DEVELOPMENT OF WIND ENERGY FARM IN HILLY AREA

Abstract

Today, a major need in developing countries is the electrification of rural areas. In India, renewable energy is abundant and its technologies are well-established to provide security of energy supply. Wind energy based systems could be good solution for hilly areas located far from the electrical distribution network. The wind resource assessment programme is being implemented by the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (CWET), an autonomous R&D institution by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy MNRE, Government of India in coordination with the state nodal agencies. Under the present work, an attempt has been made, to design a wind farm for a hilly area. "Bachelikhal" located in Narendranagar district of Uttarakhand state has been considered as a study area, to assess and promote the harnessing of wind power. In this study, wind speed data available for the area are fitted to the Weibull probability distribution function and used to calculate the mean wind speed and variance of the actual data. The mean annual wind speed and wind power density are found to be 4.88 m/s and 244 W/m2 respectively. The study indicates that the area is endowed with reasonable wind energy potential. On the basis of details obtained from the aerial photographic images and site visit, the roughness class was also assigned. Wind data are then extrapolated to the required hub heights for various performance computations associated with design and planning of wind farm. Information on the topography of the area in terms of height contours, knowledge of land use pattern and software's has been used to process the data. Wind shade calculation, shadow casting of wind turbines and noise calculation is also done. Ten different wind turbines were studied for the optimum selection of the wind turbine for Bachelikhal site based on capacity factor and cost considerations. Based on the results, it is concluded that in wind farm design, capacity of the wind turbine and characteristics of the wind turbine are far more important than raising the hub height. Further, for the selection of good wind farm site scale-parameter-and shape parameter are found equally important. The major issues related to the grid connection requirements and the operation of wind turbines/farms in power systems is also illustrated.