Achievement

Trainees Huiyi Zhang and David Jahn, together with IGERT associate Arne Nielsen developed a wind turbine tower height based cost production (HBCP) model for selecting the most cost efficient wind turbine for a specific wind farm. The accuracy of the wind data used by the HBCP is studied through comparison of a modeled regional wind analysis to wind observations at hub height. The HBCP model is used to explore the economic benefits of increasing hub height by computing installation cost, annual energy production (AEP), and payoff period, as a function of hub height. A case study shows that increasing hub height from 80m to 100 m for a GE 1.5MW turbine at Homestead, Iowa, the mean wind speed increases 6.8%, the AEP increases 9.62%, and the payoff period is 4.4 years. This work is reported in the following working paper: H. Zhang, D. Jahn, and A. Nielsen, "Wind energy cost-production modeling"