Wind Power for Electricity Generation in Bangladesh

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED RENEWABLE ENERGY RESEARCH A. K. Azad et al., Vol. 1, Issue. 3, pp. 172- 178, 2012

Wind Power for Electricity Generation in Bangladesh A. K. Azad* and M. M. Alam Department of Mechanical Engineering Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh, *Corresponding Author E-mail Address: [email protected] rated power up to 6 MW [1]. Since the demand for energy and more specifically electricity has increased so dramatically over the last 100 years, it has now become important to consider the environmental impacts of energy production. In the past, high standards of living and “modern lifestyles” were based on increased energy consumption. Today, statistics from highly developed countries show that standards of living can increase independently of energy consumption if energy efficiency measures are introduced. The global demand for electricity at 2000 was about 15,391TWh and at 2010, it was 20,037TWh. This demand was met mainly through fossil fuels and nuclear power. Renewable energies other than big hydropower plants only had a 1.9 % share. This marks a slight decrease compared to 1999, which means that total demand increased faster than renewable energies were being developed. In the case of developing countries, the use of state of the art renewable energies, which are highly efficient, is recommendable. If possible, it is also important to use a mixture of renewable energies to stabilize the energy supply [5-7].

Abstract— This paper highlights research related to wind energy in Bangladesh which originated as early as in 1979 in collaboration with Free University of Brussels (FUB), Belgium through contacts with the ministry of Co-operation and Development, Government of Belgium and Bangladesh Embassy in Brussels. Some organizations like GTZ, LGED, BCAS, BUET, and BCSIR have started measuring wind speeds at some typical locations of Bangladesh with modern equipments. The SRE project of LGED, in collaboration with BUET and has taken up a study on titled “Wind Energy Resource Mapping (WERM)”. The study has been designed in a more comprehensive way aiming at systematic observation on wind regime in initially 20 different suitable locations including Chittagong Hill Tracts region over a longer period of time. A renewable energy policy entitled “Renewable Energy Policy of Bangladesh” has already been adopted by the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. The policy has set up targets for developing renewable energy resources to meet 5% of the total power demand by 2015 and 10% by 2020. For this purpose Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has installed 50 small wind turbines (the first wind firm in Bangladesh) each having 20 kW capacities, totaling one mega-watt wind battery hydride power plant in Kutubdia Island, in the southern region. The feasibility study of wind power and physical investigation were made on the wind firm.

A. Historical Use of Wind Power No one knows when exactly the use of wind energy took place. The first breakthrough must have been the use of sails for navigation. Wind energy has been used to propel ships for a long time. In the past, many countries supported their prosperity on their ability to navigate, America being discovered by such type of navigated ships. Roughly wind was the only power to move ships until James Watt developed the steam. Inshore Windmills were used from many centuries ago [2-4]. There is an evidence of windmills being used for grinding grains by the Egyptians in the 36th BC. The Buddhist monks in Tibet had religious inscriptions (mantras) on drums which were rotated by the wind. A

Index Terms—Wind power, Mean wind speed, Light house, Weibull’s factors.

I. INTRODUCTION Wind energy was the first used source of energy in the history of mankind. It has been put to use for around 5000 years. During the last decades, the technology of wind turbines improved very fast. Early wind wheels just produced couple of kWh; new turbines now can produce millions of kWh a year with

Manuscript Received April 2, 2012; Revised April 25, 2012; Accepted April 28, 2012.

172


similar technique was known to have been used in Egyptian, Persian and early Christian places of worship. Hammurabi [21], emperor of the Babylonian Empire, used windmills for irrigation, around 17th century BC. Extensive use of windmills was made from the time of th Hammaurabi till the 15 century AD. The Persian people utilized windmills extensively by the middle of the 7th century BC. The machine was mounted on a horizontal axis and used axially disposed sails. Some authors have suggested that the introduction of the windmills into Europe be due to the Crusades, when the Crusader returned from the Middle East. The first English windmills dates back to 1191AD and the first windmills for milling appeared in Holland in 1439 AD [8-11]. The multi-blade windmills appeared in the 14th century. However, in the Schauplatz de Wasser Kunste (Journal of Hydraulic Arts.) printed in Leipzing in 1724, an eight-bladed windmill could be found. The blades rotate about an axis changing their orientation as the wind varies its speed. The construction of such types of multi-blade machines started in America, in 1870. They were spread everywhere and then they returned to Europe in 1876. In the middle of the 15th century, a simple type of multi-blade windmill was developed to pump water from underground and was used during the America West colonization. It is believed that at least 6.5 millions of these units were constructed between 1830 and 1930 by different companies. A great number of these units are still under operation. The use of wind power started to drop during the Industrial Revolution, when the Steam Engine was invented and cheap fossil fuels become widely available [12, 13].

