Sea, generating 200,000 kWh of
electricity. Subsequent experimental wind plants in the United States, Denmark, France,
Germany, and Great Britain during the period 1935-1970 showed that large-scale wind
turbines would work, but failed to result in a practical large electrical wind turbine.

The largest was the 1.25 megawatt Smith-Putnam machine (Figure 8, below), installed in
Vermont in 1941. This horizontal-axis design featured a two-bladed, 175-foot diameter rotor
oriented down-wind of the tower. The 16-ton stainless steel rotor used full-span blade pitch
control to maintain operation at 28 RPM. In 1945, after only several hundred hours of
intermittent operation, one of the blades broke off near the hub, apparently as a result of
metal fatigue. This is not surprising considering the huge loads that must have been generated
in a structure that had a lot in common with a gigantic rotating erector set.

Figure 8.
European Development

European developments continued after World War II, when temporary shortages of fossil
fuels led to higher energy costs. As in the United States, the primary application for these
systems was interconnection to the electric power grid.

In Denmark, the 200 kW Gedser Mill (Figure 8) wind turbine operated successfully until
the early 1960s, when declining fossil-fuel prices once again made wind energy made
uncompetitive with steam-powered generating plants. This machine featured a three-bladed
upwind rotor with fixed pitch blades that used mechanical windmill technology augmented
with an airframe support structure. The design was much less mechanically complex than the
Smith-Putnam design. In fact, it was not that far removed from Poul La Cour's 1920-era
windmill (a fact that worked to its advantage.)

Figure 9. An airframe holding together the three blades of the "Gedser Mollen." Fiberglass
later eliminated this design requirement.

In Germany, Professor Ulrich Hutter developed a series of advanced, horizontal-axis

designs of intermediate size that utilized modern, airfoil-type fiberglass and plastic blades
with variable pitch to provide light weight and high efficiencies. This design approach sought
to reduce bearing and structural failures by "shedding" aerodynamic loads, rather than
"withstanding" them as did the Danish approach. One of the most innovative load-shedding
design features was the use of a bearing at the rotor hub that allowed the rotor to "teeter" in
response to wind gusts and vertical wind shear. Hutter's advanced designs achieved over
4000 hours of operation before the experiments were ended in 1968.
 Figure 10. Hutter's wind turbines, like other German devices of the mid-20th century, were
advanced for their time.

Post war activity in Denmark and Germany largely dictated the two major horizontal-axis
design approaches that would emerge when attention returned to wind turbine development in
the early 1970s. The Danes refined the simple, fixed pitch, Gedser Mill design, utilizing
advanced materials, improved aerodynamic design, and aerodynamic controls to reduce some
of its shortcomings. The engineering innovations of the light-weight, higher efficiency
German machines, such as a teeter hinge at the rotor hub, were used later by U.S. designers.

The development of modern vertical-axis rotors was begun in France by G.J.M. Darrieus in
the 1920s. Of the several rotors Darrieus designed, the most important one is a rotor
comprising slender, curved, airfoil-section blades attached at the top and bottom of a rotating
vertical tube. Major development work on this concept did not begin until the concept was
reinvented in the late 1960s by two Canadian researchers.

U.S. efforts with the Darrieus concept at Sandia National Laboratories began after the 1973
oil embargo, with the entry of the U.S. Federal Wind Energy Program into the cycle of wind
energy development.

.
PRESENT

Commercial Wind Technology

In the twentieth century, wind technology headed towards mainstream power generation
beyond the water pumping and milling applications that had been exploited for several
thousand years. The earliest wind turbines tended to use the more obvious drag forces
experienced by anyone exposed to wind on a windy day and use of the potentially more
powerful lift forces was almost accidental. Exploitation of the aerodynamic lift force is at the
heart of efficient modern wind turbines but surprisingly the explanation of lift has been quite
contentious.

To create electricity from wind the shaft of the turbine must be connected to a generator. The
generator uses the turning motion of the shaft to rotate a rotor which has oppositely charge
magnets and is surrounded by copper wire loops. Electromagnetic induction is created by the
rotor spinning around the inside of the core, generating electricity.

Wind power converts the kinetic energy in wind to generate electricity or mechanical power.
This is done by using a large wind turbine usually consisting of propellers; the turbine can be
connected to a generator to generate electricity, or the wind used as mechanical power to
perform tasks such as pumping water or grinding grain.

As the wind passes the turbines it moves the blades, which spins the shaft. There are currently
two different kinds of wind turbines in use, the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT) or
the Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT). HAWT are the most common wind turbines,
displaying the propeller or fan-style blades, and VAWT are usually in an egg-beater style.

