Wind energy conversion

an introduction
P.J. Musgrove, B.Sc.(Eng.), Ph.D., C.Eng., M.R.Ae.S.
Indexing terms:

Wind power, Energy conversion and storage

Abstract: The global wind-energy resource is very large and widely distributed; and, within Europe, wind
energy has the potential to provide an energy output equal to about three times the present electricity consumption. Although the wind is not very reliable as a source of power from day to day, it is a reliable source of
energy year by year, and the main role for future wind-energy systems will be operating in parallel with
electricity grid systems or, in remote locations, in parallel with diesel engines, so saving fuel. Systems integration
studies indicate that existing utility grid systems could accept a contribution of about 20% from wind turbines,
although, with changes to the future plant mix, the potential contribution is substantially greater: and similar
percentage fuel savings are possible in remote locations with wind/diesel systems. Recent progress in the development of wind turbines is reviewed and the cost data now becoming available indicates that medium-sized
machines, i.e. ~ 20-40 m diameter and with power ratings in the range 50-500 kW, offer the most attractive
economics for land-based applications in the near future, giving energy costs in the range 2.8-5.6 p/kWh, for a
typical site where the annual average wind speed is 5.5 m/s (measured at the normal 10 m height); in windier
locations energy costs will be lower. Corresponding capital costs for installed wind turbines are in the range
750-1500/kW (with average outputs equal to about 30% of the rated). The UK, in common with some other
countries, has a large offshore wind-energy potential, but, to be economically competitive, offshore systems will
need to use multimegawatt wind turbines with diameters of 100 m and larger. Prototype machines in this size
range already exist, but considerable further development is needed before the construction of large offshore
wind turbine arrays can commence, although this is a realistic prospect for the 1990s. The economics of windenergy conversion systems are already encouraging, and commercial applications already in evidence, most
notably in the USA and Denmark where more than 2000 wind turbines with a total installed capacity in excess
of 150 MW have been installed in the past two years. However, further operational experience is required to
demonstrate that reliable operation can be sustained over periods of many years. As this experience is accumulated, and as the cost benefits associated with quantity production are achieved, the market for wind turbines
can be expected to expand rapidly.

Introduction

Windmills have been used to harness the energy in the

wind for more than a thousand years, probably much
more, and the earliest clear evidence of their use is to be
found in the Middle East and Afghanistan. By the Middle
Ages, windmills were in widespread use around the Mediterranean, and the type of design which we now regard as
the traditional Dutch windmill gradually evolved. In their
heyday, at the end of the 18th century, about 10000 of
these windmills were in use in the Netherlands, with a
similar number in use in Britain. Many significant contributions to the development of the traditional windmill
were made in Britain, and the 18th century researches of
James Smeaton [1] are particularly notable: Golding [2]
includes a summary of the major steps in the development
of the traditional windmill in his now classic book.
The traditional windmill most commonly had four
blades which, in their simplest form, as shown in Fig. 1,
provided a lattice framework over which the miller could
spread the canvas sails. In light winds, the whole blade
area would be covered, but, in strong winds, the power
output could be limited by only covering part of the
blades. With a diameter, typically, of about 25 m, the traditional windmill could deliver a shaft power output of
about 30 kW in a wind speed of about 7 m/s (force 4): in a
well exposed location, it would give an average power
output of about 10 kW, corresponding to an energy output
of about 100 kWh per working day.
For many centuries, the only practicable alternative
(unless one lived alongside a substantial river, which
could provide water power) was the muscle power output
Paper 2912A. first received 21st October and in revised form 31st October 1983
The author is with the Department of Engineering, Reading University, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 2AY. England

506

of people or animals. But a man needs to work hard all

day to deliver 1 kWh of useful work. The traditional windmill could, therefore, do the work of a hundred men, or
more than a dozen oxen or horses; hence its importance
for so many centuries. However, steam engines became
progressively more efficient and more economic as the
19th century advanced, and, because these could also
provide power on demand, the use of windmills went into
decline. This decline was hastened by the later development of internal combustion engines and the growth, in
the early 20th century, of electricity supply systems.
Although these other sources of power were dependent on
the availability of fossil fuels; first, coal and wood, then, oil
and gas; these became progressively more readily available
and (in real money terms) less costly.
Since 1973 this trend of declining fuel prices has been
sharply reversed, and it is now accepted that the era of
very cheap fuel has ended. Many countries have consequently allocated substantial funds, over the last decade, to
the study of alternative and/or renewable energy sources,
including wind energy, wave energy, direct solar radiation,
tidal energy and geothermal energy. And, although wind
energy was not initially regarded as having any particular
promise (except perhaps by a very small group of
enthusiasts), it has now emerged as one of the most promising, if not the most promising, of the renewable energy
technologies; see, for example, the recent comparative
assessment [3] of renewable energy sources published by
the UK Department of Energy.
However, it is important to recognise that, despite the
very substantial fuel price increases experienced in the last
decade, energy costs are still relatively low when seen in an
historic perspective. One can still purchase the energy
equivalent of a man working hard all day, in the very convenient form of a kilowatt-hour of electricity supplied to
IEE PROCEEDINGS,

Vol. 130, Pt. A, No. 9, DECEMBER 1983

one's home, office or factory, for just a few pence. The

output of a traditional windmill, valued on this basis,
would be insufficient even to pay for the attendant's wages,

Fig. 1

Traditional windmill

and would give no surplus to provide a return on the

windmill's capital cost. If the use of wind energy is to
return on a significant scale in the future, as many who are
active in the field now believe, one needs designs that are
much more cost effective than the traditional windmill.
Moreover, societies today require power on demand, and
so one must consider carefully how to integrate the power
available from an intermittent source such as the wind.
One must also determine whether wind energy can make a
widespread and substantial contribution to present day
energy needs, or whether its role is a limited, localised one.
It is also important to ensure that the means for harnessing wind energy are themselves environmentally acceptable.
2

