Mastering WIND POWER – Wind Energy Course

An essential guide to the business of wind power project planning & development

What’s in a wind turbine: a review of the key components and technology trends (including blades, drivetrains, and generators)
Drivers for – and constraints on – bigger turbine sizes
Understanding ‘power curves and their impact on turbine selection and capacity factor
Examining the key data from wind turbine specifications: A case study of a modern 7MW wind turbine
Where will continued cost reductions come from?

Wind farm layout and energy losses, such as ‘wake effects’: illustrated with a

Availability losses turbine performance losses
Solutions to extreme operating conditions, including cyclones and low temperatures
External constraints including curtailment, grid connection and market integration; plus solutions: Examples from Germany, China and Vietnam

Wind speed maps and preliminary assessment resources: illustration using an online wind resource map example
Why average wind speed doesn’t say much about the viability of a project
Understanding additional complexity in wind resource: the impacts of height, shear, turbulence, direction, humidity and other factors
Technologies and requirements for bankable wind resource assessment (WRA) campaigns

Wind speed distribution and its importance: illustration using a real wind speed dataset
Combining a real wind speed dataset and turbine power curves to calculate annual energy output (AEP)
Understanding and applying resource uncertainty to AEP outcomes: the meaning of exceedance probabilities (‘P50’, ‘P90’ etc.)
Assessing other uncertainties and risks to the expected AEP
The growth of hybrid projects (wind plus solar and/or storage)

Defining the stages and likely timescales for wind farms from development to operation: including case study projects from Australia and southeast Asia
Land use challenges and site selection criteria
Key reports and contracts with illustrative example documents
Environmental and social impact studies: contents and outcomes (including case study from a wind project in India)
New channels to markets, including corporate PPAs: Case studies from Europe and Australia

Stakeholder identification, mapping, prioritisation and engagement
The key aspects of planning and contracting issues around the grid connection
Planning and permitting risk assessment: A risk mapping illustration
Comparing and contrasting project planning, permitting, construction and operating risks at different sites

Development studies including seabed environmental, geotechnical and right-ofway data
Offshore wind foundations: their construction, costs and selection criteria: illustrated using examples from European wind farms
Offshore grid and cabling, for both inter-array and export connections: Case studies of offshore cabling design and processes in Europe
The onshore element of an offshore wind farm (including permitting risk case study from the UK)
O&M offshore, including technology innovations and operational best practices to reduce costs

Who is investing in offshore wind? And why this differs from the onshore wind sector
Analysing the potentially disruptive impact of floating turbines on the offshore wind business
Integrating

Identifying the key business case considerations

Reviewing the cash flow and risk/return variables behind a successful wind power project business case

Illustrating the impacts of business and project risks on rates of return (IRR):

Excel cash-flow model illustration

Quantifying and explaining the variability of installed cost estimates and cost structure details in wind power projects: illustrated by using and comparing two different, recent datasets; one for worldwide and one for US projects
Identifying key financial risk considerations at different stages during the project lifetime
How project development and policy can reduce financial risks

Levelised costs (LCOE), marginal costs, long-term costs and the impact of wind on ‘merit order’ pricing

LCOE calculations and their limitations: when they should and shouldn’t be used
Curtailment, negative prices, and the myth of “free wind electricity”
The risks facing ‘merchant’ (market-facing) wind power projects
Examining the impact of different sources and costs of finance, and their impact on wind energy price competitiveness, illustrated using examples of financing

cost variation for wind between European markets

Renewable power project developers

Power plant owners and operators (utilities and IPPs)
Transmission/Distribution system operators
Policymakers and policy advisors
Investors, including commercial and development banks, venture capital and private equity
Vendors & EPC contractors
Large energy users
Commercial energy-sector services suppliers (law, insurance etc.)