Review of 600kw to 2500kw sized wind turbines and optimization of hub height for maximum wind energy yield realization

Abstract

The percent increase in energy production with corresponding increase in hub-height for wind energy conversion system (WECS) from different manufacturers was compared in this study. It was seen that an increase of 10m in hub-height from 40 to 50m resulted in an increase of 3.17% in energy production for wind turbines from Nordex, while a change of 3.48% from Vestas, and so on. The overall mean increase in energy production was found to be 2.92% while changing the hub-height from 40 to 50 m. Further increase of 10m in hub-height from 50 to 60 m, showed an increase of 7.55%, 7.90%, 7.88%, 8.25%, 8.14% and 7.75% for WECS from Nordex, Vestas, DeWind, GE, Bonus and Enercon respectively. The overall mean increase in energy production was found to be 7.91% for this change of hub-height from 50 to 60 m. Similarly, an increase of 3.02% in energy production was obtained for an additional of 10m increase in hub-height i.e. from 70 to 80 m. On the average the maximum increase in energy production of 7.91% was obtained while changing hub-height from 50 to 60 m.