The wind-energy resource

Wind energy is an indirect form of solar energy, as the

winds result from the fact that the Earth's equatorial
regions receive more solar radiation than the polar
regions, and this causes large-scale convection currents in
the atmosphere. The detailed processes are, inevitably,
complex, but the recent WMO report [4] on meteorological aspects of wind energy provides a useful introductory
discussion. The total amount of solar energy received
annually by the Earth is extremely large. For example, the
world's reserves of fossil fuel, i.e. the coal reserves, which
given present trends of consumption can be expected to
IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 130, Pt. A, No. 9, DECEMBER 1983

last for about 300 years, plus the oil and gas reserves
(which, given present trends of consumption, can be
expected to last for about 40 years) have a total energy
content equivalent to that received by the Earth as solar
radiation in only 10 days. A small proportion of the incident solar power, estimated to be about one per cent, is
converted by atmospheric convection processes into wind
power, and one per cent of this (i.e. about one hundredth
of one per cent of the incident solar power) is equivalent to
the power presently provided world wide by burning fossil
fuels. The practical problems of harnessing the power in
the wind on anything approaching this scale are, of course,
enormous, but, as the technology of wind-energy conversion systems develops, it is encouraging to know that the
resource is so very large. And although global estimates of
the wind-energy resource have relevance, it is important to
make more detailed and localised assessments. Such a
study has recently been undertaken within the European
Community [5], and concluded, even after making allowance for the many siting constraints that exist in practice,
that there were sites in Europe for about 400 000 megawatt
scale wind turbines; enough, in principle, to provide up to
about three times Europe's present electricity consumption, and equivalent to an oil output (nondepletable) of
about 16 million barrels per day.
Although the wind is not a reliable source of power
from one day to the next (a fact which strongly influences
the way that the output from wind turbines is used, as is
discussed later), it is a much more reliable source of energy,
year by year. The annual energy in the wind at a given
location depends on the wind-velocity-duration distribution, which, in general, can be expressed mathematically as
a Weibull function, which involves two parameters, i.e. a
shape parameter and a characteristic speed, see Reference
4. The Rayleigh distribution, which is a special case of the
Weibull distribution when the shape parameter is equal to
2, is a simple single-parameter function which is now
widely used to describe the wind (especially when detailed
site-specific long-term wind data is unavailable). The Rayleigh distribution provides a reasonable approximation to
the wind-velocity-duration distribution over flat terrain in
Western Europe and elsewhere, and states that the probability p, that the wind speed exceeds a certain value V, is
given by

(1)
where Vm is the annual average wind speed. This equation
indicates that wind speeds in excess of Vm can be expected
for 46% of the year, whereas wind speeds above 2.4 Vm
occur for less than 1 % of the year.
At any given wind speed V the power in the wind P per
unit area (measured perpendicular to the wind direction) is
simply the product of the kinetic energy per unit massy^ 2 ,
and the mass flow rate pV, where p is the air density; i.e.
Per

urnt

area

(2)

Given a Rayleigh distribution of wind speeds, it can then

be shown that the annual average power in the wind is
equal to 0.95pV^. In the absence of more detailed information, for a particular site, it is usual to assume p =
1.225 kg/m 3 . Given a typical European near-coastal location, one can expect Vm ~ 5.5 m/s at the standard meteorological height of 10 m. This then gives an annual average
power density of 190 W/m 2 , corresponding to 1700 kWh/
m 2 annually.
507

The retarding effect of the Earth's surface results in a

boundary layer which is typically several hundred metres
deep, through which the wind speed progressively
increases with height; see, for example, Reference 4. Over
limited ranges of height, this variation of wind speed can
be represented using a simple power law, e.g.
K

(3)

10

where Vh is the velocity at height h and Vl0 is the velocity

at h = 10 m; the magnitude of the exponent n depends on
the terrain roughness, but for flat open country n is
approximately one-seventh. Large modern wind turbines
will have hub heights of about 60 m and the wind speed at
this height is, consequently, about 30% higher than at
h = 10 m; as the power is proportional to the cube of the
wind speed, this means that the wind-power density at this
hub height is more than double the wind-power density at
10 m height.
For a reasonably good site, where the annual average
wind speed Vl0 ~ 6 m/s and where the hub height annual
average wind speed Vm ~ 8 m/s, the annual average wind
power density is approximately 600 W/m2, corresponding
to 5200 kWh/m2, annually. The economics of renewable
energy systems are naturally very dependent on how
concentratedor how diffusethe energy source is, and it
is therefore worth noting that power densities of this magnitude compare favourably with the annual average solar
radiation power densities, which, in Britain and Northern
Europe, average approximately 100 W/m2. Moreover, in
Europe most solar radiation is received in the summer
months, when the need for energy is least. By comparison,
the seasonal availability of wind energy in Europe correlates closely with the seasonal demand for energy, with
higher wind speeds in the winter; and this positive correlation significantly enhances the value of wind-energy
systems.
It must also be noted that average wind speeds may
vary significantly over relatively short distances; e.g. locations only a few kilometres apart may experience windpower densities that differ by an order of magnitude, if one
has good wind exposuresuch as on a hill topand the
other is sheltered by trees or buildings or in a valley.
Wind-turbine site selection should, therefore, be undertaken with care, and provisional site selection confirmed
by wind-speed measurements made over an extended
period, preferably a full year. This sensitivity to the local
terrain does, however, mean that one can frequently site
wind turbines in locations where the wind-power density is
significantly higher than the regional average.
3

Wind turbine characteristics

The technological advances that have taken place since the

early 19th century zenith of the traditional windmill are
such that modern 'windmills' differ in many major features
from their predecessors, and it is convenient to make this
distinction clear by referring to present day designs as
wind turbines, or aerogenerators. However, the modern
wind turbine functions in exactly the same way as the traditional windmill, albeit more efficiently, and their blades
have much in common with the wings on an aeroplane.
Aeroplane wings are designed to interact with the air flow
past them, in such a way as to produce a large transverse
force, called the lift, which normally just supports the
weight of the aeroplane. On a wind turbine or windmill the
blades are designed to produce a similar transverse force,
which is used not to support the blade weight (the tower
508

meets this requirement) but to force the blades to rotate

around a central shaft, and in the process to deliver a
useful shaft power output.
This is illustrated more clearly in Fig. 2. If, for simplicity, one assumes that the blade is untwisted and has no
pitch offset, then Fig. 2a shows the view looking radially
blade
speed

