Public attitudes of wind energy in Texas: Local communities in close proximity to wind farms and their effect on decision-making

Wind energy is now recognized as an important energy resource throughout the world. Within the United States, the state of Texas currently has the largest wind energy capacity with 8797 total megawatts and an additional 660 MW under construction. With this rapid growth, it is important to achieve a better understanding of how wind energy is being perceived by the public.     

Change in public attitudes towards a Cornish wind farm: Implications for planning

While independently conducted polls suggest significant public support for wind energy, there are often objections to particular wind farm developments from the local population which can result in planning permission being declined and a restriction in the ability to meet renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction targets. The aim of the study was to determine whether the pre-construction opinions held by communities local to a wind farm change after an extended period following commissioning. Residents of St. Newlyn East, Cornwall, England, were asked to recall their opinions of Carland Cross wind farm in 1991 and 2006. Statistically significant changes in opinion were observed for attitudes regarding the wind farm's visual attractiveness and the importance of the energy security it provides. This study continues by exploring potential reasons for this in the context of recent literature on public attitudes towards renewable energy. The findings of this study support the proposals in the 2007 UK White Paper, Planning for a Sustainable Future, for community engagement early in the project process and for the requirement of infrastructure to be debated at the national level.     

Identifying predictors of attitudes towards local onshore wind development with reference to an English case study

The threats posed by climate change are placing governments under increasing pressure to meet electricity demand from low-carbon sources. In many countries, including the UK, legislation is in place to ensure the continued expansion of renewable energy capacity. Onshore wind turbines are expected to play a key role in achieving these aims. However, despite high levels of public support for onshore wind development in principle, specific projects often experience local opposition. Traditionally this difference in general and specific attitudes has been attributed to NIMBYism (not in my back yard), but evidence is increasingly calling this assumption into question. This study used multiple regression analysis to identify what factors might predict attitudes towards mooted wind development in Sheffield, England. We report on the attitudes of two groups; one group (target) living close to four sites earmarked for development and an unaffected comparison group (comparison). We found little evidence of NIMBYism amongst members of the target group; instead, differences between general and specific attitudes appeared attributable to uncertainty regarding the proposals. The results are discussed with respect to literature highlighting the importance of early, continued and responsive community involvement in combating local opposition and facilitating the deployment of onshore wind turbines.     

Wind energy and assessment of wind energy potential in Turkey

In this study, the potential of wind energy and assessment of wind energy systems in Turkey were studied. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the wind energy potential and future wind conversion systems project in Turkey. The wind energy potential of various regions was investigated; and the exploitation of the wind energy in Turkey was discussed. Various regions were analyzed taking into account the wind data measured as hourly time series in the windy locations. The wind data used in this study were taken from Electrical Power Resources Survey and Development Administration (EIEI) for the year 2010. This paper reviews the assessment of wind energy in Turkey as of the end of May 2010 including wind energy applications. Turkey's total theoretically available potential for wind power is around 131,756.40 MW and sea wind power 17,393.20 MW annually, according to TUREB (TWEA). When Turkey has 1.5 MW nominal installed wind energy capacity in 1998, then this capacity has increased to 1522.20 MW in 2010. Wind power plant with a total capacity of 1522.20 MW will be commissioned 2166.65 MW in December 2011.     

The influence of consumers' environmental beliefs and attitudes on energy saving behaviours

With a heightened focus on the concept of sustainability in the past few decades, government, business and individuals have become increasingly aware of the need to reduce our environmental footprint. Consequently there has been much research on consumer environmental behaviour, and the beliefs, norms and attitudes that influence this behaviour. In this article we develop a conceptual framework of consumer environmental behaviour and its antecedents, and test hypotheses within the framework by means of a survey of green consumers. The results show that general environmental beliefs do influence norms on environmental actions and prices, but only norms on price are correlated with environmental attitudes; both intrinsic and extrinsic environmental drivers together with social norms and community influence are associated with environmental attitudes, but cost barriers may have a negative influence. It was also found that there was a strong association between environmental attitudes and energy saving behaviours but the latter was not in any way influenced by government policies or subsidies.     

