The world total installed capacity of wind power composed around 600 GW at the beginning of 2018. Total capacity of wind plants in Russia was around 184 MW or 0,08 percent as of beginning 2019 according to the data of the united power generation system of Russia.
The largest wind power plants of Russia are: Adygeyan wind farm: 150 MW, Ulyanovskaya wind farm: 35 MW, Ulyanovskaya wind farm 2: 50 MW, in the Republic of Crimea : Ostaninskaya wind farm: 22 MW, Tarkhankutskaya wind farm: 22 MW and Sakskaya wind farm: 21 MW.
Capacity generated by wind power plant is proportional to the 3rd grade of velocity and the 2nd grade of rotor diameter. Wind speed depends on the location and height of wind rotor installation. But not all Russian regions are suitable for wind turbine usage. So a region of installation is a very important question when developing a project for a wind power plant.
The most suitable regions are Arkhangelskaya, Murmanskaya, Nenetskiy autonomous region, Republics of Karelia and Komi, Kaliningradskaya, Leningradskaya, Astrakhanskaya, Rostovskaya, Volgograskaya, Krasnodar regions, Republics of Dagestan, Kalmykia, Perm, Novosobirskaya, Tymen, Republic of Khakasia, Chukotskiy autonomous region, Republic of Yakutiya, Yamalo-Nenetskiy autonomous region, Sakhalin, Magadan, Primorskiy and Khabarovskiy regions.
It is reasonable to install wind power plants on coasts of slopping shorelines of oceans, seas and big mountain or river reservoirs. The peaks of mountains and hills are also suitable for installation. Inequality of atmospheric pressure between land and sea is formed because of big difference in heat capacity of soil and water surface.
As a result sustainable winds blow between seas and lands especially in daytime when the land is heated by the Sun.
In most cases European part of Russia has low wind potential. The main idea of wind turbine location is to install it either on the land near large open water surface or in prairies and in mountain regions. In Russia power generation during winter period will be higher due to increased air density and bigger quantity of atmospheric cyclones from the Atlantic.
To get more precise wind map Weibull distribution for wind speed should be checked for the considered area.
The second important factor after location is the height of wind rotor installation. Surface air layer up to 10 m height from land is considered to be a layer of the highest friction and is characterized by unstable wind speed and therefore high fluctuations of the produced power.
In general with rotor height rise wind speed and its stability increase. Other parameters being equal to increase power from wind turbine hub height should be as high as possible.
If 6 m/s wind speed is assumed and produced power is 300 kW rotor diameter of propeller type with three blades will be approximately 34 meters. The length of one blade will be around 17 meters. With the rotor diameter 34 meters wind turbine tower should have the height around 50 meters.
The height of wind turbine installation (hub height) is an extremely important question. The reason for this is the difference in wind speed for different heights. Wind speed in the above mentioned example should be the same in the low and upper points while rotor is moving.
The lower the hub height of the wind turbine the higher is instability of wind speed coming through the lower and upper rotor blades and power generated by the wind turbine. Wind speed and its stability increases with the hub height rise because surface roughness effect diminishes with hub height rise.
However there will be more difficulties of technical service for wind turbines from approximately 300 kW and hub height above 50 m. It happens because of necessity to use mobile truck cranes with big boom length for assembling and repair procedures. Such truck cranes require making good road for its movement which additionally increases investor’s expenses for project implementation.
It is obvious that installation of a single wind turbine with a hub height around 120 m is not reasonable. Wind turbines with such rotor height installation should be mounted in wind farms for dozens of wind turbines with power export to the united electrical grid.
Wind turbines with high power are the source of infrasound which has very bad influence on human health. Overall sound noise under wind turbine tower can reach 106 dBA. That’s why large powerful wind turbines cannot be installed near living houses.
It was informed that in Russia installation of wind turbines with tower height not more than 30 m doesn’t require getting any state permissions and approvals for installation. However some owners of small wind turbines faced unreasonable requirements of local authorities to obtain such permissions.
It should be taken into account that with tower height more than 30 m special approval of local aviation authorities may be also needed.
Wind farms of Vestas and Lagerwey wind turbine manufacturers have been installed in the Russian Federation. Lagerwey company has a joint venture with GK Rosatom for production of wind turbines with capacity 2,5 MW. Maximum power of Lagerwey and Vestas wind turbines has reached 5,6 MW with a hub height up to 166 m.
An operation mode for large wind power plants should be set by the Russian United Electrical System. It is supposed that it would be peak and semi peak mode but the solution for such question should be determined by legislation and by the United Electrical System of Russia.
The drawbacks of the wind power are high expenses for technical service at big hub height, high noise level, low power of a single wind turbine in comparison with conventional steam and gas turbines, strong dependence on wind turbine location for power generation, difficulties for aviation when wind turbine has a high height.
The main advantages of wind turbines is absence of fuel consumption in the cost price for power generation. Fuel cost price can be up to 50 percent for heat power plants. It possible to use less land surface for wind power generation compared with the solar power plants. Big wind turbines can be installed offshore in the shallow sea areas.
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