Energy cost estimation of small wind power systems - An integrated approach

This paper presents a new method for estimation of energy cost for grid-connected small wind power systems (SWPSs), which integrates the wind resources, turbine power curves, system component losses and costs, and reliability into a comprehensive model. For each of these aspects, models were established. Various structural options of small wind power system components at both fixed speed and variable speed operation were considered. Through Monte-Carlo based simulations, a statistical estimation of energy costs of a typical 30kW small wind power system was obtained for the life cycle operation. The simulation results can give consumers an overview of how much they need to invest for a small wind power system during its installed lifetime. Furthermore, the results of different structural options can serve as a lookup table to provide the cost effectiveness of different structural types of small wind power systems, and also provide a benchmark for future research works on energy cost evaluation.