Increasing Wind Turbine Tower Heights: Opportunities and Challenges

Lantz, Eric; Roberts, Owen; Nunemaker, Jacob; DeMeo, E.; Dykes, Katherine; Scott, G.

doi:10.2172/1515397

Cited by 41 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Net capacity factors were estimated based on the application of a simple 16.7% loss adjustment. This adjustment has been used extensively in national supply curve characterizations by DOE and NREL (Cole et al, 2018;DOE, 2008;DOE, 2015b;Lantz et al, 2019;Stehly et al, 2017) and is intended to reflect a combination of array and electrical losses, as well as turbine downtime. The turbine configurations shown in Table 2 are intended to be illustrative of current as well as potential future turbine specific power configurations.…”

Section: Looking Aheadmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For a final perspective on the relative economics of lower-versus higher-specific-power turbines, we turn to a metric known as the "breakeven cost," described by Lantz et al (2019). In short, the breakeven cost equals the incremental CapEx premium or savings that a given turbine configuration (in this case, the Low SP and High SP turbines) would need to achieve at a given site in order to be competitive with a reference turbine (in this case, the Constant SP turbine) in terms of LCOE.…”

Section: Looking Aheadmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2020

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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.

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Section: Looking Aheadmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Looking Aheadmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

et al. 2020

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“…Our analysis concludes that there is significant potential to develop wind energy in the [30]. Countervailing factors include the potential for transmission capacity and the availability of willing landowners to limit the development of some of the low-impact areas that we identified [28,193].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Furthermore, areas already developed for urban uses, airports, weather radar, and military training preclude wind development [27][28][29]. Finally, the height and weight of the turbines limits wind development to mild slopes and stable substrate [29], although technological advances are driving down the cost of wind and now allowing for the development of wind capacity in areas that would have previously not been deemed economically viable [26,30]. Thus, there are a range of ecological, technical, and land use constraints that need to be considered in the siting of wind development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Site wind right: Identifying low-impact wind development areas in the Central United States

Hise¹,

Obermeyer

Ahlering

et al. 2020

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To help avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change, society needs to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century. Wind energy provides a clean, renewable source of electricity; however, improperly sited wind facilities pose known threats to wildlife populations and contribute to degradation of natural habitats. To support a rapid transition to low-carbon energy while protecting imperiled species, we identified potential low-impact areas for wind development in a 17-state region of the central U.S. By combining maps of sensitive habitats and species with wind speed and land use information, we demonstrate that there is significant potential to develop wind energy in the Great Plains while avoiding significant negative impacts to wildlife. These low-impact areas have the potential to yield approximately 1,099-1,832 GW of wind capacity. This is equivalent to 10-18 times current U.S. installed wind capacity. Our analysis demonstrates that ambitious low-carbon energy goals are achievable on sites with minimal risk of wildlife conflict.

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“…While further turbine growth is expected, uncertainty remains on the magnitude of the continued trend. Previous research demonstrates that taller towers and larger rotors can further increase the performance of wind power plants, boosting capacity factors and potentially enabling economic wind development in lower wind speed areas (Burt et al, 2017;Capps et al, 2012;DOE, 2015;Lantz et al, 2019;Rinne et al, 2018). Wiser et al (2016) surveyed some of the world's leading wind experts, and found that continued growth in turbine size-capacity, rotors, and towers-is expected to be the single largest driver of LCOE reductions by 2030.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The hidden value of large-rotor, tall-tower wind turbines in the United States

et al. 2020

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The significant upscaling of wind turbine size (nameplate capacity, rotor diameter, and tower height) has, to date, been driven primarily by a goal of minimizing the levelized cost of energy. But with wind’s levelized cost of energy now comparable with that of other generating resources, other design considerations besides cost-minimization have grown in importance—particularly as wind’s increasing market penetration begins to impose challenges on the electric grid. We find that taller towers and larger rotors (relative to nameplate capacity) can enhance the value of wind energy to the electricity system and provide other “hidden” benefits. Specifically, in regions where wind penetration has reached around 20%, we find a boost in wholesale market value of US$2–US$3/MWh. This is augmented by transmission, balancing, and financing benefits that sum to roughly US$2/MWh. The aggregate potential value enhancement of US$4–US$5/MWh is comparable with a 10%–15% reduction in levelized costs.

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Increasing Wind Turbine Tower Heights: Opportunities and Challenges

Cited by 41 publications

References 8 publications

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

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

Site wind right: Identifying low-impact wind development areas in the Central United States

The hidden value of large-rotor, tall-tower wind turbines in the United States

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