WIND ENERGY

Dr. Srikanth Allamsetty

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 History of Wind Power

From… and…

to…
 Major Applications of Wind Power
Mechanical application: Electricity generation:
Mainly (water pumping) Multi- Wind turbines vary in size and type.
blade windmill used for water They are commercially available for
pumping shown below: electricity generation. Size of wind
turbines (400 Watt-5 MW)
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• It has the potential to reduce, fragment, or degrade habitat
for wildlife, fish, and plants.
• Furthermore, spinning turbine blades can pose a threat to
flying wildlife like birds and bats.
 Causes of Wind

The main cause of generation of wind is the

uneven heating of two regions. Following are
the examples of uneven heating we see
around us:
uneven heating between land and sea
uneven heating between equator and pole
 uneven heating between land and sea
• Seawater gets heated more slowly as compared to land.
• As the temperature of the land rises, the air above it gets heated by conduction.
• The density of warm air is less than the surrounding environment, because of which it
rises, creating a vacuum in its place.
• The cooler air from the sea rushes to fill the vacuum which creates a cool coastal
breeze.
• At night, the land cools off more quickly, which creates a temperature difference
between the onshore and that offshore.
• Because of this temperature difference, again a pressure drop is created establishing
a land breeze.
 uneven heating between equator and pole

What is uneven heating between equator and

pole?
• The equatorial and tropical regions (close
to the equator) get the maximum heat
from the sun; hence they get hotter than
the polar regions.
• The air surrounding this region gets
heated up and rises to create a vacuum.
• Cooler air from the poles rushes to fill the
vacuum.
• The wind does not flow in the north-south
direction because a change in direction is
caused by the rotation of the earth.

• If the Earth did not rotate and remained stationary, the atmosphere would circulate
between the poles (high pressure areas) and the equator (a low pressure area) in a
simple back-and-forth pattern.
• But because the Earth rotates, circulating air is deflected.
• Instead of circulating in a straight pattern, the air deflects toward the right in the
Northern Hemisphere and toward the left in the Southern Hemisphere, resulting in
curved paths.
Classification of Winds
Permanent winds or Primary
winds or Prevailing winds or
Planetary Winds
The trade winds, westerlies
and easterlies.
• Planetary winds comprise
winds distributed
throughout the lower
atmosphere.
• The winds blow regularly
throughout the year
confined within latitudinal
belts, mainly in north-east
and south-east directions
or from high-pressure
polar-regions to low-
pressure regions.

• If they move from east to west, they are called easterlies.

• If the winds move from west to east, they are called westerlies.
• The westerlies are anti-trades.
• Polar winds begin near the North and South Poles.
Secondary or Seasonal or Periodic Winds
Seasonal winds: These winds change their direction in different seasons.
For example monsoons in India.
Periodic winds: Land and sea breeze, mountain and valley breeze.
Local winds
• These blow only during a particular period of the day or year in a small area.
Winds like Loo, Mistral, Foehn, Bora.
• The local winds include the sea and the land breeze created due to the pressure
difference between the air over the sea and the land regions.
• Loo is the local winds that blow in the northern part of India.
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Local winds
• These blow only during a particular period of the day or year in a small area.
Winds like Loo, Mistral, Foehn, Bora.
• The mistral is a strong, cold, northwesterly wind that blows from southern France into
the Gulf of Lion in the northern Mediterranean.
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Local winds
• These blow only during a particular period of the day or year in a small area.
Winds like Loo, Mistral, Foehn, Bora.
• A foehn is a type of dry, warm, down-slope wind that occurs in the lee (downwind side)
of a mountain range.
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Local winds
• These blow only during a particular period of the day or year in a small area.
Winds like Loo, Mistral, Foehn, Bora.
• The bora is a northern to north-eastern katabatic wind in the Adriatic Sea.
• Similar nomenclature is used for north-eastern winds in other littoral areas of eastern
Mediterranean and Black Sea basins.
Wind Turbine Siting
Wind Turbine Types and Their Construction
TYPES OF VAWT
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Structure of wind turbine gearbox

1-casing,
2-sun gear,
3-turbine's rotor,
4-planetary arm,
5-ring gear,
6-planetry gear; there are a total of
three planets in all,
7-sun shaft,
8-wheel,
9-middle shaft, and
10-high-speed shaft
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Wind-Energy Storage
Wind energy is inherently intermittent, variable and non-dispatchble (cannot be
switched on ‘on demand’).
Consequently, the need for such backup sources of power increases as the
proportion of wind generation on the system increases.
 To reduce fuel demands, it is desirable that the backup source is a storage facility
rather than further primary generation.

Parameters of an energy storage device

• Power capacity is the maximum instantaneous output that an energy storage device
can provide, usually measured in kilowatts (kW) or megawatts (MW).
Energy storage capacity is the amount of electrical energy the device can store, usually
measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh) or megawatt-hours (MWh).
• Efficiency indicates the quantity of electricity that can be recovered as a percentage
of the electricity used to charge the device.
• Response time is the length of time it takes the storage device to start releasing
power.
• Round-trip efficiency indicates the quantity of electricity which can be recovered as a
percentage of the electricity used to charge and discharge the device.
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WES Technologies

pumped hydro-electric compressed-air energy Fly wheel energy

storage storage; storage

advanced lead-acid
batteries with carbon- Electric double layer
Sodium-based batteries
enhanced electrodes; capacitor
sodium sulfur batteries

lithium-ion batteries

59
Span: The ends of the wing are called the wing tips, and the distance from one
wing tip to the other is called the span
The aspect ratio of a wing is the ratio of its span to its mean chord. It is equal to
the square of the wingspan divided by the wing area. Thus, a long, narrow wing
has a high aspect ratio, whereas a short, wide wing has a low aspect ratio.
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