Assessment of electricity generation and energy cost of wind energy conversion systems in north-central Nigeria

摘要

In this study, the wind energy potential and economic analysis in selected six locations in north centraludpart of Nigeria were investigated using wind speed data that span between 19 and 37 years measured atud10 m height. The performance of small to medium size commercial wind turbine models were examinedudand economic evaluation of the wind energy in the selected sites was made by using the levelised costudmethod. The results showed that the cost of energy production per kWh for the selected sites varyudbetween ¢4.02 and ¢166.79. It was shown that Minna is most viable site while Bida is found to be leastudamong the sites considered. Using three selected wind turbine models (in Minna) as case study, anudincrease in the escalation rate of operating and maintenance cost from 0% to 10%, lead to an increaseudin the unit energy cost by about 7%. It was further shown that by increasing the escalation rate of inflationudfrom 0% to 5%, the cost of energy decreases by about 29% while the discount rate (return on investment)uddecreases from 11.54% to 6.23%.