THE ECONOMIC OPTIMIZATION OF HORIZONTAL-AXIS WIND TURBINE DESIGN

A method for determining the optimum design parameters for horizontal axis wind turbines was developed and tested. These design parameters w ere the rotor diameter, rated power and tower height. The optimum valu es were found to be dependent on site wind regime. The results of the study indicated that it was, however, only the optimisation of the rel ative combination of rotor diameter and rated power with respect to si te mean annual wind speed that afforded significant reductions in ener gy production cost. This optimisation confirmed that presently availab le wind turbines were optimised for mean annual wind speeds in the ran ge 6-8 m/s, and suggested that for windier sites the energy production cost may be reduced by up to 10% through the optimisation of machine sated wind speed to suit such sites.