wind speed at rotor

lift L

downwind
force f d

crosswind
force fc

Fig. 2

Aerodynamic forces on wind-turbine blade

inwards along the blade of a conventional horizontal-axis

wind turbine. The circumferential blade speed cor is the
product of the wind turbine's rotational speed co and the
radial distance r from the hub to the section of blade being
considered; Vr is the wind speed at the rotor. For modern
wind turbines cor is several times larger than Vr, even more
than is indicated by the lengths of the arrows in Fig. 2a;
the resultant air flow relative to the blade therefore meets
the blade at a fairly small angle a, as shown in Fig. 2b. As
with aeroplane wings, which have a similar aerofoil crosssection, a large transverse lift force L is produced, perpendicular to the relative air flow, together with a small drag
force D which is parallel to the air flow. These forces can
then be resolved into crosswind and downwind components, as shown in Fig. 2c.
The crosswind force fc = L sin a D cos a provides a
torque fc r about the hub and delivers a shaft power output
fc rco as the blade rotates. Integration along the entire
blade length, from hub to tip, and multiplication by the
number of blades then gives the overall shaft power
output. The downwind force fd = L cos a -I- D sin a
imposes loads on the blades and tower of the wind turbine,
and the designer must ensure that the structure is strong
enough to withstand these loads, even under severe storm
conditions. Clearly, good aerodynamic design is required,
so as to give a high lift and relatively little drag. But good
structural design is even more vital, so that the loads on
the wind turbine may be resisted without failure over a
IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 130, Pt. A, No. 9, DECEMBER 1983

prolonged period (more than 20 years) by a structure

which permits low-cost construction.
Associated with the downwind force fd on the blades,
there is an equal and opposite force experienced by the
approaching air flow, which reduces its momentum (and,
hence, velocity) as it approaches the wind-turbine rotor.
The air velocity Vr at the rotor is, therefore, somewhat less
than the wind speed V, well upstream. It is important to
note that, a s / d is increased, e.g. by increasing the speed of
rotation, or the number of blades, the ratio VJV decreases,
and beyond a certain point this will lead to a reduction in
the overall power output. More detailed analyses of windturbine performance, e.g. References 6 and 7, indicate that,
for maximum output power, fd should be just sufficient to
reduce the approaching air speed to Vr ~ \ V.
The two parameters most widely used to describe the
performance of wind turbines are the tip speed ratio k and
the power coefficient Cp. The former is defined as
coR
^~ V

cient devices, even though they have a blade area (as seen
by an observer looking along the axis of rotation) which is
only 5% or 10% of the rotor swept area A. The ratio of
blade area to swept area, known as the solidity, does
exceed 50% for the familiar multibladed water-pumping
windmills, but this is only because these have to provide a
high starting torque at a low rotational speed. Highsolidity wind turbines are less efficient than low solidity
machines, and, as the latter can be made for a lower cost,
they are preferred for most applications, especially electricity generation.
Although traditional windmills and most modern wind
turbines have blades which turn about a horizontal axis,
the last decade has seen considerable progress in the development of vertical-axis wind turbines. The basic Darrieus
wind turbine is shown in Fig. 4, and has curved aerofoil-

(4)

where R is the rotor radius, measured to the tip of the

blade, co is the rotational speed and V is the wind speed
well upstream. The power coefficient is defined as
(5)
where P is the output power, A is the rotor swept area
( = nR2 for most wind turbines) and p is the air density; Cp
gives a measure of the wind turbine's power output relative
to the power in the wind passing, without obstruction,
through an area equal to the rotor area.
Flow similitude considerations (or dimensional analysis)
indicate that, for a given wind turbine design, Cp is a function of k, and the Cp/k characteristic for any wind turbine
can be calculated using the methods described in References 6 and 7; Cp = 0 when / = 0 (as k = 0 corresponds to
no rotation) and, typically, then increases to a maximum of
Cp =- 0.40 to 0.45 at k ~ 6, thereafter reducing (as the
downwind force fd increases beyond its optimum) to Cp =
0 at k ~ 10. The presence of the rotor, and the axial force
fd which it produces, makes the streamlines approaching
the rotor diverge, so that some of the oncoming wind flows
round the rotor, rather than through it (hence also Vr < V).
It can therefore be shown that Cp = 0.45 corresponds to
the wind turbine delivering a useful power output equal to
68% of the kinetic energy in the wind which actually flows
through the rotor. Modern wind turbines such as the
Boeing MOD 2 shown in Fig. 3 are therefore fairly effi-

Fig. 4

17 m diameter Darrieus wind turbine at Sandia Laboratories,

USA

Fig. 3

Boeing Mod 2,91 m diameter, 2.5 MW rated

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Vol. 130, Pt. A, No. 9, DECEMBER 1983

cross-section blades which rotate about the central vertical

support. Aerodynamically, vertical-axis wind turbines
function in a very similar way to horizontal-axis wind
turbines. As each blade crosses the wind, both upwind and
downwind of the tower, the velocity and force vector diagrams are essentially the same as in Fig. 2, with each blade
contributing almost equally to the torque and, hence, to
the shaft power output. However, as each blade continues
to rotate about the central tower, the angle between the air
flow and the blade decreases until, a quarter of a revolution later, each blade is running parallel to the wind, and
the instantaneous torque (and, hence, power) output
decreases to zero. After a further rotation of a quarterrevolution, each blade is once again moving across the
509

wind and delivering its full torque and power output. This
fluctuating power output can be smoothed either by using
3 blades, instead of 2, or by utilising the rotor inertia via a
compliant torque transmission system. Theoretical calculations, confirmed by field tests, indicate that vertical-axis
wind turbines give power coefficients fully comparable
with horizontal-axis wind turbines. They are of course
omnidirectional, unlike horizontal-axis wind turbines
which must be continually turned to face the wind, and
their proponents argue that vertical-axis wind turbines
have the potential to deliver energy at lower cost than
horizontal-axis wind turbines. However, the development
of the relatively novel Darrieus wind turbine, and its
straight bladed derivatives, is still at a fairly early stage,
and the balance of advantage and disadvantage between
horizontal-axis and vertical-axis wind turbines will not be
resolved before the 1990s.
High wind speeds give very high wind-power densities,
but occur for only a small fraction of the year (see eqn. 1),
and so contain only a small proportion of the annual
energy. It is, therefore, usual to limit the power output of
wind turbines in high wind speeds, and this may be accomplished in horizontal-axis wind turbines by changing the
pitch on all or part of the blades. The lowest wind speed at
which a wind turbine will deliver its rated, maximum
power output is called the rated wind speed VR, and for
optimised modern wind turbines VR is usually about 1.5
Vm. A higher value of VR would give a higher rated power
output, but this higher power level would only be produced relatively infrequently, and the extra costs associated with the consequential higher loads on the blades, the
tower and the transmission are not usually justified by the
small gain in annual energy output. Above a wind speed of
about 25 m/s, which for most sites is exceeded only rarely,
wind turbines are normally shut down; and, when shut
down, a well designed wind turbine will withstand wind
speeds of up to 60 m/s or more.
With good design the average power output from
modern wind turbines is given by