The role of hydrogen in high wind energy penetration electricity systems: The Irish case

The deployment of wind energy is constrained by wind uncontrollability, which poses operational problems on the electricity supply system at high penetration levels, lessening the value of wind-generated electricity to a significant extent. This paper studies the viability of hydrogen production via electrolysis using wind power that cannot be easily accommodated on the system. The potential benefits of hydrogen and its role in enabling a large penetration of wind energy are assessed, within the context of the enormous wind energy resource in Ireland. The exploitation of this wind resource may in the future give rise to significant amounts of surplus wind electricity, which could be used to produce hydrogen, the zero-emissions fuel that many experts believe will eventually replace fossil fuels in the transport sector. In this paper the operation of a wind powered hydrogen production system is simulated and optimised. The results reveal that, even allowing for significant cost-reductions in electrolyser and associated balance-of-plant equipment, low average surplus wind electricity cost and a high hydrogen market price are also necessary to achieve the economic viability of the technology. These conditions would facilitate the installation of electrolysis units of sufficient capacity to allow an appreciable increase in installed wind power in Ireland. The simulation model was also used to determine the CO₂ abatement potential associated with the wind energy/hydrogen production.     

The potential for wind energy in Britain

This paper discusses the prospects for the large-scale use of wind power for electricity supply in Britain. Recent economic advances in wind energy are outlined, and it is shown that on windy sites, currently-available machines are among the cheapest generating options. The results from detailed studies of wind energy resources, and of the long-term integration of wind power on the UK supply system, are then summarized. These studies are applied together in probabilistic projections of wind energy and power system costs. Results suggest that, siting permitting, the economic long-term contribution of wind energy in Britain is likely to lie in the range of 20–50% of system demand. The most critical questions for wind development now relate to institutional issues and the desirability of the source on such scales.     

Offshore wind energy prospects

In last two years offshore wind energy is becoming a focal point of national and non national organizations particularly after the limitations of fossil fuel consumption, adopted by many developed countries after Kyoto conference at the end of 1997 on global climate change. North Europe is particularly interested in offshore for the limited land areas still available, due to the intensive use of its territory and its today high wind capacity. Really the total wind capacity in Europe could increase from the 1997 value of 4450 MW up to 40 000 MW within 2010, according the White Paper 1997 of the European Commission; a significant percentage (25%) could be sited offshore up to 10 000 MW, because of close saturation of the land sites at that time. World wind capacity could increase from the 1997 value of 7200 MW up to 60 000 MW within 2010 with a good percentage (20%) offshore 12 000 MW. In last seven years wind capacity is shallow waters of coastal areas has reached 34 MW. Five wind farms are functioning in the internal seas of Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden; however such siting is mostly to be considered as semi-offshore condition. Wind farms in real offshore sites, open seas with waves and water depth over 10 m, are now proposed in North Sea at 10–20 km off the coasts of Netherland, Denmark using large size wind turbine (1–2 MW). In 1997 an offshore proposal was supported in Netherland by Greenpeace after the OWEMES '97 seminar, held in Italy on offshore wind in the spring 1997. A review is presented in the paper of the European offshore wind programs with trends in technology, economics and siting effects.     

On the energy output estimation of wind turbines

During the operation of the German test field for small Wind Energy Conversion Systems (WECS) on the island of Pellworm five wind turbines were tested following recommendations of the International Energy Agency (IEA) expert group. Possible errors in the estimation of a tested wind turbine's total energy output at a potential installation site are investigated. Different wind speed frequency distributions (the measured one, the Rayleigh and the two-parameter Weibull distribution) are used to calculate the total energy output. The differences between the various distributions are mostly below 10 per cent. An improvement of the energy output estimate by a Weibull-instead of a Rayleigh distribution was not found. It is also shown that the use of the recommended 10 min averages or any other average overestimates the WECS' efficiency, up to 14 per cent on average depending on turbulence intensity. Wind power instead of wind speed is the appropriate parameter for power performance testing. Spectra of wind power and electrical power output show three areas of different correlation. A resistance length for wind turbines is shown to be dependent on the WECS operation status.     

Economics of off-shore/on-shore wind energy systems in Qatar

This work presents an assessment of the potential and economical feasibility of adopting off-shore/on-shore wind energy as a renewable source of energy in Qatar. An analysis is presented for the long term measured on-shore wind speed (1976–2000) at Doha International Airport. A similar analysis is presented for the measured off-shore wind speed at the Qatari Haloul Island. For the on-shore measurements, the average annual wind speed (at 20 m height) was found to be about 5.1 m/s. On the other hand, for the off-shore measurements at Haloul, the average annual wind speed was found to be about 6.0 m/s. This result indicates the suitability of utilizing small to medium-size wind turbine generators, efficiently. Such generators can be implemented for water pumping and to produce sufficient electricity to meet vital, limited needs of remote locations, such as isolated farms, which do not have access to the national electricity grid. An economical assessment is presented which takes into consideration the interest recovery factor, the lifetime of the wind energy conversion system (WECS), the investment rate and operation and maintenance costs. The results indicate that the cost of electricity generation from the wind in Qatar compares favorably to that from fossil fuel resources. The feasibility of utilizing off-shore wind turbine systems to meet the power requirements of the island of Haloul and possibly provide additional power for nearby on-shore areas is discussed.     