II. PRESENT DAY WIND ELECTRICITY GENERATION Present day phase of wind electric generators (WEG) started with the oil crisis of Middle East during 1975, when renewed need was felt for the development of New and Renewable Sources of Energy. Work on the development of wind electric generators started in many countries notably Denmark, Germany, USA, UK, Netherlands etc. This development took into two directions: one large size and other small size [2-4]. While most of the countries concentrated on development of large MW size wind electric generators, Denmark followed a different path and started with the development of a smaller size machine, which happen to be 55kW capacities. These machines appeared in the USA and Denmark during 1981 that were found to be techno-commercial viable and were manufactured in large scale. These were up rated progressively; keeping the basic design features almost the same as the Gedser design. Various sizes of machines, which were developed subsequently, are l00kW; 150kW, 200kW, 250kW, 300kW, 400kW, 500kW, 600kW and now even l000kW to 1500kW machines are being introduced [18-22]. Now a days, many countries, like Germany, the USA, the UK, Australia, Japan, China, even India are manufacturing very small capacities i.e. 25 watts to 10 kW WEGs for very low wind speeds (1 m/s~5 m/s) [23-25].

III. PRESENT POWER SITUATION IN THE COASTAL SITES IN BANGLADESH A visit was organized by department of mechanical engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) collaboration with the department of sustainable rural energy (SRE), Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) by which the authors were visited the island to observe the present power situation and the existing wind power project in Kutubdia Island. The aim of the visit was to observe the running project, feasibility study, problems and the local people reactions etc. Kutubdia is an isolated island. Normally, electricity is generated by diesel generators in this remote island. There is a 250 KW diesel power station in this island. It is very expensive, difficult, highly risky and time consuming to transport diesel to this isolated island. Some people used solar

B. The Potential of Wind Power in the World The sun has been shining onto the earth for 4.5 billion years, delivering 47 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of heat and light every second. Due to temperature and humidity differences in the atmosphere and the rotation of the earth, 1.2 billion kWh (1.2%) are transformed into wind energy every second. Under consideration of a density of 6 MW on each square kilometer of floor area there is a worldwide technically useable potential of about 20,000TWh per year [1417]. 173


panel in their house. Bangladesh power development board provides power by a diesel generator shown below figure -

IV. POWER GENERATION ACHIEVEMENTS BY WIND IN BANGLADESH A wind Battery Hydride Power Plant is the first grid quality, 11 KV, largest and successful renewable energy project in Bangladesh and was supply 3 hours during day times and 3 to 4 hours during night times. The WBHPP has been running well for more than two years. They were supplying 0.60 to 0.80 MWH electrical energy every day at 11KV. The WBHPP supplied more than 240 MWh electrical energy to the consumers of the Kutubdia Upazilla Sadar.

Figure 2 (a): 1000KW Wind Battery Hydride Power Plant (so called Light House)

Figure 1: 250 KW Diesel Power Plant and its Generator Unit in Kutubdia Island.

Another alternative source of power of the island is 1 MW capacity Wind Battery Hybrid Power Project. It have been replacing directly diesel with the energy generated by the wind. When the WBHPP supply electricity at 11KV levels, the diesel generators are stopped completely. This Island has no industry or factories but have some office and market in Kutubdia Upazilla Sadar. So, most of the people’s needs power only for lighting and fan at night time. Only 50% of the total people are beneficial for the power.

Figure 2(b): Flow Diagram for 1000KW Capacity Wind Battery Hybrid Power Plant, Kutubdia Island.

During the visit it has been found that some problems exist in the WBHPP. It have some problem in design the turbine blades, necessary distance was not maintain between one turbine to another and the turbine base construction was not good. When wind blows some turbine tower was vibrating. Although the wind power plant have been supported different 174


natural climates like Aila, Narges, Seedor etc and damage different parts it. It was necessary to consider gusty wind characteristics in design the plant. Another demerit of the plant is 1000 pcs 12 V DC rechargeable batteries. The plant is unable to supply power without charge of its battery though wind velocity is available.

Figure 4 and 5 represent the monthly and daily variation of wind speed in Kutubdia. It has been shown that most of the month the wind velocity is more than 5 m/s but in 2001 and 2006 wind speed is more than other. So, most recently available data at 2006 has been analysis by Weibull’s distribution for searching wind power potential.

