January 16, 2025

Introduction to Wind Energy

Division of Mechanical Engineering

Takaaki Kono
Outline
1. Basics of Wind Energy
2. Pros and Cons of Wind Energy

Short test

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What is the cause of wind?
・Wind gets its start from the sun.
・When the sun shines down on the earth, the surface of the
earth is heated.
・ Because the earth’s surface is made up of different
formations, including land and water, the sun heats the
earth unevenly.

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What is the cause of wind?
・As the different surfaces heat up, the hot air rises and cooler
air comes in to fill the void.
→ Wind near the earth’s surface
・The air above the land heats up faster than the air above the
water.
・When the hot air above the land rises, the cooler air from
the water rushes ashore.

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What is wind energy?

1. The kinetic energy that the flow of air has.

Amount of kinetic energy that air with a mass
of m kg and with a velocity of U m/s has is:
1
mU 2
2

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What is wind energy?

1. The energy that the flow of air has.

2. The process or ability by which wind is used

to generate mechanical power or electricity.

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History of wind energy
・The first reported use of wind energy was to power boats as
early as 5000 BCE.
・Wind mills were put into use around the 11th century CE for
pumping water and grinding flour.
・The first wind turbine specifically used to produce
electricity was built in 1887 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Halnaker windmill,
First wind turbine 7/32
constructed in the UK c.1780
How does a wind turbine make electricity?

D G
B C

Rotor (A+B)
Aerodynamic force spins the Shaft
Sufficiently A on blades (A) occur (C) and gears in
strong wind and blades and hub the gear box(D),
(B) rotate which spin the
A generator (G),
resulting in
electrical output

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 How aerodynamic force on blades rotate rotor?
・Cross section of a blade has an airfoil shape.
・Relative wind velocity flows into the airfoil is the resultant
velocity of wind velocity and relative rotational wind
velocity.

Rotational Wind velocity

velocity Relative rotational wind
Relative velocity
wind
velocity

Wind
velocity

Rotational plane

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How aerodynamic force on blades rotate rotor?
・Depending on the relative wind velocity, high pressure side
and low pressure side are formed on the airfoil.
・Lift force acts on the airfoil in the vertical direction to the
relative wind velocity.
・Drag force acts on the airfoil in the same direction to the
relative wind velocity.

Relative
wind
Lift force
Low pressure side velocity
Drag force
Relative
High pressure side
wind

Rotational plane
velocity

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How aerodynamic force on blades rotate rotor?
・Resultant force in the rotational direction is obtained by
adding the component of lift force in the rotational
direction and the component of drag force in the rotational
direction.
・Due to the resultant force in the rotational direction, the
rotor rotates.
Wind velocity
Rotational relative wind
Relative velocity
wind Lift force
Lift force
velocity
+ =
Drag force Drag force

Rotational plane
Rotational plane
Rotational plane

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Available wind power
Wind power [W]: Amount of wind energy transmitted per unit time
Amount of kinetic energy that air with a mass
A(=D /4)
2
of m kg and with a velocity of U m/s has is:
1
mU 2 (= E )
2

D Amount of mass that the air with a density of

ρ kg /m3 and with a velocity of U m/s passes
U through the rotor area A per unit time is:
dm
  AU (= )
dt
Amount of wind power that the air with a
density of ρ kg /m3 and with a velocity of U
m/s passes through the rotor area A per unit
time is:
dE 1 dm 2 1
Pw = = U =  (  AU )  U 2
dt 2 dt 2
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Wind power and wind velocity
Wind power: A rate at which wind energy is transmitted
A(=D2/4) Amount of wind power that the air with a
density of ρ kg /m3 and with a velocity of U
m/s passes through the rotor area A per unit
time is:
1
D Pw =  (  AU )  U 2
U 2
 By substituting A=D2/4, wind power
is expressed as
1  2２ 3３
Pw =  AU =
3
 D U
2 8
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Mean annual wind speed map
Area where mean wind speed
is high：
・Offshore area
・Costal area
・Mountainous area in
Hokkaido and Tohoku district

http://app8.infoc.nedo.go.jp/nedo/

Wind speed [m/s]

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Wind profile and terrain roughness
・Wind speed decreases with decrease in the distance from
the ground.
・As the terrain roughness becomes higher due to buildings
and trees, the momentum of wind is lost more and wind
velocity decreases.
So, wind speed in the offshore and coastal areas is high.