The present status and challenges of wind energy education and training in China

Wind energy has been identified in China as an important alternative energy source to balance its energy mix. By the end of 2012, wind power (2%) has surpassed nuclear power to become China's 3rd largest energy resource of electricity, only behind thermal power and hydropower. The rapid growth of China wind power industry in recent years has made China become the biggest market in the world. Meanwhile, it has created a big market for educational institutions to provide wind energy related education and training. The main objective of this study is to review current wind energy education and training in Chinese universities and training centers. Most of wind energy courses are provided by public universities because they have been accredited by Ministry of Education of China to offer students different options, including full-time and part-time degrees in Bachelor, Master or Ph.D. On-the-job training also has tremendous demand from the professionals who prefer short-term courses or on-site courses. Generally, the development of wind energy education and training lags behind the growth of wind power industry. Our study highlights the major opportunities and future challenges in China wind energy education and training.     

The current status of wind energy in Turkey and in the world

The rapid increase in world energy demand, the depletion of conventional energy sources and the pollution caused by conventional fuels have increased the importance of developing new and renewable energy sources. Additionally, technological developments have resulted in increased energy demand for the entire world, including Turkey, especially for electrical energy. At present, wind energy is receiving considerable attention. This report focuses on the current status of wind energy in Turkey and in the world. An overview of wind energy in Turkey is presented, and its current status, application, support mechanisms and associated legislation in Turkey are described. Wind energy and its status in the world are also addressed. It can be concluded from this analysis that wind energy utilization in Turkey and throughout world has sharply increased. Turkey has an abundance of wind energy sources.     

Evaluation of electricity generation and energy cost of wind energy conversion systems (WECSs) in Central Turkey

The negative effects of non-renewable fossil fuels have forced scientists to draw attention to clean energy sources which are both environmentally more suitable and renewable. Although Turkey enjoys fairly high wind energy potential, an investigation and exploitation of this source is still below the desired level. In this study which is a preliminary study on wind energy cost in Central Anatolian-Turkey, the wind energy production using time-series approach and the economic evaluation of various wind energy conversion systems (WECSs) enjoying the 2.5, 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 100 and 150 kW rated power size using the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) method for the seven different locations in Central Turkey were estimated. In addition, effects of escalation ratio of operation and maintenance cost and annual mean speed on LCOE are taken into account. The wind speed data for a period between 2000 and 2006 years were taken from Turkish State Meteorological Service (TSMS). According to the result of the calculations, it is shown that the WECS of capacity 150 kW produce the energy output 120,978 kWh per year in the Case-A (Pinarbasi) for hub height 30 m and also the LCOE varies in the range of 0.29–30.0 $/kWh for all WECS considered.     

Offshore wind energy in the world context

The interest for the exploitation of the offshore wind energy is growing in Europe, where man land use is very high resulting in strong limitation to the installation of onshore wind farms. The today offshore operating wind power is 12 MW, with two wind farms in Denmark and one in Netherlands; it starts to be significant (0.6%) in terms of the onshore power, 2000 MW in Europe.In the world the onshore installed wind power is exceeding 4000 MW, but not so much up to now has been done on the offshore area outside Europe.The European four years experience on the prototypical offshore wind farms looks significantly promising and suggests to promote a similar approach in many densely populated coastal countries in the world with high electricity demand.Results of studies are presented on the offshore wind potential in the European countries and of the tentative evaluation for the Mediterranean basin, and the seas of USA and China. A review is made of the offshore applications, particularly for the Nothern European seas.Economy and environmental trends are illustrated in parallel to those of maturing offshore technology. It is suggested to prepare an action plan to promote the development of the offshore applications in the world context.     

Pathways to commercial wind power in the US, Europe and Japan: The role of demonstration projects and field trials in the innovation process

A growing, but little understood area of Government involvement in promoting renewable energy, is the use of demonstration projects and field trials (DTs) as a policy tool. This paper explores the historical role of DTs in the commercialisation of wind turbines. We review information from government, academic and industry sources, together with the newly created Cass Wind DT database, and consider the context, objectives, participants and nature of wind DTs in the EU, US and Japan.Overall, it is difficult to identify the benefits of wind DTs for many of the key actors. Government funding of DTs does not appear to be shaped by coherent or targeted strategic objectives–indeed governments use DTs differently despite similar stated objectives. A common theme has been the involvement of many stakeholders, with local authorities, utilities and operators taking the lead rather than manufacturers. Wind DTs appear to have neither enabled participating manufacturers to become significant global suppliers–with a few exceptions driven by additional financial and legislative support from national governments-nor to have established a dominant design. The major benefit of wind DTs appears to have been ‘learning by using’ for utilities and wind farm operators, reducing operational costs.     