V. CUSTOMERS REACTION ABOUT THE POWER The visiting team also taken in consideration the customer’s reactions both they were got the power facilities and unaffiliated people. The facilitate people gives different massage about the power but everyone told that “the voltage and power of the electricity from the wind was very good than existing diesel generator and they got more light from the wind power”. The team also concern with Kutubdia diesel power plant, under Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB). They also told us that the wind power supplied up to 240 KW power continuous 5-6 hours per day. When wind power plant supply the power then the diesel power plant was shut down.

Figure 4: Monthly variation of Wind Speed at Kutubdia (2000-2006).

VI. POTENTIAL OF WIND POWER

Figure 5: Daily Variation of Wind Speed at 2006 in Kutubdia Island.

The above figure has shown the monthly variation of wind speed from 2000 to 2006. It has been clear that in most of the month the wind speed above 5 m/s and in almost every year from April to September wind velocity higher than 5 m/s. But another six month i.e. October to March blows seasonal wind and little bit lower than 5 m/s but not more or remarkable lower. It also shown that the wind speed at 2001 and 2006 has higher than others. From the below figure, clearly shown that the mean wind speed from April to September has above 7 m/s which is very good wind pattern for power generation.

Figure 3: Comparison of Annual Mean Wind Speed for Kutubdia and Sandwip Island.

From the above Figure, it has been clearly shown that the annual mean wind speed for Kutubdia is higher than Sandwip. It has also shown that the mean wind speeds in Kutubdia were above 5.5 m/s in every year from 2000 to 2006. So, Kutubdia is the selected site for next analysis.

175


The shape factor (k) and scale factor (c) were determined for each month. It has been found that the value of k remains in between 1.4 to 3.38 and that of c remains between 2.83 to 6.90. The most of the Weibull functions follow very close to the Raleigh function (k=2) for the selected site. In Kutubdia most of the peoples are poor and they have not needed continuously 24 hrs power supply. They need power only after sun set. So, the wind waves have enough potential for power generation.

VII. ANALYSIS OF WEIBULL’S DISTRIBUTION For more than half a century the Weibull distribution has attracted the attention of statisticians working on theory and methods as well as various fields of statistics. It is of utmost interest to theory orientated statisticians because of its great number of special features and to practitioners because of its ability to fit to data from various fields, ranging from life data to weather data or observations made in economics and business administration, in health, in physical and social science, in hydrology, in biology or in the engineering sciences. There are several methods by which Weibull shape factor, k and Weibull scale factor, c can be determined. Three popular methods for calculating Weibull Parameters are (a)Weibull paper method, (b) Standard deviation method, (c) Energy pattern factor method. The two important functions are describe below -

VIII. CONCLUSIONS In regard to the present wind data analysis the following conclusions are drawn: A. The monthly mean wind speed from March to October was found to be relatively higher velocity (5.25 to 9.00 ms-1) than that of other months. B. In diurnal variation of wind speed, the wind blows smoothly with minimum fluctuation of wind speed throughout the total hours in a day. C. In most of the months the Weibull’s shape factor becomes very closer to 2 i.e. Raleigh function k=2. It’s mean that the wave is smooth and regular. So, the wind can be used for electricity generation. D. The visiting team recommended that the Kutubdia is most prospective wind site for electricity generation. If the wind power project will extended by proper designing then all of the Kutubdia people will get the power facility.

Figure 6(a): Monthly variation of Weibull’s Shape factor (k) at Kutubdia Island.

REFERENCES [1] Renewable energy policy of Bangladesh, Ministry of Power, Energy and Minera Resources, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (Final, formulated in November 6, 2008). Available online at: http://www.reein.org/policy/policy_re.htm. [2] Hossain, M. A. and Islam, S. M. N., (1981), “Application of Wind Energy in the Rural Areas of Bangladesh”, A report on Wind Energy, Mechanical Engineering Department, BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh. [3] Hossain, M. A. and Islam, M. Q., (1982), “Sailwing Rotor for Pumping Water in Bangladesh”, Renewable Energy Journal, AIT, Bangkok, Thailand, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 29-35. [4] Hossain, M. A. and Islam, M. Q., (1981), “Savonius Rotor for Lifting Water in Bangladesh”, Journal of Mechanical

Figure 6(b): Monthly variation of Weibull’s Scale factor (c) at Kutubdia.

176


Engineering Research Bulletin, BUET, Dhaka, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 19-22.

[15] Sarkar, M., and Hussain, M., (1991), “The Potential of Wind Electricity Generation in Bangladesh”, Journal of Renewable Energy. Vol. 1, No. 5/6: pp 855-857.

[5] Islam, M. Q. and Salam, A., (1987), “The effect of Wind Shear on the Performance of a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine”, Renewable energy Review Journal, AIT, Bangkok, Thailand, Vol. 9 No. 2 pp. 81-90.

