FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Breeze Wind Power in China

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Zhongtao Wang

Qian Liu

June 2012

Bachelor’s Thesis in Energy Systems

Summary
China is an energy production and consumption country, wind power is one of the
greatest development potential energy.

The authors use literature research methodology, case study, comparative study and
trend analysis study to analysis current condition of the breeze wind power.

China has a long history of wind development, use wind power to generate electric is
only developed in recent years, but it is expanding fast. China is a country covering
vast territory, and it is rich in wind resources. But some reasons such like natural,
economy, environmental etc, limit the wind power development of China.

The VAWT is a new kind of wind driven generator, it has many advantages that
HAWT doesn’t have. Utilize VAWT to develop breeze wind power generation, will
bring wind power into more families.
Content
Summary ........................................................................................................................ 2

Introduction .................................................................................................................... 5

Methods.......................................................................................................................... 7

Literature Research Methodology.......................................................................... 7

Case Study ............................................................................................................. 7

Comparative Study................................................................................................. 7

Trend Analysis Study............................................................................................. 7

Background of the Wind Power ..................................................................................... 8

The History of Wind Power in the World .............................................................. 8

The History and the Development of Wind Power in China ............................... 10

Offshore Developments in China......................................................................... 12

How to Build a Wind Power Plant ....................................................................... 13

How Can More Wind Power Be Utilized ............................................................ 20

Higher Efficiency Breeze Power Generation ....................................................... 22

Results and Discussion ................................................................................................ 22

The Research and Comparison with VAWT and HAWT ................................... 22

1. Wind Power Utilization .......................................................................... 22

2. The Start-up Wind Speed ........................................................................ 23

3. Construction ............................................................................................ 24

4. Environmental Problem .......................................................................... 24

The Comparison of VAWT Breeze Power Generation and Normal Wind Power
Farm ..................................................................................................................... 25

Economic ..................................................................................................... 27

Payback Time............................................................................................... 30
 Environment Part ......................................................................................... 31

Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 31

Reference ..................................................................................................................... 33
Introduction

After human being learnt to use fire, the steps to use natural fossil resources are never
stopped.

From 1960s, the industrial revolutions were more likely a resources revolution. Fossil
resources, such like oil and coal, were more and more used in industrial and daily life
for people. There were no doubt that the fossil resources have changed whole the world.
At the same time, the problems of environment have become serious gradually.1

And then, in 1972, the United Nations conference on the human environment---the first
major conference on the international environment issues was made in Stockholm,
Sweden. It was the turning point for the development of international environment
politics.2

For a long time, people thought that the oil and some other resources were just like the
gifts from the god--- they were cheap, easy to use and seem inexhaustible.3

Time flew to 1973, the oil crisis occurred. The OPEC reduced the production and
embargoed oil to western countries. The price of international oil raised 75% during
that time. It made the big economy damage to these countries.4

Facing to the economic and environment problems, the governments started to think
about replacing the fossil resources by using renewable energy resources, such like
wind power, hydropower, solar energy, biomass, bio-fuel, geothermal energy and so
on.

Renewable energy is the energy comes from the natural resources: the wind, the sun,
the rain, the sea etc. The International Energy Agency explains: “Renewable energy is
derived from natural processes that are replenished constantly. In its various forms, it
derives directly from the sun, or from heat generated deep within the earth. Included in
the definition is electricity and heat generated from solar, wind, ocean, hydropower,

1
Sjur Kasa, 2008

2
United Nations Environment Programme, 1972

3
EPA. 2009

4
The 1970’s Energy Crisis Retrieved 2012-01-20
biomass, geothermal resources, and bio-fuels and hydrogen derived from renewable
resources.”5

China is the biggest developing country which has rich renewable energy resources, but
it also takes over a large part of energy consumption in the world. Because of both
economical and environment pressure, the government of China is seeking a way to
restructuring the current energy supplies and trying to find a balance between economic
development and environment protection.6

In 1979, China published its first environment law: Environment Protection Law
(beta)7. But in pursuit of the short-term economic interests, the government neglected
of environment protection, the environment problem still continued to deteriorate after
China implemented the policy of reform and opening up.

