Opportunities for and challenges to further reductions in the “specific power” rating of wind turbines installed in the United States
Abstract
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.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[3]
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO, USA
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Boulder, CO, USA
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1595150
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1598970; OSTI ID: 1601222
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA-5000-74817
Journal ID: ISSN 0309-524X
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231; AC36-08GO28308
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Wind Engineering
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Wind Engineering; Journal ID: ISSN 0309-524X
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 17 WIND ENERGY; specific power; levelized cost of energy; capacity factor; turbine design; long blades; large rotors; economics; geospatial modeling; LCOE
Citation Formats
Bolinger, Mark, Lantz, Eric, Wiser, Ryan, Hoen, Ben, Rand, Joseph, and Hammond, Robert. Opportunities for and challenges to further reductions in the “specific power” rating of wind turbines installed in the United States. United Kingdom: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1177/0309524X19901012.
Bolinger, Mark, Lantz, Eric, Wiser, Ryan, Hoen, Ben, Rand, Joseph, & Hammond, Robert. Opportunities for and challenges to further reductions in the “specific power” rating of wind turbines installed in the United States. United Kingdom. doi:10.1177/0309524X19901012.
Bolinger, Mark, Lantz, Eric, Wiser, Ryan, Hoen, Ben, Rand, Joseph, and Hammond, Robert. Sat .
"Opportunities for and challenges to further reductions in the “specific power” rating of wind turbines installed in the United States". United Kingdom. doi:10.1177/0309524X19901012.
@article{osti_1595150,
title = {Opportunities for and challenges to further reductions in the “specific power” rating of wind turbines installed in the United States},
author = {Bolinger, Mark and Lantz, Eric and Wiser, Ryan and Hoen, Ben and Rand, Joseph and Hammond, Robert},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1177/0309524X19901012},
journal = {Wind Engineering},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United Kingdom},
year = {2020},
month = {1}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
DOI: 10.1177/0309524X19901012
DOI: 10.1177/0309524X19901012
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Effects of turbine technology and land use on wind power resource potential
journal, May 2018
- Rinne, Erkka; Holttinen, Hannele; Kiviluoma, Juha
- Nature Energy, Vol. 3, Issue 6
Sensitivity of southern California wind energy to turbine characteristics: Wind energy sensitivity to turbine characteristics
journal, November 2012
- Capps, Scott B.; Hall, Alex; Hughes, Mimi
- Wind Energy, Vol. 17, Issue 1
Value of wind power – Implications from specific power
journal, May 2017
- Johansson, V.; Thorson, L.; Goop, J.
- Energy, Vol. 126
Assessing wind power operating costs in the United States: Results from a survey of wind industry experts
journal, September 2019
- Wiser, Ryan; Bolinger, Mark; Lantz, Eric
- Renewable Energy Focus, Vol. 30
Tall towers, long blades and manifest destiny: The migration of land-based wind from the Great Plains to the thirteen colonies
journal, November 2017
- Burt, Michelle; Firestone, Jeremy; Madsen, John A.
- Applied Energy, Vol. 206
Changes in the economic value of wind energy and flexible resources at increasing penetration levels in the Rocky Mountain Power Area: Changes in the economic value of wind with increasing penetration
journal, September 2013
- Mills, A. D.; Wiser, R. H.
- Wind Energy, Vol. 17, Issue 11
Upscaling wind turbines: theoretical and practical aspects and their impact on the cost of energy: Upscaling wind turbines: theoretical and practical aspects
journal, January 2012
- Sieros, G.; Chaviaropoulos, P.; Sørensen, J. D.
- Wind Energy, Vol. 15, Issue 1
Key challenges and prospects for large wind turbines
journal, January 2016
- McKenna, R.; Ostman v. d. Leye, P.; Fichtner, W.
- Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Vol. 53
The impact of wind power support schemes on technology choices
journal, June 2017
- May, Nils
- Energy Economics, Vol. 65
Expert elicitation survey on future wind energy costs
journal, September 2016
- Wiser, Ryan; Jenni, Karen; Seel, Joachim
- Nature Energy, Vol. 1, Issue 10
The benefits of flexibility: The value of wind energy with hydropower
journal, November 2016
- Hirth, Lion
- Applied Energy, Vol. 181