1. Placement and selection of onshore wind turbines
– the economic aspect
Abstract
It is generally accepted that human activities are causing global warming. The Danish government
has therefore made agreements to increase the amount of onshore wind turbines in order to reduce
the emissions of greenhouse gasses. The municipalities of Denmark are responsible for the selection
and planning of the individual wind turbine sites.
This report is therefore examining a method for the optimal selection of location and type of wind
turbine from a business economical point of view with regard to profit maximization. This angle has
been chosen as it is often on behalf of firms that the municipalities initiate the planning process for a
wind turbine area.
The method is using Geographical Information System or GIS to identify the relevant sites for
placement of the wind turbines. The legal requirements taken into consideration is that the turbines
must be placed further than 4 times the total height from nearby homes and cannot be placed
within natura-2000 and otherwise protected areas. The report uses three types of turbines with
total heights (TH) of approximately 100, 125 and 150 meters, this yields three types of areas to be
examined. To gain specific data regarding the types of wind turbines the report is based on the
Vestas V80, V100 and V112 turbines.
The wind resource available is then examined also using the GIS system, and then followed by the
determination of the electricity production of the different turbines on the different sites. The
income from the electricity production and subsidies can then be calculated as well as the expenses
based on both investments and operation and maintenance. The profit of each of the areas can then
be found, and this results in profit for all the types of wind turbines, but a higher profit for the TH125
and even higher profit for TH150. Due to the fact that more TH125 turbines can be placed at one
site, the majority of sites yield that the TH125 should be chosen.
Yet through sensitivity testing it is shown that the TH150 is much more robust for negative changes,
and even though the subsidies are removed completely the majorities of sites with this turbine
would still yield a profit.
The report also gives some perspectives on the calculation of the total welfare, and shows through
the Levelized Cost of Energy, LCOE that the TH150 has the lowest cost, a mean of 0,342 kr. per kWh.
This LCOE clearly shows that the wind turbines are competitive with the conventional types of
energy.
Henrik Böhmer and Lau Tambjerg
University of Southern Denmark
June 2014