Name: Laguiab, Jamil Mansor M.

Yr/Crs/Sec: 4BSABE-A Date: May 25, 2022

ABE 422
Renewable Energy for AB Materials

LABORATORY REPORT No. 4

Power Coefficient

Instruction

Energy efficiency has always been important in the modern world, but it is especially
important now that non-renewable resources are in decline, and many countries around the
world are relying on renewable resources like solar, wind, thermal, oceanic, and biomass, which
are increasingly exploited using new and modern technologies.
The power coefficient is a critical component of Wind Energy Conversion Systems
(WECS); its understanding, representation, and estimation have all been thoroughly
investigated over the years due to its impact on the amount of wind energy that can be
exploited. Betz established the Betz limit for power coefficient (Cp) in the early 1920s, and it
has been the subject of analysis ever since; additionally, significant advances in wind energy
technologies have been made in recent years, and several research papers dealing with
emerging technologies have already been published.
The blades of a wind turbine are affected by the wind's power, but not all of it can be
extracted. In order to establish an adequate treatment for analyzing this phenomenon, many
factors must be considered. The power coefficient in a wind energy conversion system is
defined as the percentage of wind energy extracted by the turbine. Given that this is a topic
where energetic efficiency is being managed, it is critical to examine the behavior of the power
coefficient.

Basic concept

The power coefficient CP indicates how well a turbine converts wind energy to
electricity. To measure how technically efficient a wind turbine is, the electrical power output is
divided by the wind energy input. To put it another way, the power output per square metre of
rotor area is calculated by dividing the power curve by the rotor area. The result is then divided
by the amount of power in the wind per square metre for each wind speed.
Wind turbines generate electricity by slowing the wind. To be 100 percent efficient, a
wind turbine would have to stop 100 percent of the wind, but then the rotor would have to be
a solid disk that would not turn and convert no kinetic energy. On the other hand, if you had a
wind turbine with only one rotor blade, the majority of the wind passing through the area
swept by the turbine blade would completely miss the blade, allowing the wind to keep the
kinetic energy.
However, having a high technical efficiency of a wind turbine is not a goal in and of
itself. What matters is the cost of extracting kWh from the wind over the next 20 years. There is

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Name: Laguiab, Jamil Mansor M.
Yr/Crs/Sec: 4BSABE-A Date: May 25, 2022

no need to save the fuel because it is free. As a result, the best turbine isn't always the one that
produces the most energy per year. On the other hand, each square metre of rotor area costs
money, so harvesting as much energy as possible is necessary—as long as the costs per kWh are
kept low. We'll come back to that topic on the page about wind turbine optimization.

Formula
Electricity produced by wind turbine Pout
CP= =
Total Energy available ∈the wind Pin
Total energy available in the wind formula, Pin
1
Pin= ρA V 3
2

Where: ρ = Air density; A = blade swept area; V = cube of wind velocity

Application

Power coefficient tells you how efficiently a turbine converts the energy in the wind to
electricity, so its application is for Wind Energy Conversion Systems (WECS). It can help to
determine what type of wind turbine will be more efficient and cost effected in an area that
have different characteristics than other i.e., air density, topography, and wind speed.

Limitations

The theoretical limitations of power coefficient is 59.3%, the wind turbine cannot
convert more than that. This phenomenon is called Betz Limit, it was coined by a German
physicist Albert Betz. Power coefficient is also limited to wind turbine, as hydropower which
deals with water, a fluid same as the wind, can theoretically have power coefficient several
times larger than that of the power coefficient of the wind. Coupled with other factors such as,
rotor blade design, varying wind flow rate in the area, area’s topography, and the friction losses
inside the wind turbine, the conversion of the kinetic energy of the wind into electricity can be
lower.

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