In the early of year 2005, The Renewable Energy Law of the People’s Republic of
China was passed, and the amended was passed by the end of 2009.8

The Renewable Energy Law of the People’s Republic of China provides a legal basis for
developing renewable energy in China. After that the government slowed to examine
and approve the natural fossil resources industry and supported renewable projects.

Wind power is one of the most important and common renewable energy. It has much
potential and area to improvement. By the radiation of sun, it make difference
temperature on the whole earth, the wind is generated. The wind has been used by
human for thousand years, it is related to human’s life closely.

Without the wind, human cannot find the new world, the technology cannot be
developed. Without the windmills and wind-pumps, the world cannot be such beautiful.
In other words, the wind changes our world.

Now depend on the wind power plants, human can obtain electricity from the wind
without combustion or smoke dust.

But the traditional wind power plant has some disadvantages:9

5
REN21,Retrieved 2012-01-18

6
WWF, Retrieved 2012-01-21

7
Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China, Retrieved 2012-01-21
8
Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China, Retrieved 2012-01-21
 1. Difficult to find an appropriate location for construction.
2. Higher start up wind speed: sometime, the wind power generator needs an
extra motive power (diesel engine) to drive its fans.
3. It is prohibitively expensive.

In this report, the authors research and compare with VAWT wind power generator
and HAWT wind power generator, the author aim to find which one is the best for
breeze wind power.

Methods

For this thesis, the main resources are search by online library.

Literature Research Methodology

Depending on literature research, the authors get knowledge about history and current
situation of wind power. It is useful and helpful to get a full understand of the
framework.

Case Study

The authors choose some cases to show the different characteristics of various types of
wind power plants.

Comparative Study

To compare various wind power plants, summarize the strengths and weaknesses parts
to develop and improve.

Trend Analysis Study

According to the current situation of wind power plants, the authors analyze the
development tendency of the future.
Background of the Wind Power

The History of Wind Power in the World

Figure 1: the earth and sun

Because of some objective factors such as the seasons, latitude, clouds and so on, the
earth get radiation from the sun unevenly. The difference of the radiation makes the
temperature differently. Meanwhile the temperature difference makes the pressure in
different condition, then the air moves, the wind is generated finally.10

The wind is the gift from the sun and also one of the earliest energy human used. For a
long time, people used the wind to get mechanical energy to drive the windmills and
sailing boats, they help people get more food and fortune.

2000 BC, the windmill and sailing boat appeared in Ancient Egypt and Persia. In the
middle ages, the people in Netherlands and America have used the horizontal axis
windmills for watering. About 1800 years ago, China had have the records about using
windmills to draw water.11

10
JetStream, , Retrieved 2012-02-16

11
Mark Kurlansky, ISBN 0-14-200161-9. 2002
Figure 2: an old vertical axis windmills in China12

In 1887, an American named Charles F. Brush, took one year to build the first wind
power generator in the world. The first wind power generator can provide electricity for
12 batteries, 350 filament lamps, 2 carbon rods and 3 engines.13

As far back as the end of 19 century, a meteorologist from Denmark named Poul La
Cour, made an experimental wind power generator and did research on air flue, but due
to its low efficiency, the wind power wasn’t pay attention by people at that time. Until
the oil crisis occurred in 1973, it re-entered the people's field of vision.14

In 1957, Johannes Juul made GEDER wind power generator, the generator was taking
shape of modern wind power generator: it was comprised of one electric generator and
three rotary vanes.15

In 1979, VESTA provided a batch of wind power generator to its customer and began to
hammer at the investment in the field of renewable energy.16

The authors look back the history of wind power; it divided in three stages
approximately.

12
An Old Vertical Axis Windmills in China, Retrieved 2012-02-16

13
Charles Francis Brush, Retrieved 2012-06-05
14
Hansen, Hans Christian, 1985

15
The Wind Energy Pioneers, Retrieved 2012-02-16
16
VESTAS, Retrieved 2012-02-16
The first stage: from 1977 to 1987. At this stage, scientists proved that the wind can
make electricity to human by using advanced technology and control system. At that
time, the technology which Denmark and America used was in a leading position in the
world. The capacity of wind power generator was enhanced from one order of
magnitude to one hundred kilowatts.

