There are 5 key characteristics of a good wind power site that you need:

A high average wind speed. Typically the site would be on top of a hill or in a wide open space with no obstructions nearby.
Sufficient separation from noise-sensitive neighbours. Modern wind turbines are remarkably quiet, but even so there are very stringent maximum noise levels that have to be met to obtain planning consent. The minimum separation varies depending on the turbine size.

Good grid connection. All of the wind turbines require a suitable three-phase electrical supply to connect to. As a rough guide you will need an 11 kV transformer or substation that is roughly double the rated power output of the wind turbine you are considering, or an 11 kV three-phase power line passing close to the wind turbine site that can have a new transformer / substation connected to it.
The larger multi-MW turbines could grid connect to 33 kV power lines, though generally it is too expensive for sub-1MW wind turbine projects to connect at such a high voltage.

Good site access. Wind turbines are large and heavy, so the access roads and tracks to the site need to be capable of taking oversize loads with no weak bridges, excessively tight corners or steep gradients. Obviously as the proposed turbine gets larger, the size of the constituent parts that have to be delivered get larger and the access requirements more stringent. The smaller Endurance 55 kW turbine is delivered on standard articulated lorries, but all of the others come on special oversize trailers.
No special environmental or landscape designations. A lot of the older objections to wind turbines due to bird strikes have now been shown to be unfounded, but even so it would be good practice to not install a wind turbine(s) in an area that had special bird designations. Peat bog is also generally a no-go area for wind turbines.
Wind turbines are very visible within the landscape, so sites with landscape designations such as National Parks or Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) will have more difficulty obtaining planning consent, though it is still possible to get planning consent in AONBs.

Article source: https://www.renewablesfirst.co.uk/windpower/windpower-learning-centre/what-makes-a-good-wind-power-site/

Wind turbine suppliers are investing in supply chain solutions and combining new technologies with data advantages to win service contracts for third-party turbines, leading suppliers told the Wind Operations Dallas 2019 conference.

As intense price competition squeezes margins, turbine suppliers are targeting a greater share of the growing operations and maintenance (O&M) market.

Annual investments in wind operations and maintenance (O&M) in U.S. and Canada will rise from a current level of $5 billion-$6 billion to $7.5 billion by 2021, eclipsing capex spending for the first time, IHS Markit said in a report published in 2018.

O&M providers are using economies of scale, improved spare parts strategies and the latest sensor and data analytics technologies to reduce costs.

Rising turbine capacities are also reducing maintenance costs and widening the range of operational technology. The number of turbine models installed in the U.S. rose from around 100 in 2010 to 146 in 2018.

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are now focusing on multi-brand service contracts to increase their share of the O&M market, leading OEM groups told the conference in Dallas on April 16.

OEMs are expanding data and supply chain capabilities and widening training programs to accommodate multiple turbine brands, the groups said.

“Multi-brand is a key focus for our customers,” Marco Molina, Americas Services Sales Director at GE Renewable Energy, said.

“We are in the process over the past year of listening, developing and shaping responses to work in that arena,” he said.

Maintenance focus

Falling capital costs have increased the importance of wind O&M and boosted competition in the services sector.

Global prices for initial full-service contracts fell from an average $26,400/MW/year in 2016 to $18,100/MW/yr in 2018, according to the BloombergNEF (BNEF) Wind O&M Pricing Index. In some markets, contracts are trading at far lower levels, BNEF data shows.

In the O&M market, OEMs compete against independent service providers (ISPs) and operators’ in-house O&M teams.

New speciality O&M suppliers are also emerging, focusing services on certain major components such as gearboxes, generators or blades, Oliver Metcalfe, wind power analyst at BloombergNEF (BNEF), told the Wind O&M EU 2019 conference in February.

The emergence of these firms allows asset managers to sign a lower cost O&M contract and call on the specialist maintenance groups to perform major component work when necessary, Metcalfe noted.

“This means that if you are an asset manager, you can optimize your operations and maintenance strategy according to your desired level of risk,” he said.

Forecast North American wind opex vs capex

OEM service providers benefit from growing global databases of learnings from deployed assets. Combined with data analytics this enables them to maximize gains from preventative and predictive maintenance.

Leading suppliers are also investing in advanced automation and robotics technologies and solutions which remove crane requirements.

New technologies such as thermal imaging blade inspection equipment are providing valuable insights, Denver Bane, Onshore Wind Services Strategy Leader at GE Renewable Energy, told the Dallas conference.

Machine learning can be used to process the images and provide a report to customers within 24 to 48 hours which shows which blades have anomalies and provides recommended remedies, Bane said.

“This technology is incredible…it allows you to inspect blades that are actually running… With that thermal capability we can see subsurface and surface anomalies,” he said.

Going forward, GE aims to use advanced sensors and automation to develop prognostics for all failure modes, Bane said.

“In the next one to five years you are going to see turbines coming online with more sensors and capabilities in that regard than ever before and we are going to have better analytics and machine learning to make sense of that data stream,” he said.

Supply challenge

OEMs must implement efficient processes to procure third-party turbine parts to minimize downtimes for multi-brand services, Darnell Walker, CEO Services Americas at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, said.

