Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Wind Energy

  • Reference work entry
Book cover Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation

  • 5874 Accesses

Abstract

Electricity is perhaps the most versatile energy carrier in modern economies, and it is therefore fundamentally linked to human and economic development. Electricity growth has outpaced that of any other fuel, leading to ever-increasing shares in the overall mix. This trend is expected to continue throughout the following decades, with large – especially rural – segments of the world population in developing countries climbing the “energy ladder” and becoming connected to power grids (UNDP 2004). Electricity therefore deserves particular attention with regard to its contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, which is reflected in the ongoing development of low-carbon technologies for power generation. The main purpose of this chapter is to provide a bridge between detailed technical reports and broad resource and economic assessments on wind power. The following aspects of wind energy are covered: the global potential of the wind resource, technical principles of wind energy converters, capacity and load characteristics, life-cycle characteristics, current scale of deployment, contribution to global electricity supply, cost of electricity output, and future technical challenges. Wind power is the second-strongest-growing of renewable electricity technologies, with recent annual growth rates of about 34%. The technology is mature and simple, and decades of experience exist in a few countries. Due to strong economies of scale, wind turbines have grown to several megawatts per device, and wind farms have now been deployed offshore. The wind energy industry is still small but competitive: 120 GW of installed wind power contributes only about 1.5% or 260 TWh to global electricity generation at average capacity factors of around 25%, and levelised costs between 3 and 7 US¢/kWh, including additional costs brought about by the variability of the wind resource. The technical potential of wind is larger than current global electricity consumption, but the main barrier to widespread wind power deployment is wind variability, which poses limits to grid integration at penetration rates above 20%. Life-cycle emissions for wind power alone are among the lowest for all technologies; however, in order to compare wind energy in a systems view, one needs to consider its low capacity credit: Adding emissions from fossil-fuel balancing and peaking reserves that are required to maintain overall systems reliability places wind power at about 65 g/kWh. Wind power’s contribution to twenty-first century emissions abatement is potentially large at 450–500 Gt CO2.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 899.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    *Responsible for section on technical principles of wind energy converters.

References

  1. UNDP (2004) World energy assessment: 2004 update. United Nations Development Programme, New York

    Google Scholar 

  2. Lenzen M, Badcock J (2009) Current state of development of electricity-generating technologies – a literature review. www.aua.org.au/Content/Lenzenreport.aspx, Centre for Integrated Sustainability Analysis, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

  3. Lenzen M (2010) Current state of development of electricity-generating technologies: a literature review. Energies 3(3):462–591

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. IEA (2008a) Energy technology perspectives. International Energy Agency, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  5. WWEA (2008) World Wind Energy Report. www.wwindea.org, Bonn, Germany, World Wind Energy Association

  6. Hoogwijk MM, De Vries BJM, Turkenburg WC (2004) Assessment of the global and regional geographical, technical and economic potential of onshore wind energy. Energy Econ 26:889–919

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Archer CL, Jacobson MZ (2005) Evaluation of global wind power. J Geophys Res 110:1–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. U.S. Department of Energy, Black & Veatch and AWEA (2008) 20% Wind Energy by 2030. DOE/GO-102008-2567, U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge

    Google Scholar 

  9. Carolin Mabel M, Fernandez E (2008) Growth and future trends of wind energy in India. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 12:1745–1757

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Changliang X, Zhanfeng S (2009) Wind energy in China: current scenario and future perspectives. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 13:1966–1974

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Hoogwijk MM, Van Vuuren D, De Vries BJM, Turkenburg WC (2007) Exploring the impact on cost and electricity production of high penetration levels of intermittent electricity in OECD Europe and the USA, results for wind energy. Energy 32:1381–1402

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Kempton W, Archer CL, Dhanju A, Garvine RW, Jacobson MZ (2007) Large CO2 reductions via offshore wind power matched to inherent storage in energy end-uses. Geophys Res Lett 34:1–5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Snyder B, Kaiser MJ (2009) Ecological and economic cost-benefit analysis of offshore wind energy. Renew Energy 34:1567–1578

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Holttinen H (2008) Estimating the impacts of wind power on power systems - summary of IEA Wind collaboration. Environ Res Lett 3:1–6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. GWEC (2008) Global wind energy outlook. Global Wind Energy Council, Brussels

