Rated Wind speed and Weibull

Hi,

I have a query regarding Rated wind speed and the Peak of weibull.

How is the rated wind speed of a wind turbine determined or how is the rated wind speed of a wind turbine ‘designed’? Should the turbine be designed in such a way that wind speed corresponding to the peak of Weibull should become the rated wind speed of the turbine.

For example, in a turbine spec., when the rated wind speed is mentioned as 10 m/s, does it also mean that the peak of Weibull is also at 10 m/s.

Best,
Karthik

Dear @Karthik.Prakash,

A similar question was asked and answered here: Choosing a Turbine Siting Location.

Best regards,

Thanks a lot @Jason.Jonkman for the reply. What confuses me is that:

  1. For IEC S class turbines, is it better to make the rated speed same as the wind speed at the peak of Weibull ? My rationale of thinking was that, since for the wind speed at the peak of the Weibull, the turbine would be operating for the max. hours and thus we can get more energy. Or is it nor preferred, because, the generator and gearbox and all the components will be operating at rated power for max time and hence will have their life consumed fast.

  2. While designing a wind turbine, is the rated speed a derived quantity ( For example, if we have the Rated power and Rotor dia. decided, we can get the Rated speed =Cube root of [Rated power]/[0.5densityArea*Cp] OR is it something that is decided first.

Best,
Karthik

Dear @Karthik.Prakash,

I would say that the rated wind speed is a design parameter, not a derived quantity. And deciding which turbine to use (with a given rated wind speed) for a given site involves an optimization to minimize cost of energy, which depends on the energy production, capital cost, and operations and maintenance costs. It is not common for the rated wind speed to be the peak wind speed of the Weibull wind speed distribution at the installation site.

Best regards,