Economic analysis of a small scale wind turbine for power generation in Johannesburg

In this paper, the economic analysis of small scale wind turbines is studied based on the wind regime of Johannesburg for the purpose of electricity generation in a standalone application. Levelised energy cost method is employed to determine the cost of electricity from wind energy using 5-minute average time series wind speed data collected between 2005 and 2009 at anemometer height of 10m. The study is conducted for nine small scale commercially available wind turbines ranging from 1kW to 60kW. The result shows that a 10kW wind turbine with cut-in wind speed of 3.5m/s, rated wind speed of 9m/s, and cut-out wind speed of 25m/s seems most appropriate in Johannesburg with the lowest levelised cost of energy that varies from 0.25-0.33$/kWh.