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Wind characteristics in mountainous area
・Near the crest of the ridge, the wind speed is accelerated.
・In the leeward of the ridge, highly turbulent zone is formed.

Highly turbulent wind causes the greater structural loading of

a turbine and increases the possibility of it’s failures.
To prevent the failures, the structural strength of the turbine
needs to be designed sufficiently high, and this leads to high
cost.

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Operation of wind turbine generation system
・Cut-in wind speed: Lowest wind speed at which the system produces
power output
・Rated wind speed：The system’s rated power is achieved.
（Above the wind speed, the power output is
controlled to be constant）
・Cut-out wind speed: Highest wind speed at which the system is
designed to produce power
Stopped Partial load operation Rated power operation Stopped
Cut-in wind speed

Cut-out wind speed

Rated wind speed
Power output

Wind speed 17/32

Representative sizes of wind turbines with different rated power

・Wind power utilized by a wind turbine is proportional to

square of the rotor diameter.
・The sizes of wind turbines are increasing year by year.
・A 10 MW class wind turbine (V164 MHI Vestas) has a rotor
diameter of 164 m.
1 
PW =  AU =
3
 D U
２
2 3

2 8

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Offshore wind turbines
Since the wind speed is higher in the offshore areas, the Japanese
government aims to generate up to 45 gigawatts of power through
offshore wind power by 2040, a level that would make the country
the world’s third-largest generator of such power, as part of efforts to
achieve net zero emissions of carbon dioxide by 2050.

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Offshore wind turbines
Two types of offshore wind turbines:
・Bottom mounted type: appropriate for relatively shallow sea area.
・Floating type: Appropriate for relatively deep sea area.
Since the available areas for the bottom mounted type are limited in
Japan, the floating type will be dominant in the future.

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Outline
1. Basics of Wind Energy
2. Pros and Cons of Wind Energy

Short test

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Advantages of wind energy

1. No greenhouse gas (GHG) production during operation

Operation
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Advantages of wind energy

1. No greenhouse gas (GHG) production during operation

→Life cycle GHG emission estimates are very low

Onshore
Offshore

Nana Yaw Amponsah et al.,Greenhouse gas emissions from renewable energy sources: A review
of lifecycle considerations, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 39, 2014 23/32
Advantages of wind energy

2. Almost no limit as long as sunshine reaches to the Earth.

Reason: Wind is created by temperature changes in the atmosphere. As warm
air rises, cool air moves into the area, and the movement creates wind.

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Advantages of wind energy
3. Many jobs are created in the wind energy industry.

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Advantages of wind energy
3. Many jobs are created in the wind energy industry.
→In addition to manufacturers and developers,
installation, repair and O&M of wind turbines have a
large share of employment.

Direct employment by type of company,

according to EWEA survey, source EWEA, 2008.

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Advantages of wind energy
4. Levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of onshore wind is
the lowest among other utility-scale renewable power
generation technologies

LCOE: a measure
of the average net
present cost of
electricity
generation for a
generator over its
lifetime

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Advantages of wind energy
5. Land surrounding wind turbines can still be used for
farming, etc.

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Disadvantages of wind energy
1. Wind is inconsistent and unpredictable
Rated power (1,100kW)
Generated electricity
by a wind turbine

(hour)
Time

Often necessary to work with other energy generation systems,

including those that use fossil fuels, or energy storage systems.
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Disadvantages of wind energy
2. Wind turbine noise
→Rotating blades generate noise that is annoying to someone
who lives near by

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Disadvantages of wind energy
3. Visual impact
→ Some people find
wind turbines
visibly unappealing.

4. Bird strike
→Rotating blades hurt or kill birds
including endangered species.

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Disadvantages of wind energy
5. NIMBY (not in my back yard)
→ There are opponents to installation of wind turbines who like
the idea of energy generation by the wind, but do not want the
wind turbines in their area.

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Thank you for your attention!!