Applications and Wind Industry - Wind Energy: Renewable Energy and the Environment - page 208

FIGURE 10.5 Fourteen of the 21 wind turbines, 10 kW each, at Mazongshan Township, Gansu Province,
China. (Photo by Charlie Dou. With permission.)

visited to check on performance. A large hybrid village system (Figure 10.5) is in Gansu Province,
which had a projected load of ~235 kW. Mazhongshan Township was 158 km from the nearest util-
ity grid. The village power system consists of 210 kW wind power and 90 kW PV, which is divided
into three groups. Each group includes seven 10 kW wind turbines, 30 kW PV, a battery bank of
240 V, 3,000 Ah, and a 100 kW DC-AC inverter, and the system provides electricity to one part of
the township.

10.5.2 C ASE S TUDY : W IND V ILLAGE P OWER S YSTEM
Huaerci [34] is a village in the mountainous area of eastern Xinjiang Province with 90 households,
360 inhabitants, with the primary economic activity being animal husbandry. The income per cap-
ita is well below the national poverty level. The distance to the nearest electricity grid is 110 km,
and the roads are very bad. Lighting at night was provided by candles, and for children to do their
homework, most families used two candles per night. The renewable resources are wind (annual
mean wind speed, 8.3 m/s) and solar (annual average, 3,100 h).
The system configuration chosen was a single 10 kW wind turbine, a 55 kWh battery bank, and
a 7.5 kW DC-AC inverter. The system produces around 50 kWh/day. The project was financed by a
government-subsidized loan, 5 years at 3% interest.
The system provides 24 h power for the ninety households, two village offices, a school, and a
TV transmitting station. All lightbulbs are energy saving, and since installation of the system, ten
color TVs, thirty black-and-white TVs, and one CD player have been purchased. The peak resi-
dential load is about 5 kW, and energy consumption is around 300 kWh/month, with an additional
45 kWh/month for the institutional loads.
A Village Power Management Committee is composed of village officials, representatives of
the villagers, and the deputy director of the border control stations. A tariff of 1.2 Yuan/kWh
($0.16/kWh) is charged to all customers. Most of the revenue will be used for maintenance costs,
so there should be enough cash flow to replace the battery bank, but the village power system is not
fully commercialized. There is a part-time operator. No productive loads are served to date due to
limited system capacity.
Lessons learned are:

r Load analysis and prediction is important. Proper system configuration to match the load

is a critical factor for system cost recovery.
Six renewable energy village power systems have been developed in Barkol County. This r

provides a great opportunity to develop a multiple project management entity and to intro-
duce a commercialized model to ensure sustainability.