The second stage: 1987-1997. During these ten years, the wind power technology
became mature gradually. The wind power industry developed widely and built a stable
business model. Several technology advanced companies appeared, the capacity of
wind power generator was increased from one hundred kilowatts to hundreds of
kilowatts.

The third stage: from 1997 until now, the billion kilowatts capacity has become a wider
trend, the offshore wind power plant is increasing gradually.17

The History and the Development of Wind Power in China

The territory of China is about 9.6 million square kilometers.18 With its large land and
long coastline, China has rich wind resources, especially in its western Gobi desert and
eastern coastal areas. China’s total exploitable capacity for both land-based and
offshore wind energy is around 700-1,200 GW.19

Before 1998, there are no large wind power plants in China, the most popular way to
use wind power is to driving flour mill.

In 1998, a company named GOLDWIND built the first wind power plant in Xinjiang
province, western China.20

17
Penguin Group, Retrieved 2012-04-11
18
Countries of the world ordered by land are, Retrieved 2012-01-11

19
China wind power capacity growing, Retrieved 2012-01-11
20
The First Wind Farm in China , Retrieved 2012-01-11
Figure2. A Goldwind wind farm outside of Urumqi, Xinjiang, China21

After 1998, more and more wind power plants were built in China. Till the end of 2010,
the total installed capacity in China was 41.8 GW. At the same time, the total capacity
in the USA maintains at 40.180 GW, so that China became the largest wind energy
provider in the worldwide.22

Total installed capacity in China and USA

from 2001 to 2010
45000
40000
35000
30000
25000
China(MW)
20000
USA(MW)
15000
10000
5000
0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

21
Wind Farm Outside Urumqi, Retrieved 2012-01-11

22
The World Wind Energy Association, 2012-06-05
 Figure 3: Total installed capacity in China and America from 2001 to 201023

From Figure 3, the development of total wind power installed capacity advanced
rapidly during Year 2001 to 2010. And America is more gently.

To promote the development of wind power, the Chinese National Energy

Administration had selected some wind power bases, and made plans for coming year.

Table 1: Annual installed capacity planned for wind power bases. (MW)

From the table1, according to the plan, wind power bases will add up to 138 GW of
wind power capacity by 2020.24

Offshore Developments in China

In 2005, the nation’s Eleventh Five Year Plan encouraged industry to learn
international experience of offshore wind development and to explore the offshore
opportunities in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Guangdong Province. The plan also set a

23
The World Wind Energy Association, Half-year Report 2011, 2012-06-05

24
The World Wind Energy Association, Half-year Report 2011, 2012-06-05
target to setting up one to two 100 MW offshore wind farms before 2010. In the same
year, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) also put offshore
wind development as one of the major R&D priorities in the “Renewable Energy
Industry Development Guideline”. The first offshore wind power demonstration
project, (which is also the first offshore wind project outside of Europe), Shanghai
Donghai Bridge Offshore wind farm, began to generating in June 2010.25

How to Build a Wind Power Plant26

Although the wind power is one of the most cheaply renewable energy in the world,
build a wind power farm is very difficult.

1. Location is the most important factor to construct a wind farm. After thousands
times of measuring, to find a place where the annual mean wind speed is about
7.59m/s, is not a simple thing.
2. The wind speed is not the only limit for the wind farm, it is better that closed to the
power grid. Because build a long distance power grid will cost too much.
3. Contact to government or the landowner for the land use rights.
4. Erect meteorological test towers within the boundaries of where you want to build,
making sure to cover the whole area. The test towers could collect the data. To
finish this step, it will take 6 month to 2 years.
5. Analyze all the data you get, if result meet the criteria, the wind power project can
be started.
6. Choose the suitable wind generator. The wind generator must fit for the local wind
condition to achieve the best efficiency.

7. After transportations, construction and test running, the wind farm can generate
electricity finally.

Build a wind farm will spend 2 to 4 years and cost millions of Swedish Kronor, and the
crucial factor is find the place.27

There are four distributions of annual durations of wind speed in China below.