Parts of wind turbine

 Jersey-Atlantic Wind, LLC, a partner with original developer Community Energy, Inc stated
that in their wind farm each wind turbine is 262 feet high and the tower has a diameter of 14
feet. The blades of the wind turbines are 120 feet long so that the total height from the ground
to the tip of the blade is more than 380 feet, approximately the height of a 32-story building.

Depending on wind conditions the blades turn at rates between 10 and 20 revolutions per
minute. Considering the length of the blades, at average wind speeds of 13 to 15 mph, the tips
are traveling at 120 mph. At maximum wind speeds, the blade tips are spinning at an estimated
180 mph.

Once the wind is blowing more than 12 miles per hour, each wind turbine can produce 1.5
megawatts of electricity. At reduced wind speeds, electricity production decreases. When wind
speed exceeds 45 miles per hour the turbines shut down to protect the machinery inside. It is
estimated that the five wind turbines will produce enough power during the year to provide
energy for 2,500 homes. The Federal Aviation Administration requires red navigation lights on
top of each wind turbine as a warning for aircraft in the area.

Cross-section of motor

Wind is converted by the blades of wind turbines. The blades of the wind turbines are designed
in two different ways, the drag type and lift type.

Drag type blade design uses the force of the wind to push the blades around. These blades
have a higher torque than lift designs but with a slower rotating speed. The drag type blades
were the first designs used to harness wind energy for activities such as grinding and sawing.
As the rotating speed of the blades are much slower than lift type this design is usually never
used for generating large scale energy.
 Lift type blade most modern HAWT use this design. Both sides of the blade had air blown
across it resulting in the air taking longer to travel across the edges. In this way lower air
pressure is created on the leading edge of the blade, and higher air pressure created on the tail
edge. Because of this pressure difference the blade is pushed and pulled around creating a
higher rotational speed that is needed for generating electricity.

Blade design is a marriage of aerodynamics and structures, the former requiring slender
aerofoil sections of minimum drag, the latter seeking circular sections that are robust under
omni-directional loading. Thus a compromise is needed and is set quite naturally by structure
dominating the inboard and aerodynamics ruling on the outer. The primary strength in the blade
composite is in longitudinal fibres and a popular solution is to have tapered studs connecting
to as many fibres as possible with internal threads accommodating bolts securing the blade end
to the hub flange.

Blade structure zones

A vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) of the Darrieus type often referred to as egg-beater
alongside the other main type of vertical axis design, the H type. The VAWT may possibly
claim priority over the horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT) as the oldest type of windmill.
This concept was the basis of windmills operating in tenth century Persia. These mills were
multi bladed with blades made from bundles of reeds and mills of this type continued to
operate in areas of the middle-east into the twentieth century.
FUTURE

In the context of modern wind technology for large scale electricity generation, some
prototype large VAWTs of the Darrieus type were tested. In 1988, the Canadian government
and the utility Hydro-Quebec and this turbine operated for six years with 94% availability.
During the 1980s, prototype H type turbines based on the ideas of Musgrove, were developed
by VAWT Ltd in the UK. However the only significant commercial exploitation of VAWT
technology was by FloWind Inc. At their peak in 1987 FloWind had installed over 500 turbines
in California representing a total rated capacity of over 100MW. Their designs were apparently
not competitive with HAWT technology

Modern VAWT designs.

In Iceland, extreme winter weather conditions pose special challenges to those seeking to
use wind energy. Turbines are frozen up because temperature is so low. A company known as
IceWind has been testing small vertical axis wind turbines. These small vaguely castle-like
are touted as being able to melt and shed ice easily before it can interfere with power
production. Each of these small turbines can produce on average 1000 to 1800 kW/h,
annually depends on location.
 Iceland wind turbines

The French company NewWind installed one of its 26 foot-tall wind-trees in the
Place de la Concorde in Paris. The trees are made of plastic branches, each topped by a green
leaf-like turbine blade. According to their designer, these vertical axis turbines are capable of
producing 2400 kW/h enough to light 71 exterior parking spaces.

On the second level of the Eiffel Tower two giant vertical axis wind turbines have
been installed. Each turbine is capable of producing 10000 kW/h of energy per year. May be
it should enough to power the first floor of the popular and iconic tourist attraction.

