Wind power production: North America vs Europe

Wind Energy Update’s recently published report ‘The Wind Energy Operations & maintenance Report’ explores the differences between Europe and North America.

According to the report’s analysis:

• Europe’s premium power prices allow for more preventative maintenance and therefore overall lower maintenance costs than the U.S. Also in the U.S. annual power production is down 2% to 5% if compared to European turbines when resource factors are accounted for.
• The same turbine operating reliably in Germany at a less than 20% capacity factor may experience catastrophic failures in the U.S. operating at a 35% capacity factor due to more rigorous wind resource regimes.
• The US wind resource results in much higher power production at far lower end use power costs, but at the expense of often unaccounted O&M costs, an issue that has been large “under the radar” due to warranty coverage.
• The US has, on average, lower availability than Europe. This fact appears to be a reflection of better O&M service arrangements in Europe, a theme explored further in the next section of this report.

Geographic climatic conditions play a big role in capacity factors. One experimental wind professional concludes that, due to the density of air in different temperatures, there can be as much as 15% more energy in a 7km/hour winter wind than in a 7km/hour summer wind.

Other factors that impact performance and costs include: availability of maintenance crews, supporting infrastructure and equipment, order delays, level of experience, level of health and safety (which can create relatively significant delays), type and age of the turbines, and the going price for carbon-free electricity.

Another less known factor that may impact wind turbine performance, and corresponding O&M costs, is that turbines are being sited too close to each other. Clustering can create tip turbulence and magnify loads on downwind turbines.

Wind Energy Update analysts found that some of the most detailed wind power data is made available by projects in Germany. This may be partially due to the fact that they are typically not owned by large developers or utilities.

Owners/operators in the U.S. are less willing to reveal data. One engineer interviewed in the report speculates that “I think it is just the nature of doing business in the U.S. due to the litigious nature of the U.S., owner/operators don’t want to share any O&M data since any extra data might be used against you in future price negotiations.”

NREL has published maps of 2009 installed wind capacity per year, showing a massive increase in American wind energy production.

Country- and region-specific wind energy associations such as BWEA, CanWEA and EWEA have also published 2009 installed capacity maps.

More information on the true costs, challenges and solutions for wind energy operations and maintenance is available in ‘The Wind Energy Operations & Maintenance Report’ at www.windenergyupdate.com/reports.