25
WWF, China, Norway and Offshore Wind Development, 2012-06-05

26
Mukund R. Patel, p303, 2008
27
BWEA, 2005
Figure 4: Distribution of annual duration of wind speed above 3m/s in China (hour).28

In Figure 4, there are different colors in Chinese map. The colors show the hours of the
wind speed above 3m/s annually (3m/s is the basic wind speed which can be used to
generate electricity). For example, my hometown is a small city on the eastern of China,
the color shows dark blue, which means in our city, the wind speed above 3m/s are
about 6000 hours. According to the figure, the western, northern and the east coast in
China have more wind power resource.

28
Distribution of Annual Duration of Wind Speed Above 3m/s in China (hour), 2012-06-05
Figure 5: Distribution of annual duration of wind speed in China. (m/s)29

The different colors on the picture is stand for different annual average wind speeds in
China, we can see the northern and western area of China (Inner Mongolia, Tibet and
the three provinces at north-east of China) have greater wind energy content.

29
Distribution of Annual Duration of Wind Speed in China (m/s), 2012-06-05
Figure 6: The distribution of annual average wind power density in China. (W/m2)30

The different colors represent different wind power intensity in China. The deeper the
color is, the higher density it has.

To build a wind power farmland is a complicated process, the intensity of wind power
is not the only factor should be consider, but also the geography.

30
The Distribution of Annual Average Wind Power Density in China (W/m2), 2012-06-05
Figure 7: The relief map and the distribution of annual average wind power density in
China31

From Figure 7 we can see that China has great wind power resource and various
terrains. At the west of China (Tibet and some parts of XinJiang province), although
there has abundant wind power resource, the high altitudes become the biggest problem
to impede the development of wind resource.

Compared with the west of China, Chinese eastern coast is gentle. But because of the
dense population and land scarcity, find a perfect location to construct wind power
plant become more and more difficult.

Figure 8: Density of population in China (population in per square kilometer)32

The red color means the density of population in this area is more than 400 people per
square kilometer.

As an example of Shanghai:

31
The Relief Map and The Distribution of Annual Average Wind Power Density in China, 2012-06-05

32
Density of Population in China (population in per square kilometer),2012-06-05
Shanghai is one of the biggest cities in China, as the Chinese economic center, the
development of economic cannot without people. The population of Shanghai is over
23 million (data from the Chinese sixth population census in 2010). Shanghai became
the third highest population densities city in China (2603 registered person per square
kilometer. No unregistered person is included). At the same time, the economic center
needs much electricity power supply to support.33

Figure 9: The crowded street during the holiday and the no darkness city-Shanghai34

The large population and gargantuan energy consumption cause a lot of stress to the
city.

33
University of Southern California,2012-06-05

34
Danielson, Eric N,2004
Figure 10: Chinese first offshore wind power farm in shanghai35

In 2008, deal with the gargantuan energy consumption and land scarcity, Chinese first
offshore wind power farm was built in the coast of Shanghai. After operation in 2010, it
can support about 267 million KWh of electricity to Shanghai annually.36

But in the meantime, all these devices were not free, the government and the companies
need to pay billions RMB (1RMB= 1SEK). In 2010, Chinese constructed 378 projects，
the total investment has reached nearly 300 billion RMB.37

Now we can see, the wind farm plant has lots of preponderance, but we cannot neglect
its weakness:

1. The high input.

2. High technology demand.
3. Long construction period.

35
Chinese First Offshore Wind Power Farm in Shanghai, 2012-06-05

36
Shanghai Builds China's Biggest Offshore Wind Farm, 2012-06-05

37
The Total Investment of Wind Energy in China, 2010, 2012-06-05
4. Lots of construction limits.
5. Low penetration rate.

How Can More Wind Power Be Utilized

The wind is the movement of the air and the power of the sun, how can more wind
power be utilized?

This question makes authors think about the sun, the solar energy.

