WIND ENERGY

NON CONVENTIONAL ENERGY SOURCE

NON CONVENTIONAL ENERGY SOURCES Abstract

The ever increasing rapid use of the fossile fuels day by day has threatened exhausting of conventional energy sources very soon. Also the use of conventional energy sources has increased the global pollution level which is resulting in climate change. Therefore time has come for searching altogether other sources of energy which are inexhaustible and gradually conventional sources. The non conventional replace the energy sources such as solar,

wind, tidal, ocean etc are basically renewable energy resources. The energy available from each of theses sources can be used to produce mechanical and electrical power. These are produced continuously in nature and are essentially inexhaustible atleast in the frame work of human societies.Wind energy is one of non conventional energy source. Wind power is one of the most ecofriendly means to generate electricity . The time taken to set up wind power project is very short compare to set up a conventional thermal power plant using coal or nuclear energy.

Contents

o Introduction. o Wind energy. o Constructional materials. o Power generation. o Wind sensor. o Energy utilisation. o Advantages. o Disadvantages. o Conclusion.

Introduction
Energy , a word derived from Greek word Energia, meaning capacity for doing work. All forms of energy are interconvertable by appropriate processes. Energy can also be classified as conventional and non conventional eneegy sources. Presently most of our energy sources comes mainly from fossile fuels such as coal, petrolium, and natural gas.The ever increasing rapid use of fossile fuels day by day has threatened exhausting of these sources very soon. . Without energy, the world's entire industrialized infrastructure would collapse; agriculture, transportation, waste collection, information technology, communications and much of the prerequisites that a developed nation takes for granted.Therefore time has come for searching altogether other sourceses of energy which are inexhaustible called non conventional energy sources such as wind energy, tidal energy, solar energy, bio energy and so on. These energy resources replenish themselves naturally in a relatively short time and therefore will always be available.Except the biomass energy sources all other renewable energy sources offer pollution free environment and also help in maintaining the ecological balance.

Introduction to Wind Energy

Wind energy is the energy contained in the force of the winds blowing across the earths surface.When harnessed, wind energy can be converted into mechanical energy for performing work such as pumping water, grinding grain by wind mills and producing electrical energy, by wind turbines.The circulation of air in the atmosphere is caused by the non uniform heating of the earths surface by the sun. The air immediately above a warm area expands and becomes less dense. It is then forced upwards by a cool denser air which flows in the surrounding areas causing a wind.

Wind machines were used for grinding grain in Persia as early as 200 B.C. This type of machine was introduced into the Roman Empire by 250 A.D. By the 14th century Dutch windmills were in use to drain areas of the Rhine River delta. In Denmark by 1900 there were about 2500 windmills for mechanical loads such as pumps and mills, producing an estimated combined peak power of about 30 MW. The first windmill for electricity production was built in Cleveland, Ohio by Charles F. Brush in 1888[1], and in 1908 there were 72 wind-driven electric generators from 5 kW to 25 kW fig(1). The largest machines were on 24 m (79 ft) towers with four-bladed 23 m (75 ft) diameter rotors. In Denmark wind power was an important part of a decentralized electrification in the first quarter of the 20th century, partly because of the Danish wind power scientist Poul la Cour.

Fig (1) A Two Bladed Wind Turbine

By the 1930s windmills were mainly used to generate electricity on farms, mostly in the United States where distribution systems had not yet been installed. In this period, high tensile steel was cheap, and windmills were placed atop prefabricated open steel lattice towers. A forerunner of modern horizontalaxis wind generators was in service at Yalta, USSR in 1931. This was a 100 kW generator on a 30 m (100 ft) tower, connected to the local 6.3 kV distribution system. It was reported to have an annual load factor of 32 per cent, not much different from current wind machines.

Construction Materials

Wood and canvas sails were originally used on early windmills due to being cheap and easily manufactured. Unfortunately they require much maintenance over their service life. Also, they have a relatively high drag (low aerodynamic efficiency) for the force they capture. For these reasons they were superseded with solid airfoils. One of the strongest and stiffest construction materials available for wind turbine blades is carbon-fibre in an epoxy resin matrix, however is very expensive and only used by some blade manufactures for highly loaded parts of the rotor blades and when stiffness is critical. Modern rotor blades (up to 126 m (413 ft) diameter) are made of lightweight glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) with an epoxy or polyester resin matrix. Smaller blades can sometimes be made from aluminium, however GRP is the most common material for modern wind turbine blades. Fig(2)Wind turbine blades can however be made from a wide variety of materials.

Fig(2) A person standing beside medium size modern turbine blades.

For a given survivable wind speed, the mass of a turbine is approximately proportional to the cube of its blade-length. Wind power intercepted by the turbine is proportional to the square of its blade-length. The maximum blade-length of a turbine is limited by both the strength and stiffness of its material.Labor and maintenance costs increase only gradually with increasing turbine size, so to minimize costs, wind farm turbines are basically limited by the strength of materials, and siting requirements.Typical modern wind turbines have diameters of 40 to 90 meters (130-300 ft) and are rated between 500 KW and 2 MW. Currently (2005) the most powerful turbine is rated at 6 MW.

