Wind-Diesel Hybrid Power Systems

Wind-diesel Hybrid Power Systems are designed to provide electrical generating capacity to remote communities and facilities that are not linked to a power grid. In remote communities previously, diesel-engine linked generating sets have often been the sole source of power as they offer a high degree of reliability. The introduction of wind-diesel hybrid systems reduces reliance on diesel fuel, which creates pollution and is costly to transport.

History
Wind-diesel generating systems have been under development and trialled in a number of locations during the latter part of the 20th century. A growing number of viable sites have now been developed with increased reliability of the systems. This is key to their success, as minimizing the cost of technical support in remote communities is vital for the ongoing development and implementation of this technology.

Technology
The successful integration of wind energy with diesel generating sets relies on complex controls to ensure correct sharing of intermittent wind energy and controllable diesel generation to meet the demand of the usually variable load.

The common measure of performance for wind diesel systems is Wind Penetration which is the ratio between Wind Power and Total Power delivered, e.g. 60% wind penetration implies that 60% of the system power comes from the wind. Wind Penetration figures can be either peak or long term. Sites such as Mawson, Coral Bay and Bremer Bay have peak wind penetrations of around 90%.

Technical solutions to the varying wind output include controlling wind output using variable speed Wind Turbines (e.g. Enercon, Denham), controlling demand such as the heating load (e.g. Mawson),storing energy in a flywheel (e.g. Powercorp, Coral Bay).

Some installations are now being converted to Wind Hydrogen systems such as Ramea which is due for completion in 2008

Isolated communities using Wind-Diesel systems
Isolated communities utilizing commercial Wind-Diesel hybrid systems with significant proportion from wind

Power generation

 * Fossil fuel power and petro-free
 * Hydropower
 * Nuclear Power
 * Solar power
 * World energy resources and consumption
 * Wind-Hydrogen Hybrid Power Systems

Green energy

 * Green energy
 * Green tax shift
 * Grid energy storage
 * Renewable energy
 * Wind
 * Windmill
 * Wind farm
 * Wind turbine