China has abundant solar energy and the theoretical storage volumes are 1.7 trillion
tons of standard coal annually. There are huge potentials on the development and
exploration of solar energy. China is located in the Northern Hemisphere, and the
distances between north to south and west to east boundary are both over 5,000 km.
There is abundant solar energy in vast land of China. The average daily quantity of
radiation in most areas is over 4 kWh/sq and the maximum daily quantity of radiation in
Tibet reaches 7kwh/sq. The annual sunshine radiation hours are over 2,000. Compared
with those countries in the same latitude, China is similar with America but much better
than Europe and Japan.38

Chinese solar industry scale ranked first in the world (from the report of The United
Nations environment programmed in the United Nations climate change conference in
December 2007).39

The main solar industry is not solar cell but the solar water heater. The 70% solar water
heaters of world were installed in China. Lots of families have their own solar water
heater for household use.40

In some new apartments, the solar water heater becomes the basic devices. The water
heater was installed on the top of the roof or the wall which is face to the sun and
adjusts the angle to make sure it will get more sun light.

38
Chinese Solar Energy Industry Has An Optimistic Outlook, 2012-06-05

39
Report of The United Nations Environment Programmed in The United Nations Climate Change Conference in
December 2007, 2012-06-05

40
Sarah Zheng , 2006
Figure 11: The solar water heaters in China41

Although the solar water heaters are just used for heating water, it still can save lots of
electricity for us. It is easy to install, one or two worker can install it by simple tools.
And it is cheap, a middle size solar water heater which fit for 4-person family only cost
less than 2500RMB (1RMB= 1SEK) in China (include install fee). Then it can be
installed everywhere when sunlight exist. At last, the return period is short.

41
Solar Energy in China , 2012-06-05
So why don’t we make the wind power plant smaller, make every family can use it?

Higher Efficiency Breeze Power Generation

From the above could know that, to find a good place which has average wind speed
about 7.59 m/s is not an easy job.

So, if people cannot change the nature why don’t we change the device?

Why should people use such big and expensive wind generators, why shouldn’t we use
some smaller, cheaper, more efficient wind generators?

Breeze power generator meets the conditions. Breeze power generator is a joint name
for all the generators which have low start wind speed.

There are two main kinds:

1. VAWT—vertical axis wind turbine

2. HAWT—horizontal axis wind turbine

Results and Discussion

The Research and Comparison with VAWT and HAWT

1. Wind Power Utilization

HAWT

The horizontal axis wind-driven generator blade design, it is generally used the Blade
element theory, the main method is Glauert method and Wilson method, etc.

However, because of the Blade element theory neglects the flow interferences between
each blade elements, and while application for blades design, neglect the drag of
airfoil, this simplified handling caused the inaccuracy inevitably.

At present, the wind power utilization rate of the large horizontal axis wind-driven
generator which calculated by Blade element theory is above 40% as usually. But as
mentioned previously, due to the defect of the design method, the utilization above 40%
is uncorrected.
To getting data for horizontal axis wind generator, China Aerodynamics Research and
Development Center (CARDC) had done some tests for wind tunnel, the results of
utilization ratio of horizontal axis wind-driven generator is between 23% and 29%.42

VAWT
VAWT is a type of wind turbine which have two or three blades and in which the main
rotor shaft runs vertically.

For a long time, the scientists used the Blade element theory to calculate the wind
power utilization rate of vertical axis wind turbine and made a wrong conclusion— the
wind power utilization of VAWT is lower than HAWT. So the development of the
HAWT is faster than VAWT. But in fact, the Blade element theory is not suitable for
the VAWT. Now with the help of the Computational Fluid Dynamics, can get the wind
power utilization rate of VAWT is above 40%, which higher than the HAWT. 42

2. The Start-up Wind Speed

HAWT

The horizontal axis rotor has a great startup performance has already be a consensus.
But according to wind tunnel experiment of the China Aerodynamics Research and
Development Center (CARDC), the startup wind speed of horizontal axis wind turbines
are general between 4m/s and 5 m/s, the maximum one even reach 5.9 m/s, the startup
performance such like this if not satisfactory obviously.

