Wind Resources for Renewable Energies:

ENERGY UNITS:
 Unit (International system): Joule
 Definition: The amount of work done to apply 1 Newton of force over a distance of 1
meter.
 Other common units:
1. Kilowatt-hour
 It is a unit of energy expressed as the product of power and time and it used for
large appliances.
 1 kWh = 3.6 MJ
2. Ton of oil Equivalent
 toe is the amount of energy released by burning 1 ton of crude oil.
 This is used to represent the energy consumption of very large areas like an
entire city or state.
 1 toe = 42 GJ = 11,600 kWh

PRIMARY, FINAL AND USEFUL ENERGY:

 Take an example of a house that requires an output of 10,000 kWh of energy to keep
the temperature of the house at 20 oC. The 10,000 kWh of output will be considered as
the useful energy.

 If the efficiency of the heater is 85% then the input energy required in the heater will be
equal to 11,764 kWh (10,000/0.85). This input energy is called the final energy which is
the energy the consumer receives at the delivery point.

 This energy that is delivered actually originates from primary resources which is called
primary energy. This energy is found in nature without any conversion or
transformation process.
Example 1:

Explained in previous page.

Example 2:

If a heater is used instead of a boiler 100% efficiency can be achieved. However, the type of
primary energy used still matters. In case coal is used, there is very low efficiency of only 35%.
Hence, this can be further improved.
Example 3:

If the type of primary energy used is hydro power then a higher efficiency can be achieved in
the earlier stages as well. Furthermore, the only place where energy is lost is due to
transportation and none for the extraction of the power. But this model also be further
improved.
Example 4:

In this model the heater will not only achieve 100% electrical efficiency but the heater will
capture the heat from the outside environment as well and then release it into the home.
Hence giving a higher than 100% efficiency (in this case 300%). Therefore lesser electricity is
required from the station (10,000/3 = 3,300 kWh)
Example 5:

This case is similar to Example 4. The main difference is that this case accounts for the amount
of outside energy. The outside energy can be calculated as the difference of the useful energy
required and the final energy provided.

VARIABILITY AND CAPACITY FACTORS OF POWER

PLANTS:
Install capacity and the annual energy production is not direct as seen from the figure below.
The wind turbines are highly inconsistent.
In 2014, the installed capacity of wind turbines in Germany was about 39 GW, while their
annual energy production was about 56 TWh. The relation between both these parameters is
done by introducing a capacity factor which has been given below:

Solving the equation above we get a value of 16.3% in 2014.

The capacity factor can vary from 9 to 50%. This value is not constant and may vary in each year
as shown in the graph below for Germany.
The value will also depend on the water resources and demand of electricity in the country.

A typical interannual wind fluctuation of 10% will lead to wind power variability of 30%.
Example 1 – Fossil fuel power plant:

The capacity factor calculated for the Porcheville plant is very low despite the fact that it can
handle very big loads. The low value of capacity factor is hence because the plant supplies
energy occasionally when there is very high demand in Paris. This extreme case shows that the
capacity factor of a given power unit is not directly related to the availability of the resource. 

Example 2 – Nuclear power plant:

Example 2 – Geothermal power plant:

GLOBAL CAPACITY FACTOR FOR ELECTRICITY:

The electricity demand will vary seasonal as well as daily. The first figure shows the daily
demand.
This demand will affect the price of electricity. Price variability is directly correlated to the
demand.
According to the second figure, the lowest price could be around 30 euro per megawatt hour in
the middle of the night as it reaches it's average value during lunch time, and raise up to it's
highest value around 80 euro per megawatt hour at the peak demand in the late afternoon.
The figure above shows the seasonal cycle in Paris. High demand in winter months and low
demand in summer months.