Notes - Initial Costs of a Wind Energy Project

The following notes are taken from Wind Turbine Technology by Ahmad Hemami.

• There are a two types of costs
• direct costs
• ancillary components
• controllers, transformers, etc
• indirect costs
• purchase of land
• transport

Cost of a Turbine

• tower, gears
• nacelle
• contains auxiliary parts such as heat exchanger
• generator
• gearbox
• rotor
• turbine controller
• pad mount transformer
• etc. measurements instrumentation communication control

Installation

• Foundation construction
• must be able to withstand all weight and lateral forces
• diameter of tower often around 10-12 feet
• diameter of foundation around 50-55 feet, bulk underground
• Erecting the turbine
• set up base
• then tower arrives in 3-4 segments
• All other components lifted and assembled at top of tower, lifting done by cranes
• Transportation
• transport to site non trivial
• often distance is far from main roads so access difficult, and pieces are heavy and long
• long vehicles necessary disturbs traffic on smaller roads, temporary roads may need to be constructed
• Connect to grid, testing, commissioning
• need to install transmission lines if not already in place
• requires collector to act as substation before directing back to grid
• Legal and Other costs
• legality of right of way, negotiation with land owners

Value of Money

• Future value of money is P(1+r)ⁿ
• Present value of money is P/(1+r)ⁿ

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