A Techno-Economic Model for Wind Energy Costs Analysis for Low Wind Speed Areas

The global population is moving away from fossil fuel technologies due to their many disadvantages, such as air pollution, greenhouse gases emission, global warming, acid rain, health problems, and high costs. These disadvantages make fossil fuels unsustainable. As a result, renewable energy is beco...

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Main Authors: Kehinde A. Adeyeye, Nelson Ijumba, Jonathan S. Colton
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-08-01
Series:Processes
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/9/8/1463
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spelling doaj-d8ad034fa7874dffbeb48423624b88a62021-08-26T14:16:33ZengMDPI AGProcesses2227-97172021-08-0191463146310.3390/pr9081463A Techno-Economic Model for Wind Energy Costs Analysis for Low Wind Speed AreasKehinde A. Adeyeye0Nelson Ijumba1Jonathan S. Colton2African Centre of Excellence, Energy for Sustainable Development, University of Rwanda, Kigali 4285, RwandaAfrican Centre of Excellence, Energy for Sustainable Development, University of Rwanda, Kigali 4285, RwandaAfrican Centre of Excellence, Energy for Sustainable Development, University of Rwanda, Kigali 4285, RwandaThe global population is moving away from fossil fuel technologies due to their many disadvantages, such as air pollution, greenhouse gases emission, global warming, acid rain, health problems, and high costs. These disadvantages make fossil fuels unsustainable. As a result, renewable energy is becoming more attractive due to its steadily decreasing costs. Harnessing renewable energy promises to meet the present energy demands of the African continent. The enormous renewable energy potential available across the African continent remains largely untapped, especially for wind energy. However, marginal and fair wind speeds and power densities characterize African wind energy resulting in low and unsustainable power in many areas. This research develops a techno-economic model for wind energy cost analysis for a novel, Ferris wheel-based wind turbine. The model is used to techno-economically analyze the siting of wind turbine sites in low wind speed areas on the African continent. The wind turbine’s technical performance is characterized by calculating the annual energy production and the capacity factor using the wind Weibull probability distribution of the cities and theoretical power curve of the wind turbine. Its economic performance is evaluated using annualized financial return on investment, simple payback period, and levelized cost of electricity. The techno-economic model is validated for 21 African cities and shows that the Ferris wheel-based design is very competitive with four current, commercial wind turbines, as well as with other sources of energy. Hence, the new wind turbine may help provide the economical, clean, renewable energy that Africa needs.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/9/8/1463wind energy cost analysisselected African citiesannual energy productioncapacity factorannualized financial return on investment (ROI)simple payback period (SPP)
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Kehinde A. Adeyeye
Nelson Ijumba
Jonathan S. Colton
spellingShingle Kehinde A. Adeyeye
Nelson Ijumba
Jonathan S. Colton
A Techno-Economic Model for Wind Energy Costs Analysis for Low Wind Speed Areas
Processes
wind energy cost analysis
selected African cities
annual energy production
capacity factor
annualized financial return on investment (ROI)
simple payback period (SPP)
author_facet Kehinde A. Adeyeye
Nelson Ijumba
Jonathan S. Colton
author_sort Kehinde A. Adeyeye
title A Techno-Economic Model for Wind Energy Costs Analysis for Low Wind Speed Areas
title_short A Techno-Economic Model for Wind Energy Costs Analysis for Low Wind Speed Areas
title_full A Techno-Economic Model for Wind Energy Costs Analysis for Low Wind Speed Areas
title_fullStr A Techno-Economic Model for Wind Energy Costs Analysis for Low Wind Speed Areas
title_full_unstemmed A Techno-Economic Model for Wind Energy Costs Analysis for Low Wind Speed Areas
title_sort techno-economic model for wind energy costs analysis for low wind speed areas
publisher MDPI AG
series Processes
issn 2227-9717
publishDate 2021-08-01
description The global population is moving away from fossil fuel technologies due to their many disadvantages, such as air pollution, greenhouse gases emission, global warming, acid rain, health problems, and high costs. These disadvantages make fossil fuels unsustainable. As a result, renewable energy is becoming more attractive due to its steadily decreasing costs. Harnessing renewable energy promises to meet the present energy demands of the African continent. The enormous renewable energy potential available across the African continent remains largely untapped, especially for wind energy. However, marginal and fair wind speeds and power densities characterize African wind energy resulting in low and unsustainable power in many areas. This research develops a techno-economic model for wind energy cost analysis for a novel, Ferris wheel-based wind turbine. The model is used to techno-economically analyze the siting of wind turbine sites in low wind speed areas on the African continent. The wind turbine’s technical performance is characterized by calculating the annual energy production and the capacity factor using the wind Weibull probability distribution of the cities and theoretical power curve of the wind turbine. Its economic performance is evaluated using annualized financial return on investment, simple payback period, and levelized cost of electricity. The techno-economic model is validated for 21 African cities and shows that the Ferris wheel-based design is very competitive with four current, commercial wind turbines, as well as with other sources of energy. Hence, the new wind turbine may help provide the economical, clean, renewable energy that Africa needs.
topic wind energy cost analysis
selected African cities
annual energy production
capacity factor
annualized financial return on investment (ROI)
simple payback period (SPP)
url https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/9/8/1463
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