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United States’ Wind Vision report envisions wind energy to generate 20% and 35% of nation׳s electricity by 2030 and 2050 respectively. Taking in to account of the aforementioned vision, the electric power industry is promoting generation of wind power and integration into the US interconnection grids. Over the last decade, this fast growing grid connected wind power generation has raised several new technical, regulatory and economic concerns for grid operations and electricity markets. Therefore, it becomes essential to perform research study and determine possible solutions for the integration of high penetration levels of wind power with the power grid. This paper focuses on the grid integration issue associated with deteriorated frequency response of power system when significant levels of wind power generation is present in the total generation mix. A brief review of the recently introduced frequency response regulatory standards and requirements for wind power plants in United States is presented along with the turbine manufacturer׳s advanced grid technology upgrade options to maintain the power system reliability. This paper evaluates the provision of ancillary services such as Emulated Inertial Response (EIR) and Primary Frequency Response (PFR) by wind generation resources, and investigates the impact of different control architectures on frequency response metrics. Further, it discusses the costs, benefits and other economic impacts associated with the various frequency control techniques of wind power plants. Finally, guidelines and priorities for wind turbine manufacturers, generating entities, balancing authorities and regulators are provided to ensure the increased reliability without additional costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind energy continues to stand out as a more established and mature technology to offset a large proportion of power. Efforts aimed at improving wind energy use to meet the energy demand in turbulent urban wind environment have been the main technical focus. In previous studies on wind resource and behavior in urban environment, different designs of horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) and vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) have been reviewed. This paper vividly captures the fact that wind resource has a great potential to be fully explored and developed in the urban environment. Varying ways of application and application techniques being applied for electrical generation, ventilation and pollution dispersion, onshore cooling and dehumidification of coastal urban cities, and economics and environmental benefits of applying wind energy in urban environments are summarized. Although many new ideas and solutions that factor technical, economical and environmental sustainability in urban areas are coming up every day, challenges in design are gradually being solved to take advantage of urban low and turbulent wind speed characteristics, installation space challenges, vibration and noise reduction, among others. Some of the unique solutions that have been and are being developed in the applications of wind energy technology in urban environments are also reported in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper reports the investigation results of wind power application in buildings. It is found that the concentration effect of buildings and the heights of buildings could enhance wind power utilization by increasing the wind speed by 1.5–2× and wind power density by 3–8× under the given simulation conditions. The wind aerodynamics and wind flows over the buildings are investigated based on local meteorological data and local high-rise building characteristics. This paper concludes that wind power utilization in high-rise buildings in Hong Kong is feasible theoretically, and some effective enhancement methods are proposed based on the simulation results, such as making full use of the heights of buildings and the concentration effect of buildings, and choosing optimal shape of building roof. However, to receive the highest potential wind energy resource and avoid turbulent areas, the tool of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has to be used to model the annual wind flows over buildings to help analyze, locate, and design wind turbines in and around buildings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

There has been a dramatic increase in wind power supply due to the growing demand for renewable energy sources across the globe. In this process, technological advancements have led to the emergence of more sophisticated wind turbines with higher hubs and larger swept areas to reduce the unit costs for power generation. However, there is also a growing concern about the visibility impacts of wind turbines. Spatial modelling of the potential visibility of wind turbines holds strategic information for wind power siting decisions. The visibility information is critical to breaking trade-offs between energy production and protecting the visual amenity of landscapes. Currently, public attention to the visual impacts of wind turbines tends to rise in countries with high wind power capacities. Decreases in property values due to wind turbine visibility and negative impacts on scenery are among the factors that draw public attention. These implications make it necessary to use spatial analysis and develop mitigation strategies based on the geospatial outputs. This paper aims to produce Potential Visibility Models (PVM) to analyse wind turbine visibility from candidate observation locations where the scenery is an important asset. These are residential buildings (RB), protected areas (PA), natural and archaeological sites (NAS), tourism development centres (TDC), roads (RD), and the coastal areas (CS). The results showed that potential turbine visibility varied across the study area considering the five qualitative visibility classes. The areas with "very low" and "low" potential visibility were proposed as candidate areas of low visual impact for wind power generation. [Display omitted] • Potential visibility models (PVM) for wind turbines were produced. • The observer locations were selected in the areas where scenery is the key asset. • Target offsets that represent turbine heights ranged from 20 to 140 m. • Potential wind turbine visibility was conceptualized in a "combined visibility" map. • The areas of lower potential visibility scores were proposed for wind power siting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Climate change and limited primary energy resources require indigenous renewable electricity generation options to change the current coal-dominated power source matrix in China. The wind power is such a solution for the above challenges, and it still has large space for improvement in China. In this paper several critical factors related to Chinese wind power were studied in details, including the wind resources, the wind turbine industry and the policies from the Chinese government. Based on the study, the perspective of wind power in China was discussed. With outstanding advantages, the offshore wind power has a bright future in China, so its main characteristics are discussed. Based on the discussions, suggestions were given to improve the development of Chinese wind power, and the government''s further measures are also recommended. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]