26 foot-tall wind-trees Two giant wind turbines & Eiffel Tower

Along the highway outside the El Paso International Airport in Texas, 16 towers, standing 50
feet tall, are lit from below with ghostly blue light. At the top of each sits a 10-foot-tall
vertical axis wind turbine. Each turbine produces between one and one half kW/h energy,
enough to reduce the cost of the aesthetic lighting around the airport.
 Vertical axis wind turbine outside the El Paso International Airport in Texas

High atop of Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, these 18 vertical axis turbines, each
18.5 feet tall, were designed to mimic the shape of DNA strands in order to highlight the
work going on inside the office. That turbines would produces a total 85,500 kW/h of energy
annually. But it reported that each of turbines now produces about 1000 kW/h of energy each
year for a total og 18000, less than 25% of the original projection.

DNA strands shape of Vertical axis wind turbine

 Hywind floating wind turbine system

The offshore wind turbine market is growing fast but in 2010 was less than 2% of the world
market. By end July 2010, about 2.4 GW of offshore wind had been installed in Europe whereas
cumulative world capacity had reached 160 GW at the end of 2009. Yet offshore is seen as the
future and dominates research effort in the wind industry with the largest wind turbines at the
centre of development efforts being designed for offshore applications. There are both demands
for innovation to solve the problems associated with the increasing costs and weights of ever
larger technology and demand for conservatism as it is trouble enough to make ever larger units
without introducing new technology directions. Many offshore wind turbines are very much
standard land based wind turbines that have been marinised with additional anti-corrosion
measures and de-humidification capability introduced. There are also, in many cases,
rationalisations of layout issues to suit access and maintenance strategies. Thus it may be
preferred to have all the electrical equipment including transformers at tower top level but these
are hardly design changes that have any major impact on cost of energy.

Germany Strikes Offshore Wind Deals, Subsidy Not Included

LONDON European governments have spent large sums of money in recent years
subsidizing giant offshore wind projects in hopes of creating a clean source of energy that could
eventually pay for itself. Now that moment may be here and a lot sooner than expected.
 On Thursday, the Danish company Dong Energy, the largest offshore wind developer, won
the right to build two large wind projects in the German North Sea with no government
subsidies a highly symbolic first for the industry.

The company will receive the revenues from the electricity generated by the wind farms.
German consumers will pay the substantial costs of connecting the wind farms at sea to the
power grid.

Offshore wind is categorically proving its competitiveness, Jochen Homann, president of

the Bundesnetzagentur, the Geman agency that held the auction, said in a statement. This is
good news for all electricity consumers who contribute to funding renewable energy.

Offshore wind dates back only a quarter-century; developers in Denmark were the first who
took to the sea to gain access to wide open spaces and stronger breezes.

The industry has always seemed promising because its installations could generate large
amounts of electricity without the greenhouse gas emissions produced by coal- or natural-gas-
fired plants. In this way, offshore wind projects helped meet governments goals for tackling
climate change. Costs, though, remained stubbornly high until the past two years.

Governments have recently become much more sophisticated at designing auctions to reduce
the costs of building offshore wind projects, and that change is forcing developers like Dong
to adjust.

Last year, highly competitive auctions in Denmark and the Netherlands resulted in low bids
from developers such as the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. The German auction for the two
projects to be handled by Dong, called OWP West and Borkum Riffgrund West 2, continued
the pattern.

In the same auction, a German power company called EnBW won a no-subsidy bid for a
project called He Dreiht, and Dong won a third project called Gode Wind 3 with a guaranteed
electricity price of 60 euros ($64) per megawatt-hour, a wholesale measure of electricity.

In a news release, Dong cited several factors that underpinned its bids. By the time the
projects are completed in 2024, the company said, it expects turbine makers to offer a new
generation of machines almost double the size of the largest current models.
 In recent years, turbine makers like General Electric in the United States, Vestas in Denmark
and Siemens in Germany have produced larger and more powerful machines up to 600 feet
high. That means more power can be produced by fewer windmills, reducing costs.

Dong also said that the new sites offered very high average wind speeds and that it can
combine the operations with others in the area, further lowering costs. In addition, Dong
assumes that electricity prices will rise from current levels, about 40 euros per megawatt-hour.

If we did not think we would be creating value for our investors, we would not have made this
bid, Tom Lehn-Christiansen, a Dong spokesman, said in a phone interview.

Analysts say that the high financial returns that operators like Dong have had in recent years
may eventually come under pressure as subsidies decline. Dong and other developers have
benefited from guaranteed prices for their power that may be double or more those of current
tariffs. Dong says it earned a 16.5 percent return on capital last year.

