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The Effect of Wind Turbines’ Load Factor on the Overall Cost of Electricity

Cardenas, Bruno; Garvey, Seamus; Baniamerian, Zahra; Mehdipour, Ramin

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Authors

Dr BRUNO CARDENAS Bruno.Cardenas@nottingham.ac.uk
SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW IN THERMO-MECHANICAL ENERGY STORAGE

Dr ZAHRA BANIAMERIAN Zahra.Baniamerian1@nottingham.ac.uk
Research Fellow in Advanced Thermo-Mechanical Energy Storage



Abstract

The load factor of wind turbines has a strong effect on the wider electricity system. As the rated wind speed of turbines reduces, the load factor increases. This allows wind farms to generate constant power for longer periods of time, which in turn improves the match between the profiles of electricity demand and renewable generation and reduces the need for energy storage. The behaviour of the total cost of electricity is driven largely by the levelized cost of wind power, which has a minimum at a rated speed of 12 m/s. Faster rated speeds (>12 m/s) lead to higher electricity costs due to the lower load factors of the turbines. At slower rated speeds (<12 m/s) the higher capital cost of the turbines overshadows the improved load factors, leading to increased electricity costs.

Citation

Cardenas, B., Garvey, S., Baniamerian, Z., & Mehdipour, R. (2024, July). The Effect of Wind Turbines’ Load Factor on the Overall Cost of Electricity. Presented at 8th Offshore Energy and Storage Symposium (OSES 2024), New Bedford, USA

Presentation Conference Type Conference Paper (published)
Conference Name 8th Offshore Energy and Storage Symposium (OSES 2024)
Start Date Jul 10, 2024
End Date Jul 12, 2024
Acceptance Date Nov 28, 2024
Publication Date Dec 18, 2024
Deposit Date May 14, 2025
Publicly Available Date May 14, 2025
Journal Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Print ISSN 0976-7673
Electronic ISSN 0976-7681
Publisher Bioinfo Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 2929
Issue 1
Article Number 012006
DOI https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2929/1/012006
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/48986867
Publisher URL https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/2929/1/012006/meta

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Publisher Licence URL
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.





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