Wind resource assessment and comparative economic analysis using AMOS data on a 30 MW wind farm at Yulchon district in Korea

Detailed feasibility studies are necessary for wind farm development projects because the profitability changes greatly according to wind resource, wind turbine, CAPEX (capital expenduture), OPEX (operation expenditure), SMP (system marginal price), and REC (renewable energy certificate) price. Although measuring wind data over one year in the proposed site is essential, it is a cost-intensive and time-consuming process; hence, in the early stages of development, pre-feasibility studies are conducted using reference wind data from the neighboring areas. In the present study, a pre-feasibility study was conducted in Yulchon district of South Korea to develop a 30-MW wind farm. A wind resource map of Yulchon district was predicted using the AMOS (Aerodome Meteorological Observation System) wind data measured at Yeosu Airport. Three cases of wind farms each with different wind turbines were designed, and comparative economic analysis was carried out. The wind farm designed with SL3000/113 wind turbine recorded the highest profitability with project NPV of 33.62 billion KRW(33.29 million USD, 2433 million EUR) and project IRR of 9.81%. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.