VAWT

The vertical axis rotor has a bad startup performance has also be a consensus.
Especially for the Darrieus Φ type rotor, it doesn’t have any automatic startup function
and need a starter to set it going. This is also a reason restrict the development and
application of them.

But for the Darrieus H type rotor, the conclusion is opposite. According to the research
of the authors, if the choice of airfoil profile and the angle of installation are
appropriate, Darrieus H can also get a good startup performance.

42
Morthorst, Poul Erik, Redlinger , 2002
By the wind tunnel experiment for LINFENG P-200 VAWT, the startup wind speed
for this kind of Darrieus H type rotor is just 2m/s. This result is much better than the
horizontal axis wind turbine had been mention above undoubtedly.43

3. Construction

HAWT

During the revolve process, there are two kinds of forces on the blades — inertia force
and gravity force. The direction of the inertial force always changes, and the direction
of the gravity is always invariable, so the resultant force on the blades is alternated. The
fatigue strength is extremely detrimental to blades. In addition, the HAWT is contract
in the dozens of meters sky, this will bring much inconvenience for installation,
maintenance and overhaul.

VAWT

For VAWT, the force condition of blades during rotate process is better than HAWT.
There are also two kinds of force on the blades — inertial force and gravity, but both of
them are invariable. So the fatigue life of VAWT is longer than the HAWT. At the same
time, the generator of VAWT can be constructed on ground or the bottom of the rotor,
it is easier to install and maintain.

4. Environmental Problem

Wind power is called clean energy, but as more and more wind farms were established,
some environmental problems cause by wind turbines has arisen. The problems mainly
embodied in two aspects: the first one is noise pollution, and the other one is the effect
on the local ecological environment. The tip speed ratio for wind turbines is the ratio
between the blade rotational speed of the tip and the actual velocity of the wind. The
bigger the tip speed ratio, the louder noise it makes.

HAWT

The rotor tip speed ratio of HAWT is generally between 5 and 7, in such a high speed,
the blades will make great pneumatic noise during the cutting air process. At the same
time, many birds would be killed by such a high speed blades.

43
VAWT vs. HAWT Technology, 2012-06-05
VAWT

The common tip speed ratio of VAWT is between 1.5 and 2, in such a low tip speed
ratio, the VAWT do not produce pneumatic noise basically. The advantages of no noise
are obviously. Due to the noise problem, some occasions cannot use wind turbine
(such as urban public facilities, homes, etc), it can be solved by using VAWT now. So,
the VAWT has more widely application areas than HAWT.

The benefits by low tip speed ratio, is not only the superiority of environmental
protection, but also good for the overall performance of fans. By the analysis on air
dynamics, the faster the object is, the appearance will have more influence to the flow
field. When the wind generators operate outside, the blades will be contaminated
inevitably, the pollution change the shape of blades actually. For HAWT, even though
the change is rather small, it will also reduce the efficiency of HAWT greatly. But for
the VAWT, because of the low tip speed ratio, the change of appearance is not too
sensitive, the blade contaminate basically has little impact to aerodynamic
performance of fans.44

From the contrast can know that, compare with the traditional HAWT, the VAWT has
some advantages, such like advanced design method, higher wind energy using ratio,
low start speed, low noise, easy to install and so on. It has prospect for application of
broader market, the authors think that, in the near future, the VAWT is the best way
used in breeze power generation.

The Comparison of VAWT Breeze Power Generation and Normal

Wind Power Farm

Now the normal wind power farm is the most popular way to use the wind. Over 40
countries have their own wind power farm and hundreds of them had been built in the
world. In 2008, the total installed capacity of the world is 120.791 million kW (increase
26.669 million kW than the last year.)45

44
Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines – HAWT turbines info, 2012-06-05

45
Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines – HAWT turbines info, 2012-06-05
 14000
12000
10000
8000 total installed capacity
of the world in (million
kW) from 1994 to 2008
6000
4000
2000
0

Figure 12: The total installed capacity of the world from 1994 to 200846

From 1994, the wind power has a swift development. Until 2008, the total installed
capacity increase from 3.531 million kW to 120.791 million kW. But the wind
generating capacity just occupy a little part of the gross generation (for most country,
such as the USA: the wind generating capacity among the gross electricity is less than
1%). For the countries which are thirty for electricity, the wind power is not an
emergency way obviously. In addition, because wind cannot be controlled, to increase
the output observably, although the engineers have improved the equipment load, the
wind power installations still cannot operate by full load state all the time. The current
condition of the wind power farm is regard as a secondary electricity system, which can
increase the reliability of the electricity system, but cannot take the place of the
traditional energy system.47

So the authors make a comparison between VAWT breeze power generation and
normal wind power farm, looking for the possibility to develop the VAWT and change
the current condition of wind power.