Effect of wind energy system performance on optimal renewable energy model-an analysis

The Optimal Renewable Energy Model (OREM) has been developed to determine the optimum level of renewable energy sources utilisation in India for the year 2020–21. The model aims at minimising costefficiency ratio and determines the optimum allocation of different renewable energy sources for various end-uses. The extent of social acceptance level, potential limit, demand and reliability will decide the renewable energy distribution pattern and are hence used as constraints in the model. In this paper, the performance and reliability of wind energy system and its effects on OREM model has been analysed. The demonstration windfarm (4 MW) which is situated in Muppandal, a village in the southern part of India, has been selected for the study. The windfarm has 20 wind turbine machines of 200 KW capacity. The average technical availability, real availability and capacity factor have been analysed from 1991 to 1995 and they are found to be 94.1%, 76.4% and 25.5% respectively. The reliability factor of wind energy system is found to be 0.5 at 10,000 hours. The OREM model is analysed considering the above said factors for wind energy system, solar energy system and biomass energy systems. The model selects wind energy for pumping end-use to an extent of 0.3153×10¹⁵ KJ.     

Public attitudes towards renewable energy technologies in Norway. The role of party preferences

Transition to a sustainable society requires large-scale conversion of the energy system to new, renewable, non-fossil sources of energy. This presupposes public support for new technologies, which means the public must deal with challenges in terms of placement, area requirements, ecological degradation and price developments. This paper discusses how citizens view renewable energy technologies. It analyses responses to representative surveys of the Norwegian population on the desirability of various energy technologies such as hydroelectric dams, onshore and offshore wind energy, bioenergy plants and, for contrast, gas plants with and without carbon capture and storage. Our main focus is on the influence of party political preference on views of renewable energy. We find that the sometimes lukewarm enthusiasm for renewable energy technologies cannot be fully explained by existing theories and that political party preference has a larger impact on energy technology attitudes than previously believed.     

The wind potential impact on the maximum wind energy penetration in autonomous electrical grids

According to long-term wind speed measurements the Aegean Archipelago possesses excellent wind potential, hence properly designed wind energy applications can substantially contribute to fulfill the energy requirements of the island societies. On top of this, in most islands the electricity production cost is extremely high, while significant insufficient power supply problems are often encountered, especially during the summer. Unfortunately, the stochastic behaviour of the wind and the important fluctuations of daily and seasonal electricity load pose a strict penetration limit for the contribution of wind energy in the corresponding load demand. The application of this limit is necessary in order to avoid hazardous electricity grid fluctuations and to protect the existing thermal power units from operating near or below their technical minima. In this context, the main target of the proposed study is to present an integrated methodology able to estimate the maximum wind energy penetration in autonomous electrical grids on the basis of the available wind potential existing in the Aegean Archipelago area. For this purpose a large number of representative wind potential types have been investigated and interesting conclusions have been derived.     

Investigation of wind shear coefficients and their effect on electrical energy generation

Wind measurements are generally performed below wind turbine hub heights due to higher measurement and tower costs. In order to obtain the wind speed at the hub height of the turbine, the measurements are extrapolated, assuming that the wind shear is constant. This assumption may result in some critical errors between the estimated and actual energy outputs. In this paper wind data collected in Bal?kesir from October 2008 to September 2009, has been used to show the effects of wind shear coefficient on energy production. Results of the study showed that, the difference between wind energy production using extrapolated wind data and energy production using measured wind data at hub height may be up to 49.6%.     

Woodland owners' attitudes towards energy from forest biomass in a carbon-intensive jurisdiction: Case study of Nova Scotia,Canada

The use of forest biomass in thermal generation processes has been recognized by the Government of Nova Scotia (NS) as one option that could help meet its renewable electricity goals (25% by 2015 and 40% by 2020). Over half of the woodland in NS is owned by small-private woodland owners (51%), indicating that they could significantly influence the future of NS forests and its potential use for energy purposes. This paper presents the results of a survey of small-woodland owners on their attitudes towards using energy from forest biomass. 489 small-woodland owners responded to mail-out surveys and 14 rural community members participated in three focus groups. Three major findings emerged. First, it was found that the acceptability of using forest products varied depending on multiple factors – the source of biomass, harvesting methods, and [predicted] end-use. Second, forest sustainability and keeping resources local were the two most important concerns amongst respondents. Finally, respondents felt that better collaboration with other stakeholders and education around the issues would be the best strategies for overcoming these concerns. The paper also highlights the barriers and drivers as perceived by the woodland owners as they relate to the possibility of using more biomass for energy in the future.