Wind Power 101
Note: The course can be attended as a stand-alone session but also provides an excellent way to introduce yourself to or refresh your knowledge of wind power before attending the "Offshore Wind Power" conference on the following days.
Course objectives
Whether you are new to the wind industry or simply want to refresh and update your knowledge, this one-day training course will ensure you are up-to-speed with the key, fundamental aspects of the wind power industry. You will learn both about how wind turbines operate, how they can best be implemented to harness the wind's energy and the factors which decide their commercial success or failure. Technologies are placed in their relevant business context, with reference to potential wind resources, the wider power market and considering some of the practical, economic and regulatory factors affecting demand and supply.
The course can be attended as a stand-alone session or as an excellent way to introduce yourself to or refresh your knowledge of wind power before attending the "Offshore Wind" conference on the following days.
Style
The course will be run in an informal manner which allows and encourages time for discussion and questions with answers, ensuring that participants get the most out of their day.
Approximate Timing
Course begins: 09:00
Course ends: 17:00
(Timings are approximate and include lunch plus morning and afternoon refreshment breaks)
About your trainer
Ken Starcher is Training, Education and Outreach Director of the Alternative Energy Institute, West Texas A&M University. Located in Canyon, Texas, AEI has been determining the wind resource for the state, testing small and large renewable systems and finding the proper match between the resource and the use of renewables on rural and remote areas.
Ken has 30 years of testing 65 small renewable systems and explaining how they work to local, state, national and international trainees. He has a good grasp of the wind energy business as it has evolved in Texas and the US since 1980, and will present the potentials and the problems of wind energy in easy to understand terms. Ken earned both of his degrees at West Texas, a BS in Physics and a MS in Industrial Technology. He has installed renewable systems or data resource monitoring equipment in the Americas, South Africa and the Caribbean. He will be able to bring this wealth of experience to you, so that you can better grasp the possibilities that wind power has to offer.
About Green Power Academy
Green Power Academy
exists to provide the quality, impartial, informative and enjoyable training needed to increase and distribute knowledge and skills to green energy industry professionals.
Whether you are new to the industry, have recently changed jobs or simply wish to refresh your knowledge, our training should become a key part of your personal or company professional development programme.
Course Content
World Wind Potential and Production
Wind Characteristics
- Power and Energy:
Standard formulas and what they tell us
Average wind speed: what does it mean & how did they calculate it? - Wind speed distributions:
Rayleigh, Weibull, Collected Data
Data interpretation - Wind Shear & how it affects turbines
Wind Power Maps
- Resource Assessment Maps, Measurements and Analysis, Data collection methods & equipment
Siting Methods & Geographical Information Systems
- What they are & how to use them
Wind Turbines Fundamentals
- What makes it move?
- HAWTS, VAWTS: differences and similarities exposed
- How turbines work, power curves, power coefficient
- System components & the parts that make up the whole
- New developments in turbine technology
Operation & Control
- Constant power, constant RPM, or constant torque
- Why controls are needed and what types of control methods are there?
Annual Energy
- How much can we make & how often can we rely on wind?
- Where does the energy go?
Economics
- Does wind power pay: is Return on Investment in the range I want?
- How long does it take to generate positive cash flow?
Hybrid Systems
- How well do wind and solar mix? What about wind/diesel combinations?
Institutional Issues
- How will wind affect the utility grid?
- Do wind turbines affect the environment?
- How do we minimize the effect of all those turbines?
Past projects (problems & pleasant results) & Wind Energy Project Development
- Basic steps to get your project up and running, including Site Selection, Land Acquisition, Resource Assessment, Economic Modelling, Financing, Construction etc.