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Enercon is building a wind turbine, 120 m diameter, rated power at 4.5 Megawatts

ID: 1716675 • Letter: E

Question

Enercon is building a wind turbine, 120 m diameter, rated power at 4.5 Megawatts, on a 120 meter tower. They want to test it here in Amarillo, TX. What can we tell them without even looking at the machine based on this information? such as :

a. Estimate the annual energy production using the generator size method.

b. Estimate the annual energy production using the rotor swept area and the wind map (Class 4 wind is about 450 W/m^2 at 60 meter above ground) and our wind shear of 0.20 ( alpha )? (450 W/m^2 at 60 meter is about what W/m^2 at 120 m ?)

c. The wind speed histogram for a month for this BIG MACHINE (at hub height) and the power curve (at hub height) are given. Both data sets are at the midpoint of the bin.

Find the expected monthly energy output using this information?

Bin    v      hrs    Power    Energy

i       m/s #    kW       kW- hr

1       1      20    0          ??

2       3      50      0          ??

3       5     130    125        ??

4       7     170    795        ??

5       9     180    1780      ??

6      11    110     2250      ??

7      13    50      4250      ??

8      15    10    4500      ??

9      17 7 4500      ??

10    19     3       4500    ??

11     21    1       4500    ??

                         TOTAL ????

Explanation / Answer

20,150,650,1190,1620,1121,650,150,119,67,21