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Economic and financial optimization of a wind park revamping: a case study
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Andrea Bartolazzi SR International srl, Italy ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL OPTIMIZATION OF A WIND PARK REVAMPING: A CASE STUDY Abstract ID: 298 Poster code: PO.054 | Download poster: ![]() |
Presenter's biography
Biographies are supplied directly by presenters at WindEurope 2016 and are published here uneditedMr. Andrea Bartolazzi has been working in the wind industry for more than 15 years. He is currently a managing partner for Studio Rinnovabili a wind and renewables consulting company. He holds a M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Rome. He is a chartered engineer and chartered acoustician. Worked on green technologies in engine cooling development and fan development, United Technologies, 1994-1999. In a wind and solar developer, FERA, 2001-2004. In 2004 co-founded Studio Rinnovabili (later SR International). In 2005 wrote for Hoepli, Italy's most important technical publisher, a book on renewable energy systems "Le Energie Rinnovabili".
Abstract
Economic and financial optimization of a wind park revamping: a case study
Introduction
We present an economic and financial optimization on a wind park revamping in Italy.
Wind park revamping refers to designing in the same site and with the same boundaries a new wind park that typically contains less turbines of greater power and/or bigger size and delivers approximately the same maximal power with possibly higher capacity factor. Further purpose of the revamping is to produce more energy, possibly with less environmental impact.
Approach
The optimization considers as inputs the evaluation of existing infrastructures, the wind data from the site in terms of IEC class and of productivity, and the evaluation of some different alternatives of design for the new layout. The costs associated with these alternatives are then used in a business and financial model to evaluate economic outcomes.
Main body of abstract
Some of the costs necessary to build the park have already been sustained in the old project. For this reason the plant cost and the production in a revamping can be significantly more convenient than in the old park. If we add the fact that old turbines and some infrastructure can be sold and therefore represent a value we see how evaluating a revamping is a pretty complicated matter. The optimization considers that some equipment can be preserved from the original park, as for example electric lines, roads, electric stations, even if they are old and therefore subject to higher maintenance costs. The existence of some infrastructures influences the choice of max power and therefore of turbines.
This analysis is typically performed in wind parks that were built 10 or more years ago, and for this reason are frequently windier than sites that are under development from greenfield. For this reason in the wind assessment we analyze different layouts and turbines in order to achieve the best economic result and understand what differs from the case of a new park.
Conclusion
Final scope of the work is calculate a new internal rate of return (IRR) and a cost for the energy. It will be shown that a revamping can lead to costs of energy that are significantly lower that in the previous plant.
Learning objectives
As a secondary result of this work, in order to take advantage of general rules that emerged from the analysis we present guidelines for the evaluation and calculation of wind park revamping.
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