Opportunities for and challenges to further reductions in the “specific power” rating of wind turbines installed in the United States

Journal Article · 25 January 2020 · Wind Engineering

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0309524x19901012 · OSTI ID:1595150

Bolinger, Mark  ^[1]; Lantz, Eric  ^[2]; Wiser, Ryan ^[1]; Hoen, Ben ^[1]; Rand, Joseph ^[1]; Hammond, Robert  ^[2]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
2. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

A wind turbine’s “specific power” rating relates its capacity to the swept area of its rotor in terms of Watt per square meter. For a given generator capacity, specific power declines as rotor size increases. In land-rich but capacity-constrained wind power markets, such as the United States, developers have an economic incentive to maximize megawatt-hours per constrained megawatt, and so have favored turbines with ever-lower specific power. To date, this trend toward lower specific power has pushed capacity factors higher while reducing the levelized cost of energy. We employ geospatial levelized cost of energy analysis across the United States to explore whether this trend is likely to continue. We find that under reasonable cost scenarios (i.e. presuming that logistical challenges from very large blades are surmountable), low-specific-power turbines could continue to be in demand going forward. Beyond levelized cost of energy, the boost in market value that low-specific-power turbines provide could become increasingly important as wind penetration grows.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Renewable Energy. Wind Energy Technologies Office
• Grant/Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308; AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 1595150
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1598970; OSTI ID: 1601222
• Report Number(s): NREL/JA-5000-74817; MainId:20155; UUID:a5806e75-e4d0-e911-9c26-ac162d87dfe5; MainAdminID:8631
• Journal Information: Wind Engineering, Vol. 45, Issue 2; ISSN 0309-524X
• Publisher: SAGECopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English