When the wind speed (WS) is low, the electricity price is high; this is normal in Denmark. Due to our high penetration of wind energy, we often import expensive electricity during low WS periods and export it cheaply when the WS is high, and there is excessive power. Wind turbines traditionally reach their rated power at 13 m/s and cut-out at 25 m/s, i.e. they produce the most energy during high WS. But what would happen if we introduced a new low wind (LW) turbine that reached rated power at lower WS and had cut-out already at 13 m/s?
A hypothetical LW wind would need a larger rotor making it more expensive. On the other hand, it could produce power during low WS periods when electricity is expensive. Swisher et al. (2022) investigate the price point at which an onshore LW turbine (with a specific power of only 100 W/m2) becomes competitive in the energy system of Northern and Central Europe. They simulate the energy system development (electricity, heat, and transport) until 2050 using the Balmorel model, giving it the objective to minimise the total system cost.
Results show that the LW turbine becomes truly disruptive (133 GW of investment) if the cost is 39% higher than a conventional wind turbine. Balmorel predicts that the LW turbine will find a lot of investments in low WS regions, but high WS regions with transmission constraints also see considerable investments. Denmark, as an example, will exceed 80% wind penetration by 2045, and Balmorel estimates that the LW turbine can receive double the revenue/MW compared to currently installed wind turbine types. Since simple Levelized Cost of Energy calculations ignore the electricity price, LCOE can not be used to gauge the financial benefits of the LW turbine.
Reference
Swisher, Philip, Juan Pablo Murcia Leon, Juan Gea-Bermúdez, Matti Koivisto, Helge Aagaard Madsen, and Marie Münster. 2022. “Competitiveness of a Low Specific Power, Low Cut-Out Wind Speed Wind Turbine in North and Central Europe Towards 2050.” Applied Energy 306 (January): 118043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.118043.