Economic feasibility of electricity generation from wind farms: A case study

Environmental problems, population growth, and the recent energy crisis have emphasized the need for zero-emission technologies while also ensuring economic feasibility. This work presents the economic advantages of using wind energy for power generation in Iran. A theoretical model is developed, which predicts the output power under various geographical and operating conditions. The wind data (speed and direction) of 2-h interval long-term period from December 2010 to October 2015 was adopted and analyzed to evaluate the levelized costs of electricity (COE) for power generation from wind farms (Arsanjan, Lamerd, and Abadeh) for the year 2018 per time. The influence of two important geographical factors namely winds speed and air humidity on output power also was studied. The results showed that the output power increases continuously when the wind speed varies from 2.0 to 2.6 m/s probably due to the compression of air passing through the wind turbine.