Thermo-Ecological Cost of Electricity Generated in Wind Turbine Systems

Wind power is one of the most popular renewable energy sources ( RES), characterized by rapid growth of installed power in the energy mix of many countries. Usually, the influence of wind technologies on the depletion of nonrenewable resources is evaluated taking into account the consumption of energy and materials in the construction phase. However, it should be noted that the major drawback of wind energy is its random availability which also influences the consumption of resources. This consumption results from the necessity of compensation for random operation of wind power plants by conventional ones operating in off-design point. In the present work, thermo-ecological cost (TEC) is proposed for the evaluation of the performance of wind generation systems operating with random accessibility of wind energy. The presented analysis focuses on the estimation of additional non-renewable energy consumption due to the part-load operation of the conventional power units. Different strategies are assumed for the compensation for the hourly wind power variations. The presented results of TEC analysis show that the part of TEC resulting from induced losses can be significant. The authors prove that, within the assessment of wind turbines, the induced losses cannot be omitted.