-
35 Languages:
Power - Wind turbine - 9,900 kW / Germany
Case study assignment
A private company in Germany has hired you to assess the feasibility of installing a grid-connected windfarm.
Site information
The site is located on farmland at Grüppenbühren, about 100 km east of the German North Sea coast. The nearest weather station is in Bremen. The annual average wind speed from on-site measurements is about 6.4 m/s at 65 m height. The private company plans to develop a windfarm of about 10 MW using V66-1.65 MW turbines manufactured by Vestas Wind Systems. The turbines can be delivered to the project site at a price of about €670/kW (including spare parts). Annual parts and labour for the turbines cost approximately €0.012/kWh.
For the greenhouse gas analysis, the conventional generation fuel mix that the wind energy project would displace is approximately as follows: 44% coal, 5% natural gas, 36% #6 oil, 14% nuclear and 1% wind.
Financial information
The energy generated by the windfarm will be purchased by the local utility at €0.091/kWh for the project life of 25 years with no escalation. You can assume an inflation rate of 2.5% and a discount rate of 9%. A loan is available from the local bank with a debt ratio of 31%, a debt interest rate of 5.75% and a debt term of 15 years. The non-debt portion will be financed by the client. The income from the windfarm is not subjected to taxes.
Based on your past experience, you can assume that the feasibility study will cost roughly €45,000, development €330,000 and engineering €30,000. The local utility has informed you that the transmission line and substation required to connect to the grid will cost approximately €1.3 million. An additional €700,000 is required to complete the balance of plant.
Prepare a RETScreen study, documenting any assumptions that you are required to make, and report on the significant conclusions from this analysis.
Solution
The worked-out solution is the data file selected from within the RETScreen Project Database. The user automatically downloads the Project Database file while downloading the RETScreen software.
Teacher's notes
Results
The Grüppenbühren Windfarm is located in the German state of Niedersachsen about 100 km east from the North Sea coast and was completed in November 2000. It is one of many windfarms to have been built in Germany in the last few years. One of the innovative features of this project is its monitoring system with integrated video surveillance. The video monitoring system gives a better overview of the wind turbines' operation and has led to a reduction of maintenance and repair costs.
System description
The 9.9 MW Grüppenbühren Windfarm consists of six Vestas Wind Systems V66 turbines each rated at 1,650 kW output. To-date, the wind turbines have produced about 15,100 MWh/year. The windfarm, aided by its video surveillance system, has demonstrated an availability rate of 98%.
Lessons learned
The development of wind energy in Germany in the recent past has been unprecedented and the country now has the largest wind energy concentration globally. By the end of 2001 a total of 11,438 wind turbines were installed in Germany totalling 8,753 MW of rated capacity. Wind energy development on such a scale is possible due to consistent government support through assured and remunerative buy-back prices as well as a good quality assurance and planning system which ensures that the technical performance of the wind turbines is optimized. This has also resulted in major industrial development: the German wind energy sector currently employees about 35,000 people and its turnover in 2001 was about €3.5 billion.
Photo
Wind farm, Nedersachsen, Germany
References
Case study assignment
A private company in Germany has hired you to assess the feasibility of installing a grid-connected windfarm.
Site information
The site is located on farmland at Grüppenbühren, about 100 km east of the German North Sea coast. The nearest weather station is in Bremen. The annual average wind speed from on-site measurements is about 6.4 m/s at 65 m height. The private company plans to develop a windfarm of about 10 MW using V66-1.65 MW turbines manufactured by Vestas Wind Systems. The turbines can be delivered to the project site at a price of about €670/kW (including spare parts). Annual parts and labour for the turbines cost approximately €0.012/kWh.
For the greenhouse gas analysis, the conventional generation fuel mix that the wind energy project would displace is approximately as follows: 44% coal, 5% natural gas, 36% #6 oil, 14% nuclear and 1% wind.
Financial information
The energy generated by the windfarm will be purchased by the local utility at €0.091/kWh for the project life of 25 years with no escalation. You can assume an inflation rate of 2.5% and a discount rate of 9%. A loan is available from the local bank with a debt ratio of 31%, a debt interest rate of 5.75% and a debt term of 15 years. The non-debt portion will be financed by the client. The income from the windfarm is not subjected to taxes.
Based on your past experience, you can assume that the feasibility study will cost roughly €45,000, development €330,000 and engineering €30,000. The local utility has informed you that the transmission line and substation required to connect to the grid will cost approximately €1.3 million. An additional €700,000 is required to complete the balance of plant.
Prepare a RETScreen study, documenting any assumptions that you are required to make, and report on the significant conclusions from this analysis.
Solution
The worked-out solution is the data file selected from within the RETScreen Project Database. The user automatically downloads the Project Database file while downloading the RETScreen software.
Teacher's notes
- The windfarm uses a state-of-the art surveillance and control system the cost of which has been included under the "User-defined" category in the Cost Analysis worksheet.
- The cost of replacement of components such as the blades and the drive train are included in the operation and maintenance contract with the service company. These costs are annualized under the "Parts and labour" category in the Cost Analysis worksheet.
- The Cost Analysis has been performed in Euros (€). However, for reference purposes, costs are also displayed in Deutsch Marks (DEM) using the Second Currency feature in RETScreen.
Results
The Grüppenbühren Windfarm is located in the German state of Niedersachsen about 100 km east from the North Sea coast and was completed in November 2000. It is one of many windfarms to have been built in Germany in the last few years. One of the innovative features of this project is its monitoring system with integrated video surveillance. The video monitoring system gives a better overview of the wind turbines' operation and has led to a reduction of maintenance and repair costs.
System description
The 9.9 MW Grüppenbühren Windfarm consists of six Vestas Wind Systems V66 turbines each rated at 1,650 kW output. To-date, the wind turbines have produced about 15,100 MWh/year. The windfarm, aided by its video surveillance system, has demonstrated an availability rate of 98%.
Lessons learned
- Good policy support by the government, including feed-in tariffs that value the environmental attributes of wind energy, and the availability of soft loans help make windfarms financially attractive.
- Micrositing of wind turbines relative to one another and to local geographic features is an important task that directly affects the windfarm's energy output.
- Video monitoring over the Internet can be part of the public relations concept of a windfarm and serve to gain the support of local inhabitants and investors.
- Windfarms can be a sound long-term investment and a hedge against future energy price increases.
The development of wind energy in Germany in the recent past has been unprecedented and the country now has the largest wind energy concentration globally. By the end of 2001 a total of 11,438 wind turbines were installed in Germany totalling 8,753 MW of rated capacity. Wind energy development on such a scale is possible due to consistent government support through assured and remunerative buy-back prices as well as a good quality assurance and planning system which ensures that the technical performance of the wind turbines is optimized. This has also resulted in major industrial development: the German wind energy sector currently employees about 35,000 people and its turnover in 2001 was about €3.5 billion.
Photo
Wind farm, Nedersachsen, Germany
References
- Parthan, Binu K., "Personal communication," IT Power India, 2002.
- Waldl, Hans-Peter, Overspeed Gmbh & CO.KG, Oldenburg, Website: http://www.planungsgemeinschaft.de.
- Windpark Grüppenbühren, Website: http://www.rethorn.de/windpark.htm.
