Design of a utility-scale wind farm in Newfoundland and Labrador

Elsaraf, Hashem and Rudresh, Sharan Manjunath and Shervani, Suboohi (2020) Design of a utility-scale wind farm in Newfoundland and Labrador. Research Report. Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. (Submitted)

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Abstract

The Muskrat falls hydroelectric project in Newfoundland and Labrador has faced many issues (economic, temporal and ecological). In this article, a study of a wind project of similar generation capacity (4.9 TWh) is conducted. The wind farm is able to generate the same annual energy output as muskrat falls for a fraction of the cost. St. john’s international airport was chosen as the test location to introduce the methodology and to provide preliminary evaluation of a large-scale wind project in the province with the results being favorable (823 million USD profit). Using a comprehensive multifactorial wind farm sitting approach, four sites for possible wind energy deployment were selected which are: Portugal Cove, Bonavista, Grand Banks and Saint Bride’s. Through a review of the most prominent wind farms inside and outside Canada, five types of wind turbines (from different manufacturers) were selected for the study which areGE-2.5 XL, Vestas 164, Enercon E-126, GE 1.5s and Siemens SWT 3.6 120. A parametric study of 36 systems was then conducted to test each turbine type at each location at different hub heights. The study included both financial (LCOE, Profit) and area (Energy density, Profit/Area) considerations. The results of the study showed that different systems performed better at one category or another. After careful comparison of the 36-systems, Bonavista wind site with Enercon-126 wind turbine at 135m hub height was justifiably the best system. The study is then finalized by adding ACS880 inverter from ABB and reporting on the final system values (4.83 TWh energy production, 884 million USD profit and 3.06 million tons of CO2 emissions curtailed per year)

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