Power Generation
In 1941 the world's first megawatt-size wind turbine was connected to the local electrical distribution system on Grandpa's Knob in Castleton, Vermont, USA. This 1.25 MW Smith-Putnam turbine operated for 1100 hours before a blade failed at a known weak point, which had not been reinforced due to wartime material shortages. In the 1940s, the U.S. had a rural electrification project that killed the natural market for wind-generated power, since network power distribution provided a farm with more dependable usable energy for a given amount of capital investment For large, commercial size horizontal-axis wind turbines, the generator is mounted in a nacelle at the top of a tower, behind the hub of the turbine rotor. A speed increasing gearbox may be inserted between the rotor hub and the generator, so that the generator cost and weight can be reduced. Commercial size generators have a rotor carrying a field winding so that a rotating magnetic field is produced inside a set of windings called the stator. While the rotating field winding consumes a fraction of a percent of the generator output, adjustment of the field current allows good control over the generator output voltage (one of the such turbine is illustrated in fig3). Very small wind generators (a few watts to perhaps a kilowatt in output) may use permanent magnets but these are too costly to use in large machines and do not allow convenient regulation of the generator voltage .

Fig(3) Wind Turbines

Electrical generators inherently produce AC power. Older style wind generators rotate at a constant speed, to match power line frequency, which allowed the use of less costly induction generators. Newer wind turbines often turn at whatever speed generates electricity most efficiently. This can be solved using multiple technologies such as doubly fed induction generators or full-effect converters where the variable frequency current produced is converted to DC and then back to AC, matching the line frequency and voltage. Although such alternatives require costly equipment and cause power loss, the turbine can capture a significantly larger fraction of the wind energy. In some cases, especially when turbines are sited offshore, the DC energy will be transmitted from the turbine to a central (onshore) inverter for connection to the grid.

Wind sensor
Wind sensors are used to know the speed of the wind, direction of wind flow. One of the example for wind sensor is ultrasonic wind sensor which has following advantages Fig(4),

Fig(4) Wind Sensor

Measures wind speed and direction from the smallest breeze to hurricane force gales (0...65 m/s), including gusts Superior data availability and accuracy in all wind directions due to the patented three transducer layout Averaging of wind speed and direction Analog, RS-232, RS-422, RS-485 and SDI-12 outputs Low power consumption No moving parts: virtually maintenance free Stainless steel construction Heated model available US National Weather Service relies on Vaisala ultrasonic technology

Wind Energy Utilization

Five nations Germany, USA, Denmark, Spain and India account for 80% of the worlds installed wind energy capacity. Wind energy continues to be the fastest growing renewable energy source with worldwide wind power

installed capacity reaching 14,000 MW .The prediction for the years 1997-2010 is shown in Fig(5).

Fig(5) Worldwide installed capacity and prediction 1997-2010, India ranks 5th in the world with a total wind power capacity of 1080MW out of which 1025MW have been established in commercial projects. In India the states of Tamilnadu and Gujarat lead in the field of wind energy. At the end of March 2000 India had 1080-MWs capacity wind farms, of which Tamilnadu contributed 770-MW capacity. Gujarat has 167MW followed by Andhra Pradesh, which has 88 MW installed wind farms.There are about a dozen wind pumps of various designs providing water for agriculture, afforestation, and domestic purposes, all scattered over the country. Early in the millennium, Suzlon commissioned its Vankusawade wind park in the Satara District of Indias Maharashtra state which at 201 MW of capacity, ranked as Asia's largest on completion. Suzlon has since taken great strides and is today building what will be among the worlds largest wind parks. Suzlons Dhule wind park site, located approximately 30 km from the town of Nandurbar in Maharashtra, is spread across a vast, undulating expanse.

Advantages of non conventional energy sources

These energy sources are non exhaustible. Minimisation of transmission cost. Except biomass energy all other renewable energy resources are pollution free.

 The power generation cost is low compared to conventional energy sources. Minimisation of power transmission losses. Locally available energy sources are effectively utilised.

Disadvantages of non conventional energy sources

The intermittent nature of the availability of energy setback in the continuous supply of energy. Some of renewable energy sources such as wind, tidal etc are concentrated only in certain regions. The application of renewable energy resources to transport sector is not viable as on today The state of the art in harnessing renewable energy sources is not yet fully developed to meet present day requirements.

Conclusion
The Conventional sources of energy are going to exhaust in near future. Now time has come to utilize the locally available energy sources to the maximum extent as they are ecofriendly and does not cause pollution. Eventhough these sources cannot satisfy our complete need, utilization of Non conventional energy sources reduces the burden of depending on Conventional sources which are hazardous and pollution oriented. Presently our 90% need comes from conventional energy sources because production cost of energy from non conventional energy resources is very high as it is produced in small scale but if we produce energy in large scale the cost will come down.Therefore precise measure and strategy are planned and implemented to ground floor level and making maximum use of these sources.

References
http://www.wwindea.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_crisis www.Suzlon.com

http://www.energy.ca.gov/ http://www.eia.doe.gov/ www.fe.doe.gov/education www.ase.org/greenschools www.conserinfo.org