Modelling of performance of 2 MW wind turbines in Ecuador: Electric-wind potential

Abstract

Currently, the basic studies about convert energy from the wind resources allow developing and promoting wind farms including complex infrastructures, with the aim to generate electricity seeking to advance in country economies. These studies considerer a multiple factors that are influence by the wind behavior, such as the orography, roughness and wind profile. In this work is showed a new method to estimate the annual production of wind turbines in Ecuador called “Potencial Eolo-eléctrico”. This method includes the power selection of the wind turbine to be installed, wind speed data and the air density, where the last variable depends of atmospheric pressure and temperature [1]. For determining the “Potencial Eolo-electrico”, it has been considered a standard wind turbine of 2 (MW), with its power curve to 1.225 (kg/m3 ) of air density close fitting to a sigmoidal continuous function. Moreover, in this behavior is included a power curve approximation under low air densities, considering the Villonaco Wind Farm performance. As a result of this investigation was obtained atmospheric pressure maps and air density, additionally was estimated the average power values of the wind turbines, according to the annual mean wind speed to 80 meters high of the Wind Atlas of Ecuador (MEER 2013).