Abstract:
Design and successful operation of Wind Energy Conversion systems (WECs) is a very complex
task and requires the skills of many interdisciplinary skills, e.g., civil, mechanical, electrical and
electronics, geography, aerospace, environmental etc. Performance of WECs depends upon
subsystems like wind turbine (aerodynamic), gears (mechanical), generator (electrical); whereas
the availability of wind resources are governed by the climatic conditions of the region
concerned for which wind survey is extremely important to exploit wind energy. This paper
presents a number of issues related to the power generation from WECs e.g. factors affecting
wind power, their classification, choice of generators, main design considerations in wind
turbine design, problems related with grid connections, wind-diesel autonomous hybrid power
systems, reactive power control of wind system, environmental aspects of power generation,
economics of wind power generation, and latest trend of wind power generation from off shore
sites.
