Role of Wind as a Renewable Energy - Wind Energy Systems for Electric Power Generation - page 6

Fig. 1.4 Concentration of installed wind power in the EU
Due to the meteorological variations in wind availability, energy storage is also an
important issue of rising interest.
Another aspect is that the utilities have begun to establish additional require-
ments, in order to have the wind park operators contribute to the supply of reactive
power and provide ride-through capabilities in case of grid failures, similar to what
is expected from conventional power stations. This poses a challenge to the manu-
facturing industry.
The development of wind turbines is reflected in the increase of power per in-
stalled unit. Figure 1.5 shows the values for Germany from 1987 to 2007 [End08]. It
is seen that the average generator power has reached 1800 kW. Units of 2 , 3 ... 3MW
are commercially available; and in course of installing future offshore windparks
Fig. 1.5 Average installed power per unit in Germany, in kW