The biggest uncertainty may be future electricity prices. Dong, without disclosing precise
figures, says it expects power prices to rise in Europe as nuclear and coal-fired power plants
are retired, increasing demand for new sources.

Analysts, though, say that fast-growing renewable energy sources like wind and solar may
bring electricity prices down.

Dongs German bid may turn into a costly mistake if their cost reduction or power price
assumptions dont materialize, Deepa Venkateswaran, an analyst at Sandford C. Bernstein &
Company in London, said by email. Because the project is several years away, the company
can walk away from the deal if trends do not go its way.

The offshore wind industry is expanding beyond its stronghold in northern Europe, and long-
term investors such as pension funds are showing increased interest in financing these projects,
which can cost $1 billion or more.

A small wind farm off Rhode Island began generating power last year a first for the United
States and Dong is working on projects off the countrys east coast.
Investing in Solar and Wind in a Coal and Oil Moment

Alternative energy investments like wind and solar power have not performed well in recent
years. To make matters worse, the Trump administration has opted for a resurgence of coal and
other carbon fuels, not an emphasis on alternative energy.

Yet there is a reasonable argument that the outlook for investing in renewable energy may
actually be quite good.

For one thing, wind and solar power have been rapidly winning market acceptance. Last year,
the installed capacity of solar power in the United States nearly doubled. And wind is now
being harnessed to produce 5.5 percent of Americas electricity, according to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration.

Five states draw at least 20 percent of their electricity needs from wind. Kansas, for example,
relied on wind for less than 1 percent of its electric power as recently as 2005. By 2016, wind
produced 29.6 percent of its electric power, according to government figures.

Intriguingly, all five of the most wind-dependent states Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, North
Dakota and South Dakota are traditional Republican strongholds. The windiest places in
the country are all red states, said Garvin Jabusch, a manager of the Shelton Green Alpha
mutual fund.

And the solar industry now employs over 260,000 workers nationwide, many of them in
states that have leaned Republican. Texas, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina are among the
largest solar employers.

The reliance of these states on wind and solar could foreshadow continuing support for
alternative energy within sectors of the Republican party, despite the pro-fossil-fuel stance of
the president. Along with Gina M. Raimondo, the Democratic governor of Rhode Island, Sam
Brownback, the Republican governor of Kansas, recently wrote a letter to President Trump that
said expanding renewable energy production is one of the best ways to meet the countrys
growing demand for energy. And, the governors added, The nations wind and solar
resources are transforming low-income rural areas in ways not seen since the passage of the
Homestead Act over 150 years ago.

Ryan Issakainen, exchange-traded fund strategist and senior vice president at First Trust
Bank, said that such sentiments could maintain policy support for solar and wind power.
Policies that favor coal over other sources would be sound in places like West Virginia, he
said. But if youre in the middle part of the country where youve got more opportunity for
wind power, youre not going to be supportive of pro-coal policies.

Edward Guinness, portfolio manager of the Guinness Atkinson Alternative Energy fund,
went further, saying, I think the presence of wind and solar production in red states could
splinter the G.O.P. on Trumps plans.

Still, solars recent past has been miserable for many investors. The Guggenheim Global
Solar ETF has lost over 24 percent a year over the last three years, according to Morningstar.
Wind has fared better, but with an annual total return of 4.95 percent the last three years First
Trust Global Wind Energy ETF has lagged in an exuberant bull market. The Standard & Poors
500-stock index, for example, gained over 10 percent a year in the same period.

But for solar power, the fundamental economic outlook may conceivably be improving. The
reason solar stocks have done poorly is a big oversupply of panels, which drove down the
price, said Richard Asplund, research director for the MAC Solar Index, the tracking index
for the Guggenheim Solar fund. Pricing looks better for this year and next.

The Guinness Atkinson fund, loaded with Chinese solar panel producers, has suffered large
losses the last three years. But it was up nearly 5 percent in the first quarter.

Mr. Guinness says that investors have been too gloomy. The sentiment on the sector is
terrible, he said. Negative sentiment has produced valuations as low as weve seen by
measures like price to book, Mr. Guinness said.

Part of the problem, he said, is that solar power has been widely viewed as a heavily
subsidized market. But the latest extension of the federal Investment Tax Credit phases out
solar subsidies for homes by 2021.

Solar power will soon have to compete without government support, Mr. Guinness said, but
hes untroubled by the switch. Were excited about the transition from a government market
to a nonsubsidized market, he said.