mix (e.g. by replacing with low-cost rapid-response gasturbine generating sets some of the existing slow response
steam-turbine power stations, as they become obsolescent
over the next two decades), the potential wind-energy contribution could be substantially greater. Similar studies of
wind/diesel systems for isolated communities have shown
that fuel savings of up to about 50% appear feasible. The
primary value of the energy output from wind turbines is,
consequently, the value of the fuel that they save; diesel oil
in small isolated communities and fuel oil and/or coal for
larger-scale applications. The cost of wind energy, which
includes the amortisation of the wind turbines' capital cost,
as well as their direct operating and maintenance costs,
should therefore be competitive with the local costs of
these fuels.
Although the generation of electricity, either for use
locally or for distribution via the grid system, will
undoubtedly provide the main applications for future
wind-turbine systems, some traditional applications (and,
in particular, water pumping) will continue to be important in many countries. The development of lower-cost
multibladed water-pumping windmills could indeed have
the same beneficial effects in many developing countries
that it had in the USA, before rural electrification, when
the use of water-pumping windmills, literally by the
million, greatly assisted farming development. Waterpumping applications are facilitated by the fact that one
can compensate for day-by-day fluctuations in the wind by
using water storage tanks.
It is, of course, important that the environmental consequences of using wind turbines be carefully examined. The
main areas of potential concern are noise, electromagnetic
interference and visual intrusion. Well designed machines
will be inaudible above the background noise level (which
itself increases as the wind speed increases) beyond distances of 100-200 m. In most countries with active windenergy programmes, it is presumed that medium or large
wind turbines, i.e. with diameters upwards from 20 m, and
ratings above 100 kW, will not be located closer than
200 m to any habitation. Infrasound, i.e. pressure waves at
(6)
Pm~0.25pVi
below audible frequencies, must also be considered as a
see Reference 8. For Vm = 5.5 m/s this gives Pm cz potential nuisance, although only one wind turbine (the
American Mod 1, see the following text) has actually
50 W/m2, equivalent to 450 kWh/m2 annually. For
caused infrasound problems. Electromagnetic interference
Vm = 8 m/s the average power output Pm ~ 160 W/m2,
could be a problem if a large wind turbine or group of
corresponding to 1400 kWh/m2 annually. These figures are
wind turbines were placed between a residential area and
relative to the rotor swept area A; relative to the blade
the TV transmitter serving the area. With care in siting,
area, the power densities are at least an order of magnitude
this type of problem can usually be avoided; if not it may
larger. These average power densities are such that calcube necessary to instal a TV signal repeater. Some visual
lated energy recovery periods are relatively short, typically
intrusion is unavoidable, because wind-turbine sites must
about 12 months; i.e. the energy invested in the construchave good exposure to the prevailing winds, but visual
tion of a modern wind turbine will be returned within the
impact can be minimised by careful siting, and many
first 12 months of its operational life.
modern wind turbines are quite elegant in appearance.
As the energy output from wind turbines may vary
There is, moreover, the comforting knowledge that when,
markedly from one day to the next, in response to changat the end of its working life, a wind turbine is dismantled,
ing wind speeds, careful consideration must be given to the
there are no continuing adverse environmental conseway it is used. Modern wind turbines will find their major
quences.
applications producing electricity, and operating in parallel with conventional power stations or, in smaller more
isolated communities, diesel engines. The coal or oil burnt
4
Recent developments
in the power stations or diesel engines provides the hour
by hour certainty that there will be sufficient power to
In the decade since 1973, many countries have initiated
meet the demand; the wind turbines contribute energy to
substantial wind-energy research and development prothe system, as and when the wind blows, so that the overall
grammes, and the continuing application of modern design
fuel consumption can be significantly reduced. Recent
and manufacturing methods has led to rapid progress. The
studies, e.g. References 3 and 9, indicate that the UK grid
American programme has been particularly noteworthy. It
system in its present form could accept a contribution of
commenced in 1973, and by September 1975 the first
approximately 20% from wind energy. Further assessmedium-scale test-bed machine, the Mod 0, was in operments indicate that, with modification to the future plant
ation near Cleveland, Ohio. This horizontal-axis wind
510

IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 130, Pt. A, No. 9, DECEMBER 1983

turbine had a two-bladed rotor, located on the downwind

side of the tower, a diameter of 38 m, and delivered its
output of up to 100 kW, via a synchronous generator, into
the local utility grid system. This first prototype was succeeded by four similar machines, known as Mod 0A, which
were installed and operated in locations ranging from
Hawaii to Puerto Rico between 1977 and 1983; Fig. 5

Fig. 5

Mod 0A on Block Island, USA 38 m diameter, 200 kW

shows the Mod 0A installed on Block Island, off the

Rhode Island coast. Although all the Mod 0A machines
had two-bladed downwind rotors each with a diameter of
38 m, the same as the Mod 0, their installation in higherwind-speed locations justified uprating their design output
to 200 kW. Three of these machines used laminated
wooden blades, while the fourth had glass-fibre reinforced
composite blades. All were connected to their local grid
systems via synchronous generators and operated at a constant rotor speed of 40 rev/min. A 45:1 ratio, speed
increasing gearbox which was located, like the generator,
braking system etc., in a nacelle on top of the tower (as in
the Boeing Mod 2 depicted in Fig. 3) then gave the
required 1800 rev/min input to the 60 Hz generator. Power
control in high wind speeds was effected by changing the
blade pitch, i.e. by rotating each blade about its lengthwise
axis. These four experimental wind turbines accumulated
tens of thousands of hours operation, and very successfully
demonstrated that, with modern microprocessor-based
controllers, operation can be completely unattended, with
automatic start-up and synchronisation with the grid
when the wind speed is high enough to give a useful power
output, automatic orientation of the rotor to face the wind
(via a wind-direction sensor located on the nacelle and the
hydraulically actuated yaw-orientation system) and automatic shut down when the wind speed is too low, too high
or if a fault occurs. As would be expected, the economic
benefits of being able to operate unattended are very considerable.
The next major milestone in the American programme
IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 130, Pt. A, No. 9, DECEMBER 1983

was the completion, in 1979, of the 6 1 m diameter, 2 MW

rated, General Electric Mod 1, which also had a twobladed downwind rotor. This was followed, in 1980-81, by
the construction of five Boeing Mod 2 wind turbines. This
2.5 MW rated, 91 m diameter machine, shown in Fig. 3,
incorporates a number of features intended to reduce the
overall weight and cost. The heavy, lattice steel tower of
earlier designs is replaced by a slender and relatively light,
tubular steel tower; the blades (fabricated in steel and
located upwind of the tower) are rigid over the central part
of their span, and only the tips are rotatable so as to
provide the necessary power limitation and control in high
wind speeds; the rotor also incorporates a teetered hub,
which allows the plane of blade rotation to rock backwards and forwards by a few degrees, relative to the vertical plane, and so alleviates the high blade root stresses
associated with wind shear and turbulence. These and
other features allowed substantial weight reductions, per
unit rotor swept area. Although some mechanical problems have been experienced, as might be expected with
such a major and innovative project, these are being remedied and this design represents a substantial step forward
on the way to providing wind energy economically.
Several other multimegawatt wind turbines have also
recently been completed, including the WTS 3 and WTS 4
machines built by Hamilton-Standard (USA) in cooperation with Wind Turbine Systems, a subsidiary of the
Swedish Swedyards group. Each of these machines has a
diameter of 78 m, with a two-bladed horizontal-axis rotor
located downwind from a tubular steel tower and blades
which are filament-wound, glass-fibre-reinforced composite. Both were completed and installed in 1982, the 3 MWrated WTS 3 in southern Sweden, and the 4 MW-rated
WTS 4 in the USA. A second Swedish multimegawatt
wind turbine, built by the Swedish company KaMeWa in
collaboration with the German company ERNO, has a
two-bladed horizontal-axis rotor which is upwind of its
concrete tower, a rotor diameter of 75 m, steel blades and
a rated output of 2 MW; this machine was installed on
Gotland, an island to the east of Sweden, in the autumn of
1982. Then, in early 1983, the 3 MW-rated 100 m-diameter
Growian wind turbine was completed in northern
Germany. MAN were the main contractors for this twobladed horizontal-axis wind turbine, which has a downwind rotor and blades which have steel spars for strength,
surrounded by glass-fibre-reinforced composite fairings to
give the required aerofoil shape.
As the above descriptions indicate, a considerable
variety of options are still being explored by wind-turbine
designers, e.g. whether to locate the rotor upwind or downwind of the tower, whether or not to use a teetered hub,
what material to use for the blades and for the tower,
whether to grid connect using a synchronous generator or
an induction generator or some form of variable speed but
fixed frequency generation etc. And, although the wind
turbines just described all have two-bladed rotors, a good
case can also be made for using three-bladed rotors. The
two 630 kW-rated 40 m-diameter machines built in
Denmark, and in operation since 1980, see Fig. 6, are both
three bladed, and the proposed 60 m-diameter Danish
megawatt-scale machine also has three blades. MAN have
also designed a successor to their 100 m-diameter, twobladed Growian, which will have three blades and a diameter of 56 m. Single-bladed wind turbines are also
practicable, and a number have been built including, most
recently, the Monopteros shown in Fig. 7, which was completed by MBB in North Germany, in late 1981, and is
now undergoing test. The single blade of this machine is
511

24 m long, and carbon-fibre composite provides its main

structural strength.
The development of large horizontal-axis wind turbines
is continuing, and in the UK the Wind Energy Group
(comprising Taylor Woodrow, British Aerospace and GEC)

40 m diameter, 630 kW wind turbines at Nibe, Denmark

is being funded by the Department of Energy and the

North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (NSHEB) to
design and build a 60 m-diameter 2-bladed horizontal-axis
wind turbine. This steel-bladed machine will, like the
Boeing Mod 2 shown in Fig. 3, have its rotor upwind of its
tower and use a teetered hub to reduce blade stresses. It
will be sited on Burgar Hill, Orkney, one of the windiest
locations in the UK where the hub-height average wind
speed is about 12 m/s, and its rated output will be 3 MW;

Fig. 7
512

completion is due in the winter of 1985-86. In the meantime, the Wind Energy Group has designed and constructed the 20 m-diameter 250 kW-rated MS-1 wind
turbine shown in Fig. 8. This has its rotor upwind of the
tower, and its blades have load-carrying steel spars, each
with a surrounding aerofoil-shaped skin made from glassfibre-rcinforccd composite; power limitation and control in

MBB Monopteros, Northern Germany, with its single 24 m blade

Fig. 8
Wind Energy Group 20 m diameter, 250 kW wind turbine,
Orkney, UK

high wind speeds is achieved by rotating the blade tips.

The MS-1, which models many of the features of the Wind
Energy Group's 60 m design, was completed and installed
in July 1983 on Burgar Hill, Orkney, on a site close to that
designated for the 60 m machine. July 1983 also saw the
completion, on Burgar Hill, of the 22 m-diameter 300 kWrated HWP-300, designed and constructed by James
Howden Ltd. This is a three-bladed horizontal-axis wind
turbine, and has blades made from epoxy-impregnated
laminated wood; grid-connection is via a synchronous
generator. Howden's were also responsible for supplying
and installing the American-designed 24 m-diameter 3bladed horizontal-axis wind turbine, purchased by the
CEGB and which commenced operation on a site adjacent
to Carmarthen Bay power station in November 1982. This
machine will provide the CEGB with initial experience in
operating a grid-connected wind turbine, and the CEGB
have recently announced their intention of supplementing
this by ordering a proven megawatt-scale wind turbine, to
be operational on a site adjacent to Richborough power
station, in Kent, by the end of 1985. If initial operating
experience is satisfactory, the CEGB than plan to install a
group of up to 10 megawatt-scale machines, to be operational by about 1990. The CEGB also have considerable
interest in the potential of offshore wind-energy systems,
because studies such as that reported in Reference 3 have
shown that the UK has a very large offshore wind-energy
potential: large enough, in principle, to provide an output
comparable with the present total UK electricity consumption. Offshore wind-turbine arrays avoid many of the siting
constraints that would be experienced on land, and initial
economic assessments, such as that by the Energy Technology Support Unit [3], are encouraging. However, much
further work is needed, and the construction of offshore
wind-turbine arrays is unlikely to commence before the
1990s. The CEGB are contributing to the ongoing studies
in this area, in the UK and internationally, and have
offered to host the offshore prototype machine which is
being discussed by the International Energy Agency.
In the USA, the next major step in their large windturbine programme will probably be the construction of
the General Electric Mod 5, on a site in Hawii. This 2IEE PROCEEDINGS,

Vol. 130, Pt. A, No. 9, DECEMBER

1983

bladed horizontal-axis machine will be the world's largest,

with a diameter of 122 m and a rated output of 7.3 MW. A
notable feature is that the blades will be made from epoxyimpregnated laminated wood, with relatively small rotatable blade tips to provide power limitation in high wind
speeds. Canada, which has pioneered the development of
modern Darrieus wind turbines, like that shown in Fig. 4,
has now commenced the design and construction of the
first megawatt-scale vertical-axis wind turbine. This will be
a two-bladed machine with a rotor height of 94 m and a
diameter of 64 m (so as to give a swept area of 4000 m 2 ,
equivalent to a horizontal-axis wind turbine with a diameter of 71 m) and it will be rated at 4 MW. As with
all large wind turbines, the rotational speed is low,
14.5 rev/min for this machine, but the vertical-axis configuration gives a ground-level shaft power output which
permits the use of a direct driven synchronous alternator,
and so avoids the necessity for a speed increasing gearbox.
Static frequency-conversion equipment will ensure that the
output frequency is correctly matched to the utility. Operation is due to commence in late 1985.
The development of Darrieus wind turbines is also continuing in the USA, and Fig. 4 depicts the 17 m-diameter
test-bed machine at Sandia Laboratories, in Albuquerque,
New Mexico. The basic Darrieus configuration does,
however, have the disadvantage that one cannot readily
control the power output in high wind speeds, e.g. by
changing the blade pitch, as in a horizontal-axis wind
turbine. For this to be effective in a Darrieus wind turbine,
the blade pitch would have to be varied cyclically every
revolution, which would introduce considerable mechanical complexity. An alternative and simpler method of controlling the power output of a vertical-axis wind turbine is
to change the blade inclination to the vertical, see Musgrove [10], which reduces the angle of attack between the
blades and the air flow (analogous to changing the pitch
on the blades of a horizontal-axis wind turbine), as well as
reducing the effective rotor-swept area. The development
of this variable-geometry vertical-axis wind turbine is one
of the two principal activities within the UK Department
of Energy's wind-energy programme. The design of the
130 kW-rated 25 m-diameter prototype shown in Fig. 9
has been completed, by a consortium led by Sir Robert
McAlpine and Sons Ltd., and construction is now in
progress. Operation will commence in early 1985, at a
South Wales coastal site adjacent to Carmarthen Bay
power station, just a few hundred metres from the CEGB's
existing 24 m-diameter horizontal-axis wind turbine. This
25 m-diameter prototype Musgrove wind turbine models
many of the features of a 100 m-diameter 4.4 MW version
intended for subsequent use offshore.
Although the emphasis in most national wind-energy
programmes has been on the development of megawattscale wind turbines, considerable effort has also gone into
smaller machines. The development in Denmark of wind
turbines in the size range 10-15 m diameters has been particularly notable, and Fig. 10 shows a typical Danish
machine, the 15 m-diameter 55 kW-rated Nordtank. This
is designed for use on farms, connected to the grid via an
induction generator. When the wind blows, the farmer uses
the electricity from his wind turbine to reduce his purchases of electricity from the utility. And, when the wind
turbine's power output is in excess of the farmer's own
needs, the surplus is purchased by the utility at a buy-back
price, per kilowatt-hour, which is about half the utility's
selling price. When there is no wind, the farmer buys all his
electricity from the utility in the usual way. Encouraged by
a 30% government subsidy on the initial cost of the wind
IEE PROCEEDINGS,

Vol. 130, Pt. A, No. 9, DECEMBER 1983

turbine, more than a dozen manufacturers in Denmark

now offer wind turbines similar to the Nordtank, and total
sales now exceed 200 per year. With an installed cost [8]
of approximately 600/kW, these small wind turbines yield
a simple payback period of approximately 5 years (after
allowing for the 30% subsidy), for locations where the

Fig. 9

Musgrove 25 m diameter vertical-axis wind turbine, UK

annual average wind speed is about 5.5 m/s, provided that

the annual costs of operation and maintenance (O & M)
are no more than 2% of the capital cost: if annual O & M
costs are 5% of the capital cost, the payback period would
increase to about 6 | years. Data on actual O & M costs
are still being accumulated, but the evidence so far indicates that the range from 2% to 5% per annum is a reasonable expectation for the better machine designs. Similar
wind turbines are now being manufactured in a number of
countries, including the Netherlands and the USA, and the

Fig. 10

Nordtank 15 m diameter, 55 kW rated, Denmark

513

market for such machines can be expected to grow substantially, as increased production rates lead to lower
capital costs. The UK has so far seen little progress in the
development of wind turbines in this size range, partly due
to lack of the government support which is provided in
Denmark and elsewhere, and partly due to uncertainties as
to the tariffs which would be applied by area electricity
boards to individually owned, grid-connected wind turbines. This second problem has now been resolved with the
publication in October 1983 of the relevant tariffs, as
required by the May 1983 Energy Act.
Grid-connected small wind turbines (where 'small'
denotes diameters up to about 20 m, and ratings up to
about 100 kW) have applications in rural areas in many
developed countries, as well as in some developing countries. They also have considerable potential in remote locations, world wide, operating in parallel with diesel engines
as fuel savers. The problems in optimising and engineering
a satisfactory wind/diesel system are substantial, but
progress is being made and a number of wind/diesel
installations are now being field tested.
In the USA, many manufacturers are now producing
small wind turbines for a wide variety of applications
including water pumping and battery charging in remote
locations, although the greatest market is for gridconnected wind turbines. Although many of these gridconnected machines are individual installations, as in
Denmark, many more are being installed in arrays, i.e.
wind farms. The wind-farm concept was pioneered by US
Windpower and their installation in the Altamont Pass, to
the east of San Francisco, contains several hundred wind
turbines, each with a diameter of 17 m and rated at 50 kW.
Fig. 11 shows part of this wind farm. The concept has been

their purchase, at an agreed rate, of all the electricity generated. Individual investors in a wind farm contribute
several thousand dollars, and several hundred such investors are formed into a partnership which owns and operates the wind farm. Federal and State tax credits and
allowances are such that high-rate taxpayers (paying tax at
a top rate of about 50%) can recoup most of their investment in the first year of operation, and almost all of the
remainder over the next four years, virtually regardless of
how much energy the wind turbines actually produce.
Given good, reliable machines on a well chosen site, the
potential return on the investment is a very attractive one,
and as indicated the financial risk is minimal; hence the
recent rapid growth of wind-farm developments. However,
concern has been expressed that the tax concessions are
too generous, and are encouraging some manufacturers to
proceed from prototype construction to volume production without adequate field testing; there is already evidence that the machines installed in some wind farms are
not very reliable and, consequently, have a low availability.
The more responsible wind-farm developers are proceeding
more cautiously and accumulating much valuable experience, which will undoubtedly have applications in many
other parts of of the world.
There are, so far, no wind farms outside the USA,
although the Netherlands is proceeding with plans to
instal a 10 MW wind farm at Sexebierum, which will
contain about forty wind turbines, each about 25 m diameter and rated at approximately 250 kW; this is due for
completion in 1985.
5

Economics

Cost data for virtually all commercially available wind

turbines having diameters larger than 10 m were collated
in mid-1982 and are presented in References 8 and 11. The
data, mostly obtained directly from manufacturers, is
reproduced in Fig. 12 which shows how the normalised
cost per unit rotor area varies with rotor diameter. Cost
per unit rotor area is a more useful parameter than cost
per rated kilowatt, and indeed the latter can be very misleading; e.g. as the rated power is proportional to the cube
of the rated wind speed, a relatively small increase in the
latter will significantly increase the rated power and give a
corresponding reduction in the nominal cost per kilowatt,
but without giving any significant increase in the wind
turbine's energy output. Too great an increase in the rated
wind speed may even lead to a reduction in a wind
turbine's annual energy output, due to reduced gearbox
and generator efficiencies at the lower power levels associated with the below-rated wind speeds, which may well
Fig. 11

Windfarming in the Altamont Pass, USA

emulated by many other entrepreneurs in the past two

years, which has seen a total (so far) of about 2000 wind
turbines installed in wind farms, mostly in California.
Almost all of these have had diameters less than 20 m,
mainly because larger machines are not readily available
commercially.
The financial arrangements have been crucial to the
success and rapid growth of wind farms. Typically, the
wind-farm developer puts together a package for investors
which provides for the purchase, installation and maintenance of an array of wind turbines, on a leased site in a
location where average wind speeds are high. An essential
part of the package is the connection of the wind farm to
the local utility grid (or some large user of electricity) plus
514

400
C,o
300
+

E I

200
0*

100

oE

A"

10

Fig. 12
diameter

20 30

40

+
&
o
E

prototype
production 1's
production 10's
denotes
estinyite ,
100 110 120

50 60 70 80 90
diameter.m
Normalised cost per unit area, variation with wind-turbine

IEE PROCEEDINGS,

Vol. 130, Pt. A, No. 9, DECEMBER 1983

contain most of the annual available energy. Because good,

modern wind turbines have comparable efficiencies, it is
more meaningful to compare costs per unit rotor area.
However, allowance must be made for the fact that large
wind turbines have their rotors at greater heights above
the ground, where wind speeds are higher, see eqn. 3.
Given the usual assumption that the velocity variation
with height can be represented by a one-seventh power law
(i.e. n equals one-seventh in eqn. 3), the power in the wind
will be proportional to (// 1/7 ) 3 = H 43 , where H is the hub
height of the rotor. Increasing the height of a rotor by a
factor of 5, e.g. from 15 m to 75 m, will consequently
increase the power available at the rotor by a factor
50.43 _ 20. This means that, for comparable energy cost,
one can afford to pay twice as much per square metre, for
a turbine with a 75 m hub height, by comparison with a
wind turbine having a 15 m hub height. The variation of
wind power density with height may be allowed for by the
simple expedient of defining a normalised cost per unit
rotor area C 1 0 , as follows:
10

cost
area

.43

(7)

where H, as previously stated, is the wind turbine's hub

height. This parameter can be interpreted as the equivalent
cost, per unit rotor area, relative to the wind speeds experienced at a height of 10 m (the normal meteorological measuring height). The cost data in Fig. 12 have been
normalised in this way.
The costs presented in Fig. 12 for each wind turbine are
inclusive of the tower and onsite erection, but generally
exclude the foundation costs and grid connection
(although these costs are included for the larger American
machines). Although foundation and connection costs can
be significant (of the order 15-20% of the total) their contribution is small by comparison with the scatter evident in
the Figure. It should be noted that the costs quoted are for
mid-1982, with currency conversions at the rates prevailing
in October 1982, and do not include capitalised O & M
costs. As indicated by the key, most of the wind turbines
have only been made, so far, in relatively small numbers.
Some of the wind turbines now being installed in large
numbers in American wind farms are not included in Fig.
12, as they are not yet available for sale individually, and
the manufacturers do not quote prices.
The data in Fig. 12 shows considerable scatter, as is
only to be expected given the present transitional state of
wind-turbine technology. Although many national windenergy programmes have assumed, explicitly or implicitly,
that large wind turbines will give superior economics, it
can be seen from the Figure (even after allowing for foundation and grid connection costs) that there is, as yet, no
evidence to support this assumption. In fact, small- and
medium-sized wind turbines appear, at present, to offer
slightly superior economics, and, since their development
time scale is shorter and volume production benefits can
be achieved more speedily, it seems probable that the
small- to medium-size range (e.g. 1550 m diameter) will
continue to offer superior economics, at least for the near
future. (Except, of course, for applications such as offshore
wind systems, where the high costs of offshore construction
and operation encourage the use of wind turbines with
diameters of 100 m or more.)
The delivered cost of energy from a wind turbine
depends not only on its capital cost but also on its lifetime, its operating and maintenance costs, and the required
rate of return on one's capital investment. The concept of
IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 130, Pt. A, No. 9, DECEMBER 1983

an annual charge rate c is a very useful one, and c is

related to r by the equation
(8)
where r is the required real rate of return (i.e. after allowing for inflation) and y is the lifetime in years; y equal
annual repayments of cl will repay an initial invesment /
and provide a real rate of return r on the capital invested.
A 5% rate of return, in real money terms (as is specified
in the UK for public sector investments) together with a
lifetime of 20 years, i.e. r = 0.05, y = 20, corresponds to an
annual charge rate of 8%: to this must be added the
annual costs associated with operating and maintenance
(O & M).
Preliminary assessment of wind-turbine operating experience in the USA indicates that, for large- and mediumsized machines, annual O & M costs can be expected to be
about 2% of the capital cost; for smaller wind turbines, the
O & M costs can be expected to be higher, but there is, as
yet, no reliable data on O & M costs for small machines.
Adding a 2% allowance for O & M costs to the initial 8%
charge rate discussed above gives an overall charge rate,
inclusive of O & M costs, of 10%.
Fig. 12 indicates that most of the more competitive
wind turbines have normalised costs in the range 125/m2
to 250/m 2 ; with a 10% overall charge rate, the corresponding annual costs are in the range 12.5/m2 to 25/m 2 .
For a location where the annual average wind speed Vm =
5.5 m/s (at 10 m height above the ground), eqn. 6 indicates
that a good, modern, wind turbine will deliver about
450 kWh/m 2 annually, so giving an overall cost of energy
in the range 2.8 p/kWh to 5.6 p/kWh; correspondingly less
in locations where wind speeds are higher. Electricity in
this price range is competitive with electricity from the
fossil fuels, oil, gas and coal, in many parts of the world,
although it must be noted that further work is necessary to
demonstrate that long life and a low level of O & M costs
can be achieved in conjunction with the indicated cost
range.
Fig. 12 also shows that the lowest wind-turbine costs at
present correspond to wind turbines of about 15 m diameter. However, O & M costs for these smaller machines
can be expected to be higher than for medium- and largerscale machines, which have fewer components per unit
energy output. And foundation and grid connection costs
can also be expected to be higher, per installed kilowatt,
on smaller machines. However, medium-sized wind turbines have the advantage, by comparison with megawattscale machines, that they can be developed and their
design subsequently refined much more rapidly and economically; and their production and purchase involves significantly lower levels of financial risk, to manufacturers
and purchasers, respectively. It therefore seems probable
that wind turbines in the size range of about 20-40 m
diameter will be able to offer superior economics, and it is
significant that many manufacturers are now developing
commercial wind turbines in this size range.
The economic criteria used in the preceding text in calculating electricity output costs in the range 2.8 p/kWh to
5.6 p/kWh, i.e. a required real rate of return of 5% and a
20 year lifetime, are more appropriate to governments and
to utilities than to individual purchasers. Such private purchasers require an earlier return on their investment. In
Denmark, as has already been noted, wind turbines of
about 15 m diameter give simple payback periods of the
order 5 to 6 years, and total sales are about 200 per year.
Because even the most successful Danish machines are at
515

present manufactured in relatively small numbers (less

than one per week), there is considerable scope for
reducing costs, and so reducing the payback period as the
market expands and the production volume increases.
As these cost reductions are achieved, in Denmark and
elsewhere, wind farming will become progressively more
attractive. In the UK, for example, cereal crops grown on
several million hectares of land provide farmers with a
gross income of about 500/ha. In locations where wind
speeds average 5.5 m/s, and large areas of the UK do experience wind speeds of this magnitude, wind turbines spaced
a nominal 10 diameters apart would given an annual electricity output of about 50000 kWh/a, worth approximately
1500/ha. And this income is, of course, additional to the
farmer's continuing income from his crops. Given potential
revenues of this magnitude, one can expect the use of wind
turbines in rural areas to expand rapidly, once the economic viability of such installations has been successfully
demonstrated.
6

Conclusions

There has been rapid progress in the development of wind

turbines over the last decade, and a wide variety of designs
has been built and tested, in sizes up to 100 m diameter,
and with rated power outputs up to several megawatts.
However, the data now becoming available suggests that
medium-sized machines, i.e. less than 50 m diameter, with
their lower development costs, will give lower energy costs,
at least for the near future.
For utility-scale applications, the cost of energy from
the wind must be compared with the value of the fuel that
the use of wind energy saves. In more localised applications, the cost of wind energy is judged relative to the
delivered price of energy from other sources, e.g. electricity
from a utility grid system, or diesel fuel delivered, at considerable added expense, to a remote location. Present
energy prices vary widely from country to country, and
even within individual countries there may be significant
price variations. The average wind speed, and hence the
wind-power density, is also subject to considerable geographic variation. Generalisations about the cost of wind
energy relative to other energy sources must, therefore, be
regarded with caution. However, it is clear that, for many
applications, in many locations, wind energy is becoming
competitive, and the transition from research and development activity to demonstration and deployment has

516

already commenced, with the installation of approximately

2500 wind turbines over the last three years, and a total
installed capacity of about 150 MW.
Although wind turbines cannot provide firm power they
do have important energy saving roles, operating in parallel with electricity grid systems or, in more remote locations, alongside diesel engines. And system integration
studies in several countries, including the UK, have shown
that grid-connected wind turbines could provide 20% (and
potentially even more) of national electricity needs. Contributions to the total installed capacity will be made by
utility operated wind systems, by individually purchased
machines in rural areas (as in Denmark) and by entrepreneurially funded wind farms (as in California), and it is not
clear which of these will be the most significant. However,
because the supplementary revenue from wind farming can
exceed, by a substantial factor, the revenues obtainable
from most other agricultural activities, it seems probable
that wind farms will feature prominently in future developments in Europe, as well as in the USA.
7

References

1 SMEATON, J.: 'On the construction and effects of windmill sails',

Proc. Roy. Soc. {London), 1759
2 GOLDING, E.W.: The generation of electricity by wind power' (E.
& F.N. Spon Ltd., London 1955)
3 'Strategic review of the renewable energy technologiesan economic
assessment'. ETSU report R13 (HMSO, London, 1982)
4 'Meteorological aspects of the utilisation of wind as an energy source'.
WMO technical note 175, Report 575 (WMO, Geneva, 1981)
5 'Solar energy R & D in the European communityseries G, Vol. 1'.
Wind energy proceedings of the EC contractors meeting, Brussels,
Nov. 1982 (D. Reidel, 1983)
6 LIPMAN, N.H., MUSGROVE, P.J., and PONTIN, G.W. (Eds.):
'Wind energy for the eighties' (Peter Peregrinus Ltd., Stevenage, 1982),
Chap. 2
7 'Horizontal-axis wind system rotor performance model comparison'.
Report RFP-3508, UC-60, NTIS, Springfield, VA, USA, 1983
8 MUSGROVE, P.J.: 'The economics of existing wind turbines in the
size range 10 to 100 metres diameter'. Wind Energy Conversion 1983,
Proceedings of the 5th BWEA wind energy conference, Reading,
CUP, 1983
9 WRIGHT, J.K.: 'Alternative methods of electricity generation'.
CEGB report P3, in 'Proof of evidence to Sizewell 'B' power station
public enquiry', 1982
10 MUSGROVE, P.J., and MAYS, I.D.: 'Recent progress in the development of the Musgrove vertical axis wind turbine'. Proceedings of
the 5th Washington wind energy conference, Washington DC, SERI,
198111 MUSGROVE, P.J.: 'Wind energy. An evaluation for the C E C ,
Report XVI1/349/82-EN, 1983 (to be published by the CEC)

IEE PROCEEDINGS,

Vol. 130, Pt. A, No. 9, DECEMBER 1983