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Wind Power GlossaryAn explanation of technical terms used in wind power and, more specifically, as used in these pagesThese pages are independent of any company, lobby group, or government. Created about 2008/03/01, modified 2009/03/05 Contact: email daveclarkecb@yahoo.com Also see Energy Units, an explanation of some energy units, definitions, and conversions. |
| 16 point compass rose | To describe the location of wind farms, in relation to well known
towns and cities, I have used the 16 point compass rose.
In this system, north-east (NE) is the direction half way between north
and east (45° 'true') and nor-nor-east (NNE) is the direction half
way between north and north-east (22.5° true), etc. Puting it another way, starting at north and moving clockwise we have: N, NNE, NE, ENE, E, ESE, SE, SSE, S, SSW, SW, WSW, W, WNW, NW, NNW, and back to N. | |
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| Annual production | As used in these pages, the annual average energy production of a particular wind farm. Generally measured in GWh. | |
| As the crow flies | Australian colloquialism for "in a straight line" | |
| Availability | The percentage of time that the particular wind farm, or wind turbine, is in an operational condition. | |
| Capacity factor | The percentage of potential generation that is actually achieved. (See also Wind is intermittent.) For example; A wind farm consisting of ten 2 MW turbines could theoretically generate 175 200 MWh of electricity per year (10×2×24×365=175 200) if all the turbines were to work at 100% of their capacity 100% of the time. In practice turbines do not work at full capacity all the time and such a wind farm in Australia would probably generate around 60 000MWh per year (a capacity factor of 34%). See also notes on actual capacity factors in Australian wind farms. | |
| DEWHA | Commonwealth Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts | |
| Energy | Compare to Power. Many people, even in the energy business, confuse power and energy. Energy in physics is the capacity for doing work. In the SI metric units it is measured in Watt-hour (Wh), kiloWatt-hour (kWh), etc. | |
| ESIPC (SA) | The Electricity Supply Industry Planning Council has been established to monitor the electricity supply industry in South Australia | |
| Exawatt-hour, EWh | A unit of energy equal to one billion billion (1018) Watt-hours. | |
| Expected life | A wind turbine and a wind farm has a limited life expectancy. Parts wear out and, in a fast developing field such as wind power, machinery becomes out-dated. Underground electrical cabelling deteriorates with time. Some parts can be replaced as they wear or fail, but there comes a time when the most economic option is to replace, or scrap, the whole wind farm. | |
| Greenhouse gas saving |
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| Gigawatt, GW | A unit of power equal to one billion (109) Watts. | |
| Gigawatt-hour, GWh | A unit of energy equal to one billion (109) Watt-hours. | |
| HVDC | High voltage direct current is used to transmit large amounts of power over long distances; there are smaller power losses and the construction cost of a HVDC line is less than that of a more conventional high voltage alternating current line. HVDC could be used to advantage for some of the longer transmission lines in Australia, especially if full use it to be made of Australia's great wind power potential. Also see Wikipedia. | |
| killowatt, kW | A unit of power equal to one thousand Watts. | |
| killowatt-hour, kWh | A unit of energy equal to one thousand Watt-hours. | |
| Load factor | See Capacity factor. | |
| Latitude | Distance south of the equator expressed in decimal degrees. In these pages I have not used minutes and seconds as fractions of degrees because I believe them to be archaic: as shillings and pence are archaic fractions of a (currency) pound and as pounds and ounces are archaic fractions of a (weight) stone. | |
| Longitude | Distance east of the Prime Meridian expressed in decimal degrees. See also latitude, above. | |
| Minimum operational wind speed |
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| Minimum wind speed for full output | The lightest wind sufficient for a particular turbine to produce its maximum rated electricity generation | |
| MRET | Mandatory Renewable Energy Target; I have discussed it elsewhere. | |
| Megawatt, MW | A unit of power equal to one million Watts. | |
| Megawatt-hour, MWh | A unit of energy equal to one million Watt-hours. | |
| Nacelle | The gearbox (if any), electrical generator, cooling system etcetera, and their housing, at the top of the tower. | |
| NEMMCO | The National Electricity Market Management Company is the market operator of the National Electricity Market (NEM) and the system operator of the national grid. | |
| Petawatt-hour, PWh | A unit of energy equal to one million billion (1015) Watt-hours. | |
| Power | Compare to energy. Many people, even in the energy business, confuse power and energy. Power is a flow of energy; an amount of energy per unit time. In the SI metric units, it is measured in Watts (W), kiloWatts (kW), etc. | |
| Power purchase agreement |
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| Productive wind speeds | That range of wind speeds that are useable by a particular wind turbine for electricity generation. The power available from wind is proportional to cube of the wind's speed: double the speed, eight times the energy. So as the speed of the wind falls the amount of energy that can be got from it falls very rapidly. On the other hand, as the wind speed rises, so the amount of energy in it rises very rapidly; very high wind speeds can overload a turbine. Productive wind speeds for a modern turbine might be from around 2.5m/sec to 35m/sec (9km/hr to 125km/hr). See also Survival wind speed | |
| Rotor | The blades and hub at the centre of the blades - the part that rotates in front of the Nacelle. | |
| Rotor diameter | The diameter of the circle swept-out by the tips of the turbine's blades. | |
| Shut down wind speed | The maximum wind speed at which a particular turbine can generate electricity. With higher wind speeds the turbine must be shut-down to avoid damage. | |
| SOO; Statement of opportunities, NEMMCO | NEMMCO state that "The SOO is intended to assist existing and potential
National Electricity Market (NEM) participants when assessing the future
need for: - electricity supply capacity; - demand-side participation (DSP); and - transmission network augmentation in suppport of NEM operations. The SOO incorporates the Annual National Transmission Statement (ANTS). The SOO is published each year in October and can be downloaded from the NEMMCO Net site. | |
| Survival wind speed | The maximum wind speed that a turbine is designed to withstand before sustaining damage. See also Productive wind speeds | |
| Terrawatt-hour, TWh | A unit of energy. One TWh is a million-million Watt-hours. | |
| Turbine | A device that converts the energy in a stream of moving fluid into mechanical energy. | |
| Watt | The basic SI metric unit of power; equal to one Joule of work performed per second; also, in electricity, the power dissipated in an electrical conductor carrying one ampere current between points at one volt potential difference. | |
| Watt-hour, Wh | A unit of energy, generally electrical energy, equal to a flow of power of one Watt for a period of one hour. | |
| Wind farm | An integrated group of wind turbines that feed electricity into one or more electrical sub-stations and thence, usually, into the electricity grid. | |
| Wind turbine | A turbine designed to convert the energy in a stream of moving air into mechanical, and then electrical, energy. |
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