    Google Scholar 

  16. Resch G, Held A, Faber T, Panzer C, Toro F, Haas R (2008) Potentials and prospects for renewable energies at global scale. Energy Policy 36:4048–4056

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Ackermann T, Söder L (2002) An overview of wind energy – status 2002. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 6:67–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Shackleton J (2009) World first for Scotland gives engineering student a history lesson. www.rgu.ac.uk/pressrel/BlythProject.doc, The Robert Gordon University

  19. Wyatt A (1986) Electric power: challenges and choices. Book Press, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  20. AWEA (2009) Wind energy basics. www.awea.org/faq/wwt_basics.html, American Wind Energy Association

  21. NREL (2001) The history and state of the art of variable-speed wind turbine technology. Technical Report NREL/TP-500-28607, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

    Google Scholar 

  22. Sesto E, Casale C (1998) Exploitation of wind as an energy source to meet the world’s electricity demand. J Wind Eng Ind Aerodyn 74-76:375–387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Golding EW (1997) The generation of electricity by wind power. E & FN Spon, London

    Google Scholar 

  24. NREL (2006) Wind turbine design cost and scaling model. Technical Report NREL/TP-500-40566, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

    Google Scholar 

  25. Peterson EW, Hennessey JP (1978) On the use of power laws for estimates of wind power potential. J Appl Meteorol 17:390–394

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Sahin AD (2004) Progress and recent trends in wind energy. Prog Energy Combust Sci 30(5):501–543

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Thresher R, Dodge D (1998) Trends in the evolution of wind turbine generator configurations and systems. Wind Energy 1:70–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Archer CL, Jacobson MZ (2007) Supplying baseload power and reducing transmission requirements by interconnecting wind farms. J Appl Meteorol Climatol 46:1701–1717

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Holttinen H, Milligan M, Kirby B, Acker T, Neimane V, Molinski T (2008b) Using standard deviation as a measure of increased operational reserve requirement for wind power. Wind Eng 32:355–378

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Oswald J, Raine M, Ashraf-Ball H (2008) Will British weather provide reliable electricity? Energy Policy 36:3212–3225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Østergaard PA (2008) Geographic aggregation and wind power output variance in Denmark. Energy 33:1453–1460

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Weigt H (2008) Germany’s wind energy: the potential for fossil capacity replacement and cost saving. Appl Energy 86:1857–1863

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Holttinen H, Meibom P, Orths A, van Hulle F, Lange B, Malley MO, Pierik J, Ummels B, Olav Tande J, Estanqueiro A, Matos M, Gomez E, Söder L, Strbac G, Shakoor A, Ricardo J, Charles Smith J, Milligan M, Ela E (2009) Design and operation of power systems with large amounts of wind power, VTT Research Notes 2493. Espoo, Finland

    Google Scholar 

  34. Archer CL, Jacobson MZ (2003) Spatial and temporal distributions of U.S. winds and wind power at 80 m derived from measurements. J Geophys Res 108:1–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Söder L (2004) On limits for wind power generation. Int J Global Energy Issues 21:243–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Pavlak A (2008) The economic value of wind energy. Electricity J 21:46–50

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Milligan M, Porter K (2008) Determining the capacity value of wind: an updated survey of methods and implementation. Conference Paper NREL/CP-500-43433, Golden, USA, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

    Google Scholar 

  38. Lund H (2005) Large-scale integration of wind power into different energy systems. Energy 30:2402–2412

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Diesendorf M (2007) The base-load fallacy. energyscience.org.au.

  40. Strbac G, Shakoor A, Black M, Pudjianto D, Bopp T (2007) Impact of wind generation on the operation and development of the UK electricity systems. Electric Power Syst Res 77:1214–1227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Martin B, Diesendorf M (1980) Calculating the capacity credit of wind power. Fourth Biennial Conference of the Simulation Society of Australia. University of Queensland

    Google Scholar 

  42. Söder L, Hofmann L, Orths A, Holttinen H, Wan Y-h, Tuohy A (2007) Experience from wind integration in some high penetration areas. IEEE Trans Energy Convers 22:4–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. DeCarolis JF, Keith DW (2006) The economics of large-scale wind power in a carbon constrained world. Energy Policy 34:395–410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Østergaard PA (2003) Transmission grid requirements wit scattered and fluctuating renewable electricity-sources. Appl Energy 76:247–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Sovacool BK, Lindboe HH, Odgaard O (2008) Is the Danish wind energy model replicable for other countries? Electricity J 21:27–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Lenzen M, Munksgaard J (2002) Energy and CO2 analyses of wind turbines – review and applications. Renew Energy 26:339–362

