Author: Erivaldo Corsino de Oliveira Sanches Lopes Student n.: 21030891 ID no.: N1348658 Email: 21030891@dut4life.ac.za erivaldo-lopes@hotmail.com erivaldosancheslopes@gmail.

com

Lecturer: Mr. J Nwamba Date: Monday, October 14, 2013

Executive summary
This report is about wind turbines in general and wind energy with particular focus on African countries. Wind energy is a renewable energy and is available throughout the year. However, wind intermittency causes major problems to wind turbines when generating wind power. In addition, wind turbines have to be installed as high as possible to take advantage of uniform and continuous moving air, plus, wind farms have to be arranged and set up far away from the community due to noise pollution, and other environmental impacts. But this figure is changing rapidly with the modern designs of wind turbines. There two types of wind turbines recognised nowadays; the VAWTs and the HAWTs, with the latter being most used due to their advantages. Africa has a large coastline, where wind power and wave power resources are abundant and underutilized in the north and south. Also seen on this report is that china is the current leader on wind power production, accompanying next is European countries, then UK and after USA, African countries being the last with less than 2% contribution to world wind power production.

Table of Contents
Executive summary ............................................................................................................................... i 1. 2. 3. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 Winds origin .................................................................................................................................. 2 Wind Energy and Turbine Development ................................................................................... 2 3.1. 3.2. 3.3. Wind power variation with wind velocity and altitude ...................................................... 2 How Industries Use Wind Turbines.................................................................................... 3 Wind Turbine Types ............................................................................................................. 3 3.3.1. 3.3.2. 3.4. 4. 5. 6. 7. Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs) ..................................................................4 Vertical Axis Wind Turbines or Darrieus Turbines (VAWTs) .....................................4

Advantages and disadvantages of wind energy .............................................................. 5

Wind Energy Growth .................................................................................................................... 6 Africas wind energy resource compared with other countries .............................................. 6 Environmental considerations..................................................................................................... 8 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 9

References .......................................................................................................................................... 10

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1. Introduction
It will be discussed on this assignment wind energy, wind turbine and all benefits that it can bring to humanity. It also will include Africa as a possible candidate for wind energy. Wind power is extremely scalable, as there are systems available from less than 1 watt to several megawatts. This makes it possible to initialize the electrification of a home or village with initial capital. It also allows for dynamic and incremental scaling as load demand increases. The component configuration of a wind installation also provides a level of functional redundancy, improving the reliability of the system. The failure of a single wind tower in a multi tower configuration does not cause a system level failure. Because wind projects produce power where it is used, they provide a safe, reliable and cost effective solution. As transmission equipment is avoided, these systems are more secure and less vulnerable to attack. This can be an important feature in regions prone to conflict. Wind systems are simple to set up, easy to repair and durable. Wind resources are abundant enough to provide all of the electrical energy requirements of rural populations and this can be done in remote and otherwise fragmented low density areas that are impractical to address using conventional based systems. Before any attempt to start any further explanation, it needs to be understood what wind energy or wind power is and its origin.

2. Winds origin
Wind power comes from the conversion of wind kinect energy into useful form of energy such as electrical power by using wind turbines, mechanical power by using windmill, water pumping or drainage by using wind pumps, etc. Wind is caused by huge convection currents in the Earths atmosphere, driven by heat energy from the sun; this means as long as the sun shines, there will be wind. The earths surface has both land and water. When the sun comes up, the air over the land heats up quicker than that over water. The heated air is lighter and it rises. The cooler air is denser and it falls and replaced the air over the land, in the night the reverse happens. Air over the water is warmer and rises, and is replaced by cooler air from land. The moving air (wind) has huge amount of kinetic energy, and this can be transferred into electrical energy using turbines. The wind turns the blades, which spin a shaft, which connects to a generator and makes electricity. The electricity is sent through transmission and distribution lines to a substation, then on to homes, business and schools. Wind turbines cannot work if there is no wind, or if the wind speed is so high it would damage them.

3. Wind Energy and Turbine Development

Wind power is very consistent from year to year but has significant variation over shorter time scales. The intermittency of wind seldom creates problems when used to supply up to 20% of total electricity demand, but as the proportion increases, a need to upgrade the grid and a lowered ability to supplant conventional production can occur. Power management techniques such as having excess capacity storage, geographically distributed turbines, dispatchable backing sources, storage such as pumped storage hydroelectricity, exporting and importing power to neighbouring areas or reducing demand when wind production is low, can greatly mitigate these problems. In addition, the weather forecasting permits the electricity network to be become ready for the predictable variations in production that occur.

3.1.

