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.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