46
Construction of VAWT, 2012-06-05

47
REN21, 2011
Economic

For Normal Wind Farm

Approximately 75% of the total cost for a wind farm is upfront costs, such as the cost of
the turbine, foundation, electrical equipment and grid-connection etc. Obviously, the
fluctuating fuel costs have no effect on wind power generation. Table below gives the
cost structure of a typical 2MW wind turbine.48

Table 2: Cost structure of a typical 2MW wind turbine install in Europe (€)49
INVESTMENT SHARE OF TOTAL

(€1,000/MW) COST (%)

Turbine (ex works) 928 75.6

Grid connection 109 8.9

Foundation 80 6.5

Land rent 48 3.9

Electric installation 18 1.5

Consultancy 15 1.2

Financial costs 15 1.2

Road construction 11 0.9

Control systems 4 0.3

TOTAL 1227 100

So, to build a 2MW wind power farm, need to pay 2,454,000Euro (Offshore wind
capacity is still more expensive than onshore wind around 50%). That is lots of money
for the company, even for the banks and governments. And it has a long payback time,
so it is not good for the economic security.

48
Global Wind Energy Commission, Retrieved 2012-04-12

49
GWEC, Retrieved 2012-04-12
For the VAWT Breeze Power Generation

Example:

XG-H1KW is one kind of VAWT breeze power generators, it is made by the Qingdao
STARLIGHT wind power equipment technology Co, LTD.50

Figure 13: XG-H1KW VAWT breeze power generator51

The authors got some technical parameters of the XG-H1KW VAWT Breeze power
generator.

Table 3: Technical parameters of the XG-H1KW VAWT breeze power generator.52

MANE XG-H1KW

Blade number 5

rated power (W) 1000

50
Shahan, Z., 2011

51
Wind Turbine Design Cost and Scaling Model, Retrieved 2012-04-12
52
Qingdao STARLIGHT Wind Power Equipment Technology Co, LTD, Retrieved 2012-04-12
 Maximum power (W) 1200

Rotor diameter (m) 2.5

Rated revolution (r/min) 150

Rated wind speed (m/s) 9-12

Start up wind speed (m/s) 2.5

Work speed (m/s) 3-25

Maximum wind speed (m/s) 50

Ideal wind speed (m/s) 4-15

Output voltage (V) 48

Installation height (m) 8

Top weight (kg) 75

And then the authors contacted to the STARLIGHT and got the price for this
XG-H1KW VAWT breeze power generator, it costs 10,000RMB (10,000RMB=
10,000SEK= 1227EURO), but this price is not including the storage battery. One
XG-H1KW needs 4 pieces of 12V 100AH storage batteries. Each of them will cost
1250RMB (1250RMB = 1250SEK = 153EURO) in China.

So the total price for one generator is 10,000 + 1250 * 4= 15,000RMB= 15,000SEK=
1840EURO.

The total capacity of the wind power farm which had mentioned above is 2MW= 2000*
1kW. So if people want to build two thousand breeze power generators to get 2MW
total capacity, it will cost 1840* 2000= 3,680,000EURO.

Of course, 3,680,000Euro is larger than 2,454,000Euro.