Wind power variation with wind velocity and altitude

Wind energy is the kinetic energy of air in motion, also called wind. Total wind energy flowing through an imaginary area during the time is:

1 1 1 2 = () 2 = 3 2 2 2

Where: is the density of air; is the wind speed, is the volume of air passing through (which is considered perpendicular to the direction of the wind); is therefore the mass m passing per unit time. Power is energy per unit time. So the wind power incident on is:

1 = 3 2

Wind power in an open air stream is thus proportional to the third power of the wind speed; the available power increase eightfold when the wind speed doubles. Wind turbines for grid electricity therefore need to be especially efficient at greater wind speeds. In addition, the wind power will vary with altitude as well since air density varies with altitude. Wind turbines like windmills, are mounted on a tower to capture the most energy. At 30 meters or more above ground, they can take advantage of the faster and less turbulent wind. Turbines catch the winds energy with their propeller like blades. Usually, two or three blades are mounted on a shaft to form a rotor. [Ref 1]. A blade acts much like an airplane wing, when the wind blows, a pocket of low-pressure air forms on the downwind side of the blade. The low-pressure air pocket then pulls the blade toward it, causing the rotor to turn. This is called lift. The force of the lift is actually much stronger than the winds force against the front side of the blade, which is called drag. The combination of the lift and drag causes the rotor to spin like a propeller, and the turning shaft a generator to make electricity. For more theoretical discussion concerning lift generation and turbine blades, the reader is advised to consult Ref. 5, pp. 366-408 or related textbooks on the topic.

3.2.

How Industries Use Wind Turbines

Wind turbines can be used as stand-alone applications, or they can be connected to a utility power grid or even combined with a photovoltaic (solar cell) system. For utility-scale sources of wind energy, a large number of wind turbines are usually built close together to form a wind plant. Several electricity provides today use wind plants to supply power to their customers. Stand-alone wind turbines are typically used for water pumping or communications. However, homeowners, formers, and ranchers in windy areas can also use wind turbines as a way to cut their electrical bills.

3.3.

Wind Turbine Types

Modern wind turbines fall into two basic groups based upon the aerodynamic principles: Horizontal axis: such as the traditional farm windmills used for pumping water Vertical axis: design such as the eggbeater-style Darrieus model.

3.3.1. Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWTs)

They comprises a nacelle mounted on top of a high tower, containing a generator and, usually, a gearbox to which the rotor is attached. Increasing numbers of wind turbines do not have gearboxes but use a direct drive. A powered yaw system is used to turn the turbine so that it faces into the wind. Sensors monitor the wind direction and the nacelle is turned according to some integrated average wind direction. The number of rotor blades employed depends on the purpose of the wind turbine. As a rule, threebladed rotors are used for the gen- Fig. 1: HAWT. Source: http://ec.europa.eu/research/energy/nn/nn_rt/nn_rt_wind/images/wind_en_1370.gif eration of electricity. Wind turbines with only two or three blades have a high ratio of blade tip speed to axial flow velocity (the tip-speed ratio), but only a low starting torque and may even require assistance at start-up to bring it into the useful power producing range of operation. The crucial parameter is the diameter of the rotor blades, the longer the blades, the greater is the swept area and the greater the possible power output. The trend has been towards larger machines as they can produce electricity at a lower price.
3.3.2. Vertical Axis Wind Turbines or Darrieus Turbines (VAWTs)

These turbines uses vertical and often slightly curved symmetrical aerofoils. Guy cables or wires are required to maintain the turbine erect. This type of turbine has one distinct advantage: it can operate consistently without regard to wind direction. However, it does have a number of major disadvantages: i. Wind speeds are low close to the ground so that the lower part of the rotor is rather less productive than the upper part; High fluctuations in torque occur with every revolution; Negligible self-start capability1;

ii. iii.
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Fig. 2: VAWT egg -beater type turbine. Source: http://visual.merriam-webster.com/images/energy/windenergy/wind-turbines-electricity-production/vertical-axiswind-turbine.jpg

Refer to Ref. 5, p. 362.

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Limited capacity for speed regulation in winds of high speed.

Since the end of the 1980s research and development on VAWTs has virtually ceased in most countries, apart from Canada and most large modern wind turbines are horizontal axis turbines due to the disadvantages presented by the VAWTs. [Ref. 5]

3.4.

