The RenSMART Wind Turbine Estimation Process

1. Wind Speed

• Given your location, we look up the average wind speed using the NOABL wind database. You can take a look at it here
• We then calculate the distribution of this energy over an average year. This distribution is taken from the NASA POWER projects database of world renewable energy resources You can take a look at it
• Because wind speed increases as the hight above ground level increases, and the NOABL database we use is for 10 meters above ground level, we use a wind sheer model to adjust the wind speed at the height of the proposed turbine based on the Location Type under the Wind Turbine tab. You can read more about this calculation here
• The wind does not always blow at the average speed given by the wind database, most of the time the wind blows well below the average, however as the energy that can be converted to electrical energy is related to the wind speed cubed, higher wind speeds produce exponentially more energy than lower wind speeds. We use a mathematical tool called the Weibull Curve to account for this in our calculation. You can read more about it here
• Finally we apply a factor to account for buildings being nearby and the location being an urban environment.

2. Conversion to Electrical Energy

• We use an average turbine power curve to estimate the output of a generic turbine with the chosen peak power at a particular wind speed.
• We have a list of most wind turbine models and their specifications available here. You can choose any of these turbines from the Turbine Model drop down under the Wind Turbine tab. Each model is listed at each of the mast heights that are available.
• Finally we apply a reduction factor to allow for inverter and cable losses that occur when the wind turbine generation is converted to a form suitable for use in a property or for exporting to the grid.
• We calculate this value for each month of the year.

3. Calculating Guide Price

• We have analysed a number of wind turbine installation quotes provided and developed a price calculation that you can review here. This is the calculation we use to give a guide price based on the peak output of the chosen turbine.

3. Estimated Financial Projection

• Using the locations energy use and the chosen energy use profile, we match the wind turbine installations output with the energy used.
• Any energy that is not used on site, we mark as exported.
• We display this under the Energy Projection tab
• Using the given import(buy) tariff, and export(sell) tariff and the clean energy cashback feed-in tariff for a system of the chosen size, we calculate an estimated value for each year.

If you have any further questions about this process please get in contact with us at information@rensmart.com