Such excitement may be difficult to sustain in the wake of recent Trump actions. On March
28, the president signed an executive order to initiate a rewrite of President Obamas Clean
Power Plan, an initiative designed to speed utility conversion from coal. Under that plan,
renewable energy sources were projected to become more important than coal and second only
to natural gas in electricity generation by 2030, said Chris Namovicz, lead renewable energy
analyst at the U.S. Energy Information Administration. If the Clean Power Plan is really
abandoned, he said, in 2040, renewables will still be third, behind both coal and natural gas.

Rolling back the plan entirely will be difficult, and Mr. Jabusch, who runs the Shelton Green
Alpha fund, remains optimistic about the sector. His fund returned 8.51 percent in the 12
months through March 31. He estimates that 20 to 24 percent of his portfolio is typically
invested in companies involved with renewable energy.

Mr. Jabusch is particularly bullish on solar power. I think solar has been mispriced, he said.
While falling prices have hurt panel producers, he said, price declines have expanded the
market, and low valuations represent an enormous buying opportunity. The solar companies
could be 10-baggers over the next decade, investments that could increase tenfold, Mr.
Jabusch said, borrowing a term from Peter Lynch, the Fidelity mutual fund manager.

Mr. Jabusch said he favors companies like 8Point3 Energy Partners, which offers a yield of
roughly 8 percent, and JA Solar Holdings Company, which derives most of its revenues from
Europe and Asia and is, in his view, attractively priced.

Mr. Asplund, the research director for the MAC Solar Index, argues that even if the Trump
administrations energy policies pose a problem, solar power investments can still prosper.
The solar industry is a global industry, he said. U.S. installations are less than one-quarter
of global. Trump is a negative for solar, but Trump by himself isnt going to kill the solar
business.
ADVANTAGES OF WIND POWER
1. Wind energy is a clean fuel source.
Wind energy doesn't pollute the air like power plants that rely on combustion of fossil
fuels, such as coal or natural gas. Wind turbines don't produce atmospheric emissions that
increase health problems like asthma or create acid rain or greenhouse gases. According to
the Wind Vision Report, wind has the potential to reduce cumulative greenhouse gas
emissions by 14%, saving $400 billion in avoided global damage by 2050.

2. Wind power does not use water, unlike conventional electricity sources.
Producing nuclear, coal, or gas-fired power uses water for cooling. Water is becoming a
scarce resource all over the country. Wind power uses zero water in its energy generation.

3. Wind is a domestic source of energy.

The nation's wind supply is abundant. Over the past 10 years, wind capacity increased an
average of 31% per year, reaching a cumulative capacity of over 75,000 MW in 2016,
enough to power over 20 million homes. Wind power is the largest source of annual new
generating capacity, well ahead of the next two leading sources, solar power and natural
gas.

4. Wind power is inexhaustible.

Wind is actually a form of solar energy. Winds are caused by the heating of the
atmosphere by the sun, the rotation of the Earth, and the Earth's surface irregularities. For
as long as the sun shines and the wind blows, the energy produced can be harnessed to
send power across the grid.

5. Wind power is cost-effective.

It is one of the lowest-cost renewable energy technologies available today, with power
prices offered by newly built wind farms averaging 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, depending
on the wind resource and the particular projects financing. Even without government
subsidies, wind power is a low-cost fuel in many areas of the country.

6. Wind turbines can be built on existing farms or ranches.

This greatly benefits the economy in rural areas, where most of the best wind sites are
found. Farmers and ranchers can continue to work the land because the wind turbines use
 only a fraction of the acreage. Wind power plant owners make rent payments to the farmer
or rancher for the use of the land, providing landowners with additional income. In 2015,
annual land lease payments in the United States were estimated to total $222 million. This
additional income provides the agricultural community an avenue to diversify revenue and
reduce reliance on uncertain commodity prices. According to the Wind Vision Report,
annual land lease income for rural American landowners could increase to $1 billion by
2050.

7. Wind creates jobs.

In 2016, the wind energy sector invested more than $8.8 billion of private capital in the
U.S. economy to build projects and employed more than 101,000 workers (approximately
30% women, 11% veterans, and 25% minorities), according to the 2017 U.S. Energy and
Employment Report. More than 8,800 technicians were employed in 2015 to monitor and
maintain wind turbines, and this profession is expected to grow by 108% in the next
decade, making it the countrys fastest-growing occupation (according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics). According to the Wind Vision Report, wind has the potential to support
more than 600,000 jobs in manufacturing, installation, maintenance, and supporting
services by 2050.

