Eolic Energy in Australia

Wind energy is one of the most commercially reliable and cost-effective renewable energy (RE) resources available worldwide and its utilization in Australia is undoubtedly an advantageous prospect. Initially, the generation of wind energy is produced through the motion of air from high pressure to low pressure, as this progression is a direct consequence of the solar heating of various parts of the Earth's atmosphere and its planetary motion, thus resulting in the air being deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere and in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere (Duffie and William, 2013). It is generally observed that wind power generation is the best suited source for Australia's future as it is clean, low-cost (in comparison to other RE sources), no emissions (except during construction, transportation and deconstruction), widely available and it has the highest annual global energy rates of all the RE sources (estimated at 26.7% in 2011)(GM Shafiullah et al, 2011). In a commercial context, Macintosh and Downie (2006) compares the cost of wind and coal energy production and suggests that the average price of wind generation was within in the vicinity of AUD$60-80 per/MWh, whilst coal observed a pricing of AUD$21-40 per/MWh. However, through technological advancements in recent years, the price of wind turbines have steady decreased to the point that they may actually have the same market value (or less) as coal generation (Valentine, 2010).

Although there exists certain regions in Australia where wind generation is most plausible, analytical statistics have determined that Tasmania is the most appropriate location to set up a wind farm. The computer software known as HOMER (Hybrid Optimization Model for Elect...

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... evident in wind turbines and consequently, this results in uncontrollable reactive power consumption and low power factor, voltage distortion problems and drastic changes to the voltage and thereby, considerable line losses (G.M Shafiullah, 2012). Therefore, more thought should be taken into account when utilizing the different designs as to minimize PQ loss.

Works Cited

http://dx.doi.org.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/10.1016/j.rser.2011.01.018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2011.08.016 http://dx.doi.org.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/10.1016/j.rser.2012.11.057 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2012.07.024 http://arena.gov.au/about-renewable-energy/wind-energy/ http://search.library.unisa.edu.au/record/?recordid=TN_wilbooks10.1002/9781118671603.ch24 http://site.ebrary.com/lib/unisaau/docDetail.action?docID=10683270
http://arena.gov.au/about-renewable-energy/wind-energy/