“Supply chain is one of the key issues that we have had to deal with,” Darnell said.

Siemens Gamesa currently maintains 900 turbines supplied by other manufacturers, including some U.S. assets. The contracts represent over 1 GW of global installed capacity.

On April 4, Siemens Gamesa signed its first full-scope multi-brand service contract for the 34 MW Lukaszow and 24 MW Modlikowice wind farms in western Poland. The wind farms comprise of 29 Vestas V90 wind turbines which have been operational since 2012.

Siemens Gamesa will provide O&M services for 23 years, guaranteeing the life of the turbines for a total of 30 years.

The technical engineering of third-party turbine components has been less of a challenge than expected, but expansion into new regions requires efficient local sourcing processes, Darnell told the conference.

“The thing that we felt that we have to really get honed in on is locally sourcing parts…[so that] we get those manufactured by local people in the region that we service,” he said.

Training up

OEMs are also expanding repair capabilities to reduce downtimes and widen O&M opportunities.

In one example, GE has invested in training and tooling for gearbox repairs at its Wind Energy Learning Center in Niskayuna, NY, Molina said.

“We have a dedicated team- a repairs engineering team. They are partnered with the product line and they are constantly working to develop expanded capabilities in that space,” he said.

Going forward, suppliers will need to pursue a diversified approach to services, incorporating hybrid plant technologies as well as multiple wind turbine models, Michael Petersen, Director of Services, Canada & Eastern USA at Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, said.

Wind technicians may need to develop competencies in solar and battery systems, he noted.

Hybrid wind, PV and storage plants are on the rise as owners look to maximize returns and mitigate intermittency amid growing wind and solar capacity.

In February, Portland General Electric (PGE) and NextEra Energy Resources agreed to a build 380 MW wind-solar-storage plant in Oregon.

The Wheatridge Renewable Energy Facility will be the largest ‘hybrid’ renewable plant in the U.S., incorporating 300 MW of wind capacity, 50 MW of PV solar and 30 MW of battery storage. GE Renewable Energy will supply 120 wind turbines to the project.

New technologies should help accelerate the learning process and widen the expertise of technicians.

Augmented reality combined with handheld devices can provide detailed real-time guidance for turbine repairs, accelerating complex tasks and increasing technicians’ learning curves, Bane told the conference.

“Instead of taking five to 10 years for a technician to gain the [necessary] experience, we could see technicians productive after one or two years using tools like these,” he said.

Source – New Energy Update

Bloomberg NEF data indicate that the world has attained the landmark figure of 1TW of wind and solar generation capacity installed. We estimate that the second terawatt of wind and solar will arrive by mid-2023 and cost 46% less than the first.

New output from the BNEF database shows that there were 1,013GW of wind and solar PV generating capacity installed worldwide as of June 30, 2018. The 1TW milestone would have been passed sometime just before this date. The total is finely balanced between wind (54%) and solar (46%).

Looking back on the first terawatt of wind and solar reveals just how far these two sectors have come. Total installed capacity has grown 65-fold since the year 2000, and more than quadrupled since 2010.

Even more striking is the growth of solar PV alone. As recently as 2007, there was just 8GW of PV capacity installed, compared with 89GW of wind. Since then, PV has grown from just 8% of total installed wind and solar capacity, to 46%. In the process, PV installations grew 57-fold, with utility-scale PV overtaking small-scale PV in 2014. Wind still represents the majority of the installed base at 54%, but is likely to relinquish this lead soon.

Investment
We estimate that the first 1TW of wind and solar required approximately $2.3 trillion of capital expenditure to deploy. The second terawatt will cost significantly less than the first. Based on estimates from our New Energy Outlook 2018, capital expenditures on wind and solar generation will total about $1.23 trillion from 2018 to 2022 inclusive.

What about other renewables?
We have singled out wind and solar in this piece because they are the fastest-growing sources of power generation and have just recently achieved the 1TW mark. If we were to include all other renewables, including hydropower, the total would already exceed 2TW, with the 1TW mark attained about a decade ago. Most of the growth in the intervening period can be attributed to wind and solar.

Did we forecast it right?
Reaching back into the BNEF archives allows us to examine our own forecasting track record, and see whether we were too optimistic or conservative on the growth of solar and wind. In our 2013 Global Renewable Energy Market Outlook (web | Terminal) – also known as GREMO – we estimated that global wind and solar installations would hit 865GW by the end of 2017, and get very close to 1,000GW by the end of 2018. In actual fact, the world had hit 945GW by end-2017, thus outperforming our expectations by 9%, and hit 1,000GW about six months earlier than we forecast. In other words, we were very close, but not quite aggressive enough.

We now estimate that wind and solar will hit 1.1TW by the end of this year – 11% more than we forecast five years ago. Given that the market has more than doubled in that time, we are happy to claim this as a ‘win’. As the figure below shows, our 2013 forecasts for onshore wind and small-scale PV ended up being very accurate. We were a little too bullish on offshore wind, while utility-scale PV has exceeded our expectations.

Article source: https://about.bnef.com/blog/world-reaches-1000gw-wind-solar-keeps-going/