Special Issue: Wind Turbine Modeling and Simulation

Abstract

The contribution of wind to the energy mix is steadily growing: with well over 300 GW of installed wind power worldwide [1], wind energy provides today about 8% of electricity consumption in Europe [2], with peaks of up to 34% for Denmark [3], and about 4.5% in the U.S. [3], with other markets such as China and South America in rapid expansion. The growth in recent years has been remarkable; just to give an example, wind represented only 2.4% of the total installed nameplate power capacity in Europe back in the year 2000, while it was up to 14% in 2014 [2]. The penetration of wind energy has been helped not only by specific political choices favoring renewables to curb carbon emissions, but also and foremost by substantial technological advancements that have and are contributing to the reduction of the cost of energy from wind. In fact, a recent study from the U.S. Department of Energy [3] shows that the cost of electricity from wind in the U.S. is not only at an alltime low, but also appears to be competitive with the average price range of all other technologies.