Wind Energy Conversion Systems

Wind energy conversion systems are essential contributors to the overall process of wind power utilization in enabling the engineering performance characteristics of commercially available wind turbine generators to be realized. The performance of wind conversion systems is based on the wind resource conditions on project sites. It depends too, on certain subsystems including wind turbines (aerodynamic), gears (mechanical), and generators (electrical). Of these subsystems, the wind turbine plays an important role in the conversion process. In this article, an overview description of the wind energy conversion system is given. The basic wind conversion principles, aerodynamics of wind turbines, wind project development processes that include site selection, wind resource estimation, wind turbine layout optimization within a wind farm, installation and operation, and maintenance are presented. A detailed wind turbine cost analysis that includes operational and maintenance costs is also provided. The total installation costs of onshore and offshore wind power are discussed separately in terms of a lifecycle assessment. The last section of this article is devoted to the introduction of some new types of wind turbines to inform readers of the likely advances in the state of the art of wind turbine development. Keywords: wind turbine; aerodynamics; energy conversion; cost; power output