Placement (possibilities and limitations)

The production of large quantities of electricity will require the installation of many wind turbines on one site, mainly because of the economic benefits. These clusters of wind turbines are usually called wind power plants of simply – wind farms. This way, collection of the electricity can be accomplished efficiently, while the operation and maintenance can be done with minimum personnel. Besides this, the largest amounts of concentrated power can be much more easily transformed to higher voltages and finally to utility grid.

Turbines should be typically placed in rows pendicular to the prevailing wind directions. Distance between these rows is a matter of many precise calculations, so finally we can get the most efficient spacing between them. This way, these turbines will produce more power with proper expenses of land use, road building operations, and electrical wire installation. First step is site preparation, which firstly means acquiring the right to use the land. Land may be either purchased or leased, depending on the circumstances. However, leasing land for energy production, such as oil or gas production is common because it hold capital costs to minimum. Besides, this can be the only practical method of acquiring large tracts of ground from many owners if a large wind farm is planned. You should keep in mind that this land can still be used in agricultural purposes.

Road access is also required to each turbine, first for construction and later for maintenance. Some sites do not require access roads because of rocky or sandy soil condition, but most sites will require roads so work vehicles can reach a turbine site in any kind of weather condition. Length of these roads, as well as the length of need electrical wires is a part economic studies as well as decision which kind of turbines will be used.

Generally speaking, wind farm costs are a very complex economic calculation and, in general, there are four main categories of possible costs: electrical, turbine, fixed and auxiliary costs. Turbine costs include purchase price of the turbine, shipping, import duty and import broker fee, foundation costs and labor price. Fixed costs include permits, zoning, wind study, power purchase agreement, engineering design, control building, maintenance building, possible visitor center and meteorological tower. And finally, auxiliary costs, which vary with the size of the wind farm or the character of the turbines. They possibly include land acquisition, access roads, grading, vehicles, crane, fence and overhead line.

Now, with all this in mind you can image how complex this whole operation can be and how planning and building large wind farms is something that should be very carefully planned.