Wind energy

Qasim, AY; Al-Douri, Y; Alani, OYK

Abstract

Wind energy is one of the cheapest and cleanest resource of renewable energy. It is very useful to use this wind resource to generate electricity because wind power is clean, and efficient. Wind energy is the conversion of the wind kinetic energy into a useful form of energy, such as mechanical or electrical energy that can be harnessed for practical use by using wind turbines. It reduces acid rain, smog and pollutants to the atmosphere. Renewable energy has become popular in recent years, due to the need for the utilization of more environmentally friendly energy sources. There are many concepts to classify the types of wind turbines. There are two basic designs of wind turbines classes based on the orientation of the rotor: the vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) and the horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs).

The efficiency with which a rotor can extract power from the wind depends on the dynamic matching between the rotor and the wind stream. Hence, the performance of a wind rotor is usually characterized by the variations in its power coefficient (Cp) with the tip speed ratio (λ). As both of these parameters are dimensionless, the (CP-λ) curve will represent the rotor performance irrespective to the rotor size and site parameters. The power coefficient is the most important variable in wind turbine aerodynamics; it represents the amount of energy that can be absorbed from the wind in a specific turbine (a ratio of the power generated by the machine to the power available in the wind). The speed at the tip of the blade is the ratio of the speed of the rotating blade tip to the speed of the free stream wind, and it is written as the product of the blade radius and the rotational speed of the blade (U = ω*r), with ω = π DN, where ω = angular velocity of the turbine blade, D = diameter of the turbine blade, N= rotational speed of the rotor.

Citation

Qasim, A., Al-Douri, Y., & Alani, O. (2022). Wind energy. In Renewable Energy: Analysis, Resources, Applications, Management, and Policy (1-24). AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/9780735424272_006

• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2022
• Deposit Date: Oct 7, 2022
• Publisher: AIP Publishing
• Pages: 1-24
• Book Title: Renewable Energy: Analysis, Resources, Applications, Management, and Policy
• ISBN: 9780735424272
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1063/9780735424272_006
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1063/9780735424272_006