Patel M. - Wind and Solar Power Systems.pdf

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Wind and Solar
Mukund R. Patel, Ph.D., P.E.
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy
Kings Point, New York
Formerly
Principal Engineer, General Electric Company
Fellow Engineer, Westinghouse Reasearch Center
CRC Press
Boca Raton London New York Washington, D.C.
Power Systems
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Patel, Mukind R., 1942.
Wind and solar power systems / Mukund R. Patel.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8493-1605-7 (alk. paper)
1. Wind power plants. 2. Solar power plants. 3. Photovoltaic power systems. I. Title.
TK1541.P38 1999
621.31
2136—dc21
98-47934
CIP
This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted material
is quoted with permission, and sources are indicated. A wide variety of references are listed. Reasonable
efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and the publisher cannot
assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or for the consequences of their use.
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© 1999 by CRC Press LLC
No claim to original U.S. Government works
International Standard Book Number 0-8493-1605-7
Library of Congress Card Number 98-47934
Printed in the United States of America 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Printed on acid-free paper
Trademark Notice:
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…dedicated
to my mother, Shakariba,
who practiced ingenuity,
and
to my children, Ketan, Bina, and Vijal,
who flattered me by being engineers.
(Cover photo: Baix Ebre wind farm in Catalonia. With permission from
Institut Catalia d’Energia, Spain.)
© 1999 by CRC Press LLC
Preface
The total electricity demand in 1997 in the United States of America was
three trillion kWh, with the market value of $210 billion. The worldwide
demand was 12 trillion kWh in 1997, and is projected to reach 19 trillion
kWh in 2015. This constitutes the worldwide average annual growth of
2.6 percent. The growth rate in the developing countries is projected to be
approximately 5 percent, almost twice the world average.
Most of the present demand in the world is met by fossil and nuclear power
plants. A small part is met by renewable energy technologies, such as the
wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and the ocean. Among the renewable power
sources, wind and solar have experienced a remarkably rapid growth in the
past 10 years. Both are pollution free sources of abundant power. Additionally,
they generate power near the load centers, hence eliminate the need of run-
ning high voltage transmission lines through rural and urban landscapes.
Since the early 1980s, the wind technology capital costs have declined by
80 percent, operation and maintenance costs have dropped by 80 percent
and availability factors of grid-connected plants have risen to 95 percent.
These factors have jointly contributed to the decline of the wind electricity
cost by 70 percent to 5 to 7 cents per kWh. The grid-connected wind plant
can generate electricity at cost under 5 cents per kWh. The goal of ongoing
research programs funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the
National Renewable Energy Laboratory is to bring the wind power cost
below 4 cents per kWh by the year 2000. This cost is highly competitive with
the energy cost of the conventional power technologies. For these reasons,
wind power plants are now supplying economical clean power in many
parts of the world.
In the U.S.A., several research partners of the NREL are negotiating with
U.S. electrical utilities to install additional 4,200 MW of wind capacity with
capital investment of about $2 billion during the next several years. This
amounts to the capital cost of $476 per kW, which is comparable with the
conventional power plant costs. A recent study by the Electric Power
Research Institute projected that by the year 2005, wind will produce the
cheapest electricity available from any source. The EPRI estimates that the
wind energy can grow from less than 1 percent in 1997 to as much as
10 percent of this country’s electrical energy demand by 2020.
On the other hand, the cost of solar photovoltaic electricity is still high in
the neighborhood of 15 to 25 cents per kWh. With the consumer cost of
electrical utility power ranging from 10 to 15 cents per kWh nationwide,
photovoltaics cannot economically compete directly with the utility power
as yet, except in remote markets where the utility power is not available and
© 1999 by CRC Press LLC
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the transmission line costs would be prohibitive. Many developing countries
have large areas falling in this category. With ongoing research in the pho-
tovoltaic (pv) technologies around the world, the pv energy cost is expected
to fall to 12 to 15 cents per kWh or less in the next several years as the
learning curves and the economy of scale come into play. The research
programs funded by DOE/NREL have the goal of bringing down the pv
energy cost below 12 cents per kWh by 2000.
After the restructuring of the U.S. electrical utilities, as mandated by the
Energy Policy Act (EPAct) of 1992, the industry leaders expect the power
generation business, both conventional and renewable, to become more prof-
itable in the long run. The reasoning is that the generation business will be
stripped of regulated price and opened to competition among electricity
producers and resellers. The transmission and distribution business, on the
other hand, would still be regulated. The American experience indicates that
the free business generates more profits than the regulated business. Such
is the experience in the U.K. and Chile, where the electrical power industry
had been structured similar to the EPAct of 1992 in the U.S.A.
As for the wind and pv electricity producers, they can now sell power
freely to the end users through truly open access to the transmission lines.
For this reason, they are likely to benefit as much as other producers of
electricity. Another benefit in their favor is that the cost of the renewable
energy would be falling as the technology advances, whereas the cost of the
electricity from the conventional power plants would rise with inflation. The
difference in their trends would make the wind and pv power even more
advantageous in the future.
© 1999 by CRC Press LLC
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