DISADVANTAGES OF WIND POWER

1. Noisy
If youve ever noticed that wind turbines only stand in places where theres not a lot of
people, normally its not because theres more wind there (because theres wind in a lot
of places); its because the machinery found inside the turbine is loud when operating.
As a result of keeping these bothersome machines away from residential areas, as well as
places of work, these turbines are relegated to only the most desolate of places.

2. Threatening to Wildlife
While there may not be a large, or even existent, human population near wind turbines,
there certainly is bound to be a thriving population of wildlife in the area. While these
imposing structures may not necessarily affect the grazing wildlife that shares the land
with the turbines, its the animals in the sky and underground are not so lucky. Birds in
these areas, especially ones that migrate every year, like gold eagles and tailed hawks,
 have a tendency to fly into the blades, with studies showing about 45,000 birds having
perished over the last 20 years due to these turbines. Underground habitats tend to be
negatively affected, as well, when these turbines are installed, as a result of the deep
digging that is necessary.

3. Wind is Unpredictable
Once these turbines are installed, they must wait for the wind to pick up in order to be
effective, and this is a completely unpredictable process. Granted, a lot of research is
done to ensure that the turbines are put into excessively windy areas, but that doesnt
guarantee anything, and sometimes other energy sources must be employed to take up
the slack, such as solar or geothermal. To learn more about the science of solar power,
check out this course on thermal modeling of solar energy systems.

4. Limited Resource
Unlike solar energy, whose the source is found in every part of the world, wind energy
is only able to be harnessed when there is wind available, which is not as widely found
as one might first expect. This fact, along with the need to put them in unpopulated
regions, greatly limits the potential areas where turbines can be installed. For these
machines to be as useful as possible, they must be put on flat lands, and/or coastal
places. If meteorology interests you, then this course on how to predict the weather will
have you taking your local weather persons job in no time.

5. Eyesores
While some people, usually those that dont live in the areas of these turbines, think
they are majestic and beautiful to look at, others find them to be less attractive, and
even detrimental to the physical beauty of the surrounding areas. Some have even taken
to sending around petitions to eradicate the turbines in their community.

6. Inefficient
Sure, wind energy is clean, but it certainly isnt efficient. When converting the wind
energy into usable electric energy, the machinery within the turbines are only able to
extract about 59% of the winds power. This seems to be one of the major issues with
using wind energy, and this inefficiency appears to be remaining static at the moment,
with little to no improvements in this area on the horizon.
7. Storage Issues
Going along with the point of turbines being inefficient, they are unable to store
converted energy in large amounts. Being that wind only comes in fits and starts, in
order to be efficient, the turbines would need to store up these bursts of wind energy to
be truly effective, but because they cant, they are not as efficient as they may seem to
be.

8. Land Occupation
Weve mentioned before, and surely youve already noticed, that while one turbine
doesnt occupy that large of an actual piece of land, its necessary to put up many
turbines on an large track of land for them to be as effective and helpful as possible in
other words, youll never see just one or two wind turbines in one place. Again, this
land is still usable once theyre installed, but taken as one large group, they do occupy a
large swath of land.

9. Poor Television Reception

While efforts are made to install these behemoths in less populated regions, chances are
theres going to be a few people around, and even better chances are that most or all of
them will have televisions. Turbines are so large and imposing, that they affect local
television and radio signals in a negative way.

10. Installation Costs

As you can imagine, installing a group of these huge turbines can cost a lot of money.
Installing just one of them can be as pricey as $2 million or more, with more costs
coming for maintenance. Another cost in installing a turbine is less a monetary issue as
it is an environmental one. The production, transport, and installation of one these
turbines has a sizable carbon footprint, which is important to know, especially
considering that the whole idea behind its construction is for clean power.
CONCLUSION

In the near future, wind energy will be the most cost effective source of electrical power. In
fact, a good case can be made for saying that it already has achieved this status. The actual
life cycle cost of fossil fuels (from mining and extraction to transport to use technology to
environmental impact to political costs and impacts, etc.) is not really known, but it is
certainly far more than the current wholesale rates. The eventual depletion of these energy
sources will entail rapid escalations in price which -- averaged over the brief period of their
use -- will result in postponed actual costs that would be unacceptable by present standards.
And this doesn't even consider the environmental and political costs of fossil fuels use that
are silently and not-so-silently mounting every day.

The major technology developments enabling wind power commercialization have already
been made. There will be infinite refinements and improvements, of course. The eventual
push to full commercialization and deployment of the technology will happen when the
consequences of climate change are finally recognized and admitted.
REFERENCES