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Wagner H-J, Pick E (2004) Energy yield ratio and cumulative energy demand for wind energy converters. Energy 29:2289–2295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Lenzen M, Wachsmann U (2004) Wind energy converters in Brazil and Germany: an example for geographical variability in LCA. Appl Energy 77:119–130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Roth H, Brückl O, Held A (2005) Windenergiebedingte CO2-Emissionen konventioneller Kraftwerke. lfE-Schriftenreihe Heft 50, München, Germany, Lehrstuhl für Energiewirtschaft und Anwendungstechnik

    Google Scholar 

  50. Pehnt M, Oeser M, Swider DJ (2008) Consequential environmental system analysis of expected offshore wind electricity production in Germany. Energy 33:747–759

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Jha A (2009) Brawny wind turbines set for German offshore debut. The Guardian Weekly 30 January 10

    Google Scholar 

  52. Bolinger M, Wiser R (2009) Wind power price trends in the United States: Struggling to remain competitive in the face of strong growth. Energy Policy 37:1061–1071

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. IEA (2008b) Wind renewable energy essentials. OECD/IEA, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  54. Blanco MI (2008) The economics of wind energy. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 13:1372–1382

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Welch JB, Venkateswaran A (2008) The dual sustainability of wind energy. Renew Sustain Energ Rev 12(9):2265–2300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Smit T, Junginger M, Smits R (2007) Technological learning in offshore wind energy: Different roles of the government. Energy Policy 35:6431–6444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Benitez LE, Benitez PC, Van Kooten GC (2008) The economics of wind power with energy storage. Energy Econ 30:1973–1989

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Smith JC, Milligan M, DeMeo EA, Parsons B (2007) Utility wind integration and operating impact state of the art. IEEE Trans Power Syst 22:900–908

    Article  Google Scholar 

  59. Hirst E, Hild J (2004) The value of wind power as a function of wind capacity. Electricity J 17:11–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  60. Martin B, Diesendorf M (1982) Optimal mix in electricity grids containing wind power. Electr Power Energy Syst 4:155–161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Ilex X, Strbac G (2002) Quantifying the system cost of additional renewables in 2020. Ilex Energy Consulting, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  62. Lund H, Kempton W (2008) Integration of renewable energy into the transport and electricity sectors through V2G. Energy Policy 36:3578–3587

    Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Tavner P (2008) Wind power as a clean-energy contributor. Energy Policy 36:4397–4400

    Article  Google Scholar 

  64. Joselin Herbert GM, Iniyan S, Sreevalsan E, Rajapandian S (2007) A review of wind energy technologies. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 11:1117–1145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  65. Firestone J, Kempton W (2007) Public opinion about large offshore wind power: underlying factors. Energy Policy 35:1584–1598

    Article  Google Scholar 

  66. Zoellner J, Schweizer-Ries P, Wemheuer C (2008) Public acceptance of renewable energies: Results from case studies in Germany. Energy Policy 36:4136–4141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  67. Energy&Meteo systems, German forecasting company Ulrich Focken/Matthias Lange (www.energymeteo.de)

  68. Fraunhofer Institut für Windenergie und Energiesystemtechnik IWES, Kurt Rohrig (www.iwes.fraunhofer.de)

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ISA, School of Physics-A28, The University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Prof. Manfred Lenzen & Olivier Baboulet

Authors
  1. Prof. Manfred Lenzen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Olivier Baboulet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manfred Lenzen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Mississippi, Mississippi, USA

    Wei-Yin Chen

  2. National Center for Physical Acoustics, University of Mississippi, Mississippi, USA

    John Seiner

  3. National Institute of Advanced Industrial, Science and Technology (AIST), Nagoya, Japan

    Toshio Suzuki

  4. The Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna), Wien, Austria

    Maximilian Lackner

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this entry

Cite this entry

Lenzen, M., Baboulet, O. (2012). Wind Energy. In: Chen, WY., Seiner, J., Suzuki, T., Lackner, M. (eds) Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7991-9_34

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation