Annual Energy Production
3% Probability Annual Energy Production
Annual Energy Production
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The average annual energy produced can be accurately predicted by using the wind turbine power curve and the average annual wind distribution. The wind distribution determines the annual number of hours that the wind is at a given interval. The power curve determines the power produced at that same interval. For each interval, the hours at that wind speed are multiplied times the power output to determine the energy at that speed. For example at the Legion Way site, at the 15 mph wind speed interval, the power output is 150 kilowatts and during the course of a year the wind will be at that speed for 450 hours producing 67,500 kilowatt hours (kWh). When the energy output at each speed interval is added together, the total annual energy is determined. The chart on the right is the annual energy distribution for the Legion Way site. Comparison of the wind distribution and energy distribution indicates that 20% of the time, no energy is produced and most of the energy is produced at wind speed above the average.
When the energy at each speed interval is added together, the total annual energy produced is 1,405,000 kWh.
3% Probability Annual Energy Production
For comparison, the graph at the right shows the annual energy production if the average annual wind speed is 5.2 meters per second (11.6 miles per hour) instead of 6.0 meters per second (13.4 miles per hour). There is only a 3% chance that the average annual wind speed will be that low.
When the energy at each speed interval is added together, the total annual energy produced is 1,002,000 kWh.
