The economic assessment of micro wind turbines for South Australia

Abstract

Micro wind generation is becoming a favorable form of renewable energy, in and around urban centers as it is able to discretely supplement energy drawn off the national grid without requiring large infrastructural costs. The paper describes a method to identify regions of potential profitability based upon the assessment of its net present value (NPV). By modeling the wind conditions with the 2-parameter Weibull function the wind conditions required to ensure economic feasibility of a turbine is represented using the shape factor-scale factor (SF/SCF) mapping concept. These calculations are then superimposed to a geographical map to delimit the regional boundary of interest. When applying this method to the Australian city of Adelaide, the present concept evidences that a government fiscal policy directed at supplementing a gross energy tariff will be more effective than discounting the initial capital invested by the end user to enlarge the local region of economic feasibility.