Advantages and Disadvantages of wind energy

The main advantage of wind energy is that harnessing it doesnt disrupt natural processes or harm the environment, unlike a lot of other energy sources. To generate electricity on a large scale, a number of windmills are set up over a large area, called a wind energy farm. Advantages Wind energy is an inexhaustible source of energy and is virtually a limitless resource. Energy is generated without polluting environment. This source of energy has tremendous potential to generate energy on large scale. Like solar energy can be used directly as mechanical energy. Windmill generators dont emit any emissions that can lead to acid rain or greenhouse effect. In remote areas, wind turbines can be used as great resource to generate energy. In combination with solar energy they can be used to provide reliable as well as steady supply of electricity. Land around wind turbines can be used for other uses, e.g. farming. Disadvantages Wind energy requires expensive storage during peak production time. It is unreliable energy source as winds are uncertain and unpredictable. There is visual and aesthetic impact on region. Requires large open areas for setting up wind farms. Noise pollution problem is usually associated with wind mills. Wind energy can be harnessed only in those areas where wind is strong enough and weather is windy for most parts of the year. Usually places, where wind power set-up is situated, are away from places where demand of electricity is there. Transmission from such places increases cost of electricity. The average efficiency of wind turbine is very less as compared to fossil fuel power plants. We might require many wind turbines to produce similar impact. A threat to wildlife: birds do get killed or injured when they fly into turbines. Maintenance cost of wind turbines is high as they have mechanical parts that undergo wear and tear over the time. [Ref 2]

4. Wind Energy Growth

The graph on the right shows the growth of wind energy production from 1989 to 2010. It also shows the exponential increase of the electricity generation from wind energy over the years. The graph below (Fig. 4) show the growth of the power generated from wind energy from the top 10 main contributors in the year of 2012. It also shows a significant leap of growth in implementation of wind turbines and production of wind energy that have occurred in China which has become the leading contributor.

Fig. 3: Electricity production from wind energy all over the world

World total (rest of world) Portugal Canada France Italy UK India Spain Germany United States China 0 China % world total New 2012 capacity (MW) 10,000 20,000 30,000 India 6.5 40,000 UK 3 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000

United Germa Spain States ny 26.7 21.2 11.1 8.1

Italy France 2.9 2.7 757

Canad Portug (rest of World a al world) total 2.2 1.6 14.1 100% 0 0 935 145 6,737

Wind power total capacity (MW) 75,324 60,007 31,308 22,796 18,421 8,845 8,144 7,564 6,200 4,525 39,853 12,960 13,124 2,145 1,122 2,336 1,897 1,273 Wind power total capacity (MW)

% world total

New 2012 capacity (MW)

Fig. 4: Top 10 countries by nameplate wind power capacity (2012 year-end)

4.1.Africas Wind Energy Resource Compared with other countries

Africa has a huge wind energy reserve just waiting to be tapped compared with other developing regions, a study presented before an economic conference concerning the regions shows. According to a paper presented at the 2012 African Economic Conference, out of the 27 developing countries across all continents that hold the highest potential for wind energy, eight are in African region. These are Somalia, Su-

dan, Libya, Mauritania, Egypt, Madagascar, Kenya and Chad. For instance, Mauritanias wind potential is around four times its annual energy consumption in tons of oil equivalent, Sudans wind potential, on the other hand, corresponds to 90% of its yearly energy needs. Other African countries that have good prospects for large offshore wind energy resources are Mozambique, Tanzania, Angola, South Africa and Namibia. [Ref. 4] The Koudia Al Baida Farm in Morocco, is the largest wind farm in the continent. There are also projects being planned in South Africa to implement the use of a wind farm, or large, commercial scale operations, the construction of these wind farms is being planned for west coast, north of Cape Town. Kenya plans on building a wind farm the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) in Marsabit County.The first 50 90 MW from (LTWP) are scheduled for 2015. LTWP is planned to produce 300 MW of wind power at full capacity. In January 2009, the first wind turbine in West Africa was erected in Batokunku, a village in The Gambia. The 150 kW turbine provides electrical power for the 2,000-people village. From the graphs below, much is seen that Egypt is the top leader contributing 1.76% to world wind energy production followed by Morocco which contributes approximately 0.93% both since 2010. Next follows Ethiopia with 0.16% (2012), Cape Verde 0.08% (2012), and South Africa with only 0.03% (2012). Madagascar and Namibia basically are infants what concerns to wind energy production. What is also noticeable is that African countries have been putting their fingerprints in the wind energy generation as it can be seen from the increase in production of wind farms from the graphs below. Installed Wind Pow er Capacity (MW) 2002 -2012
WIND POWER CAPACITY (MW)

600 500 400 300 200 100 0

2002 69 53.9 0

2003 180 53.9 0

2004 145 53.9 2.78

2005 145 64 2.8

2006 230 64 2.8

2007 310

2008 390

2009 430 253 2.8

2010 550 286 30 25.5

2011 550 291 30 38.3

2012 550 291 51 24

World Egypt Morocco Ethiopia Cape Verde South Africa Madagascar Namibia

31180 39295 47693 59024 74123 93930 120903 159213 196630 237022 282482 125.2 125.2 2.8 2.8

13
0

16.4
0

16.55
0

16.6
0

16.6
0.3

16.6
0.5

21.8
0.5

21.8
0.5

10
1.2 0.2

10.1
1.2 0.2

10.1
1.2 0.2

Fig. 6: This table provides end-of-year installed wind power capacity (in megawatts) for the countries of the world for the years 2002 through 2012. Data source: Ref. 7.