Compared with the normal wind power farm, for the same installed capacity, the total
price of VAWT breeze power generator is expensive than the normal wind power farm.
But for the single one, the price is much cheaper, so VAWT breeze power generator is
face to the family or small users, and that will make a lower economic pressure for the
family.
Payback Time

The payback time of wind power farm depend on the location of wind power plant,
energy price, construction investment, operating costs and so on. The average payback
time of the wind power farm is over 7 years. The investment of Millions Euro could
make a big pressure to the investor or bank. In fact that is not good for the economy
security.53

As the example of XG-H1KW VAWT breeze power generator. The power is 1kW,
which means it will produce 1kWh electricity in one hour at the rated wind condition.
Assume that, only half of running times are at rated wind condition. So the production
electricity in one year equal to 4380kWh (1kw* 12h* 356days= 4380kWh), almost
360 kWh per month.

The electricity price for civil use is 0.6RMB (0.6RMB= 0.6SEK= 0.07Euro). So every
year the production of XG-H1KW worth 329.9Euro (0.6*4380= 2680RMB=
2680SEK= 329.9Euro).

The total investment of XG-H1KW is 15,000RMB, 15,000/ 2680≈ 6. And the life time
of this type VAWT is about 15 years (XG-H1KW is made by metal and glass mat, it is
easy, cheap to repair and has long lifetime).

It means that, spend 15,000 RMB to buy XG-H1KW and after 6 or 7 years, the owner
will get the money back. And then the electricity is almost free. It sounds very nice. But
there are two problems: 1. a common family cannot use up 360kWh in one month. 2.
Chinese government does not allow selling electricity by personal.54

The electricity usages for different families are quite different in China. It depends on
regions, economic level, family members, income level, seasons, and weathers etc. The
number from Chinese Statistics Office show the average electricity usage for one
family is 78 kWh per month. That number is too fuzzy, one example will show and
analyzed by authors.

One of the authors—Zhongtao Wang, comes from a small city in China, there are three
people in his family and they have two TV, one computer, two fridges, one domestic
water heater and one air condition. During his high school period, he came back to
home every day. The electricity cost was between 150RMB to 200RMB per month.

53
Qingdao STARLIGHT Wind Power Equipment Technology Co, LTD, 2012-04-12

54
Qingdao STARLIGHT Wind Power Equipment Technology Co, LTD, 2012-04-12
His family is a normal Chinese working family. They have some home appliances. But
their highest electricity cost is 200RMB, there is 333.333kWh used in one month
maximum.55

So how to use the surplus electricity of the XG-H1KW is a question. Consider some
grid safety and transmission cost, Chinese government do not allow to sell electricity
by personal. Maybe share the surplus electricity with neighbor is a good idea.

Environment Part

Though by universally accepted, the wind power is the cleanest power in the world.
The wind power consumes with no fuel, no waste air emission and the environmental
effect on wind power are relatively minor. But there is some negative news about the
wind power farm also.

Some reports said the big blades of the wind power plant will increase risks of killing
birds and bats.56

Otherwise, the noise is also a problem. The tip speed ratio of the blade had mentioned
before, the higher tip speed ratio is, the louder noise it will make.57

The VAWT Breeze power generator will also have some environment problem. Its
small blades will also become the enemy of the bird and bat. Especially, its rotate speed
is faster than the big wind power plant. Example: the operation rotate speed of
XG-H1KW is up to 150r/min, but the operation rotate speed of 2MW is only 20r/min.

For the noise, the VAWT Breeze power generator has absolute advantage.

Conclusion
This thesis talks about the wind power, the authors try to find out which kind of wind
generator is the best one to use. And this is also a feasibility report for the VAWT
Breeze power in China. Which kind of wind generator is fit for China, what advantages
it has and how it works have discussed by authors.

First we thought if we make the wind generator like our solar heat collector, more
families will apply wind for family use, it can decrease the usage of fuels (90%
electricity is product by fuel in China).

55
Case Study: Wind Turbine, 2012-04-12

56
Yanmin Song, Xiao-Ping Zhang, 2007
57
Economics of Grid-Connected Small Wind Turbines in the Domestic Market, 2012-04-12
And then we mentioned the comparison of the VAWT Breeze power generation and
normal wind power farm. We try to find out the feasibility of VAWT replace
traditional wind farm. Finally we find that though VAWT has many advantages, it
also needs a period of time to take over traditional wind farm. We should solve some
economy and even political problem to provide a better development place for
VAWT.
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