[16] Hussain, M., Alam, S. Reza, K. A., and Sarkar, M., “A Study of Wind Speed and Wind Energy Characteristics in Bangladesh”¸ Journal of Conversion Management.Vol. 26, No. 3/4: pp 321-327.

[6] Islam, M. Q. and Mandal, A. C., (1987), “Effect of Blade shapes on the Performance of a Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine ”, Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research Bulletin, BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Vol. 10, pp. 27-34.

[17] Hussain, M., (1982), “Solar and Wind Energy Potential for Bangladesh”, Center for Policy Research, University of Dhaka, November 30.

[7] Islam, M. Q. and Mandal, A. C., (1988), “A Theoretical Investigation of the Effect of Tower Shadow on the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine”, Journal of the Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh, Vol. 16, No.1, pp. 1-6.

[18] Hossain, A. Mainuddin, K., and Sayeed, A., (1997), “Energy Needs and Wind Energy Potential in the Coastal Areas of Bangladesh”, Presented at the 2nd seminar on Wind Energy Study (WEST) Project, LGED Auditorium, Agargaon, Dhaka.

[8] Mandal, A. C. and Islam, M. Q., (1988), “Effect of Blade Supporting Struts on the Performance of a Darrieus Wind Turbine”, Journal of the Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh, Vol. 16, No.2, pp. 9-12.

[19] Islam, M.Q., (1986), “A Theoretical Investigation of the Design of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines”, PhD Thesis, Vrijt Universiteit, Brussel, Belgium.

[9] Mandal, A. C. and Islam, M. Q., (1987), “Optimum Design of a Straight-Bladed Darrieus Wind Turbine at Variable Turbine Speed ”, Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research Bulletin, BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Vol. 10, pp. 54-62.

[20] Islam, M. Q., S. M. N, Islam, A. K. M. S., and Razzaque, M. M., (1995), “Application of Wind Energy for Irrigation Bangladesh”, Journal of Agriculture Mechanization in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Vol. 26.

[10] Alam, M. M. and Islam, M. Q., (1987), “Effect of Yaw on Rotor Stability of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines”, Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research Bulletin, BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Vol. 10, pp. 1-10.

[21] Alam, M. M., and Azad, A. K., (2009), “Analysis of Weibull Parameters for the Three Most Prospective Wind Sites of Bangladesh” Proceedings of the International Conference on Mechanical Engineering, Dhaka, Bangladesh, ICME09-FM-07.

[11] “Wind Energy Resources Mapping (WERM), 2003”, a project of Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) financed by United Nation Development Program (UNDP).

[22] Azad, A. K., and Alam, M. M., (2009), “Unusual Wind Behavior at Sitakundu of Bangladesh” Proceedings of the International Conference on Mechanical Engineering, Dhaka, Bangladesh, ICME09-RT-09.

[12] Islam, M. Rafiqul, Islam, M. Rabiul and Alam Beg, M. Rafiqul, (2008), “Renewable Energy Resources and Technologies Practices in Bangladesh”, International Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 12, Issue 2, pp. 299 – 343.

[23] Alam, M. M., and Azad, A. K., (2009), “Irregular Wind Gust at Sitakundu of Bangladesh” 1st International Conference on the Developments in Renewable Energy Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh, pp 177-180. [24] Azad, A. K., and Alam, M. M., (2010), “Statistical Analysis of Wind Power Potential at Pakshey River Delta Region, Bangladesh”, 13th Asian Congress of Fluid Mechanics, Dhaka, Bangladesh, pp. 517-520.

[13] Azad, A. K., Alam, M. M. and Islam, M. Rafiqul, (2010), “Statistical Analysis of Wind Gust at Coastal Sites of Bangladesh” International Journal of Energy Machinery, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 9-17.

[25]

[14] Alam, M. M. and Burton, J. D., (1998), “The Coupling of Wind Turbine to Centrifugal Pumps”, Journal of Wind Engineering. Vol. 22, No. 5: pp223-234.

177

Azad, A. K., and Alam, M. M., (2010), “Determination of Wind Gust Factor at Windy Areas of Bangladesh” 13th Asian Congress of Fluid Mechanics, IUT, Dhaka, Bangladesh, pp. 521-524.


th

Md. Abul Kalam Azad was born on 10 August, 1984. He has done Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET); Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the year 2010. He has more than 16 papers that have been published in different international journals and conferences proceedings. His areas of interest are renewable energy, computational fluid dynamics and its application, heat and mass transfer, bio-fuel, Global energy and environmental issue.

178