Installed Wind Power Capacity (%) 2002 -2012

2.00 1.80 1.60 1.40 1.20 1.00 0.80 0.60 0.40 0.20 0.00

% OF INSTALLED WIND POWER

2002 0.22 0.17 0 0 0.04

2003 0.58 0.17 0 0 0.05

2004 0.47 0.17 0 0.01 0.05

2005 0.47 0.21 0 0.01 0.05

2006 0.74 0.21 0 0.01 0.05

2007 0.99 0.40 0 0.01 0.05

2008 1.25 0.40 0 0.01 0.07

2009 1.38 0.81 0 0.01 0.07

2010 1.76 0.92 0.10 0.08 0.03

2011 1.76 0.93 0.10 0.12 0.03

2012 1.76 0.93 0.16 0.08 0.03

Egypt Morocco Ethiopia Cape Verde South Africa Madagascar Namibia Egypt

0
0 Morocco

0
0

0
0 Ethiopia

0
0

0
0

0
0

0
0

0
0

0
0

0
0 Namibia

0
0

Cape Verde

South Africa

Madagascar

Fig. 7: Percentage of wind energy production amongst African countries that produce wind energy

5. Environmental considerations
Where wind farms are to be installed for wind energy production is a great matter that is judiciously discussed. Investigations of acceptability have shown, due to public complaints, wind farms needed to be installed far away from the community. Nowadays, medium- and large-size wind turbines in small numbers (i.e., 20 to 30) are regarded as beneficial to the community; first, the graceful, almost hypnotic turning of the slender blades of the larger turbines, seemingly in slow motion, has generally led to a more positive aesthetic reaction, in most surveys. Second, the perceived benefit to the community with part or total ownership, giving lower power costs and possibly even preferential availability of power. And comes from the amount of careful planning and cooperation between the installers and the leaders of the community long before any work on installation commences. It is a strange fact that the old-fashioned, disused windmills, now local landmarks that abound in many parts of Europe are now widely accepted. Wind turbines undoubtedly generate some noise but, with the improvements in design in recent years, the level of noise emitted by them has dropped remarkably. A problem occurs in connection with small wind turbines. These turbines are sold in large numbers in areas remote from electric utilities and are often installed close to

peoples homes, often too close. There is an urgent need for reliable data on the levels of noise generated so that homeowners and communities can then reliably anticipate the noise levels from wind turbines prior to installation.2

6. Conclusion
Wind power, as an alternative to fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation and uses little land. The effects on the environment are generally less problematic than those from other power sources. Wind is far less uniformly distributed than solar resources, with optimal locations positioned near special topographical funnelling features close to coastal locations, mountain ranges, and other natural channels in the north and south. The availability of wind on the western coast of Africa is substantial, exceeding 3,750 kWh, and will accommodate the future prospect for energy demands. Africas reserves of renewable energy sources are the highest in the world, and the continent has enough renewable energy potential to meet its future energy needs [According to the World Energy Council]. Of the top 35 developing countries ranked highest in renewable energy reserves, 18 are said to be found in Africa. But despite the high wind energy potential in particular African countries, wind powered electricity generation is still very limited. Notably, wind-based electricity contributes less than 1 percent to installed electricity generation capacity on the continent. However, it seems that African countries generates much less wind energy (less than 2%) compared to China, European countries, and USA. What stutters the most is that Africa is very rich in renewable, in particular wind, but it cannot channel this energy into a useful form.

An extract of Ref. 5, pp. 408-410.

References 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power
2. www.ianswer4u.com/2012/02/wind-energy-advantages-and.html 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Africa 4. http://www.ecoseed.org/business/other-markets/15784-african-region-s-windresource-better%20-compared-with-other-countries 5. Dixon, S. L., Hall, C. A.: Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Turbomachinery, 6th ed., 2010. Butterworth-Heinemann, pp. 357-411. 6. Eastop, T. D., McConkey, A.: Applied Thermodynamics for Engineering Technologists, 5th ed., 1993. p. 698 7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_by_country

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