Texas Wind Energy
How does cost and transportation affect large scale use?
Currently, the two major determinants of utilizing wind energy as a main source are: the cost of manufacturing and transporting the large wind turbines to many land-based wind farms across the U.S. In 7 out of the last 8 years (From 2011) Texas has lead the U.S in installations of wind capacity due to the regions focus on a productive energy mix. In particular, the Houston-Galveston area amounts for 40% of the total value of imports, which is larger than those on the East and West coasts. This is due to the Houston area’s low cost for importing and exporting wind energy products. The factors related to the area’s success are, low fees, relatively low labor costs, and the availability to transport equipment using dimensional shipments. With these factors the thought of wind energy as a source of energy has become more of reality than ever before.
Cost & Transportation
What drives the cost of wind energy?
Wind energy costs is always an important topic of debate when the question of whether wind energy should be utilized. To fully understand the cost of wind energy one has to look at what variables affect the total cost. There are three drivers that illustrate the cost of electricity from wind energy and they are capital costs, capacity factor, and operating costs. Improvements in wind energy technology has led to reduction in cost of wind turbines, increased performance, and advanced operations, causing wind electricity to decrease in recent years.
Types of costs:
Capital costs: The largest variable component of wind enery cost, and can make up to 70% or more of an entire land-based wind project. The cost of installation, such as construction, accounts for the remaining capital costs.
Capacity factor: Strength and quality heavily influence the overall success of a wind energy project driven by how much electricity it can produce. Improvements in technology linked to taller wind towers and lighter blades, have resulted in more efficient capture of wind resources and and overall improvement the product life cycle of the turbine.
Operating costs: Once a wind project begins deliver electricity to a power grid, it is expected to function for 20 years or longer. This does require daily on hand support by highly trained individuals to monitor and maintain the turbines. Having these measures in place will allow for optimal performance.
Other: Costs related to logistics, labor, financial costs, on-site operations, and siting and permitting are also related cost drivers.
The table to the left illustrates the related cost drivers for a standard 1.5 MW wind turbine to be utilized for land-based wind energy projects within the United States.
As mentioned in the cost drivers section. The table shows the three major cost drivers of wind projects as well as other important variable costs that also measure the overall financial success of a wind energy project.
To better understand the total LCOE or Levelized Cost of Energy. Here is the equation from the research source.
LCOE=present value of total costs
($) lifetime energy production (megawatt‐hours)
The table to the left illustrates the broken out cost of each component part and sub-assembly for a land-based wind energy project. To better understand the total cost of a wind turbine the chart is broken into three main sections.
1. Rotor
2. Drivetrain, Nacelle
3. Control, safety system, and conditioning monitoring
4. Tower
Each of these sections incurs a great deal of cost because they are imperative in the operation and use of wind turbines in all land-based wind projects.
Transportation:
Transportation is a challenging area for wind energy projects. The difficulty of transporting large shipments with complex dimensions with many different modes of transporting wind turbine components. Also, it is increasingly becoming a challenge to choose the best mode for the right type of project depending on the location.
As standardization of component parts and sub-assemblies become the norm, difficult transportation decisions and costly freight charges will become null. In addition to standardization, the cost of the various modes of transportation is the area that can make or break the overall cost of a wind energy project. For example, the transportation of wind blades can be challenging and make a difference in decision making for mode selection.
In the table to the left, the modes of transportation are listed by the different cost associated with transporting wind blades. With size nearly being standard each mode can be utilized to be geared toward any wind energy project whether it be land or offshore.
The blade transportation chart most notably shows that ocean freight of blades from Brazil to Texas cost is particularly lower per blade than ocean freight from China to Washington. This is an important measure in selecting suppliers beyond those in the United States.