Title: Economic analysis for a wind turbine in Vadravadra Village in Fiji

Authors: R.D. Prasad, R.C. Bansal, M. Sauturaga

Addresses: School of Engineering and Physics, The University of the South Pacific Suva, Laucala Campus, Suva, Fiji Islands. ' School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia Campus, Qld, 4072, Australia. ' Department of Energy, P. O. Box 2493, Government Buildings, Suva, Fiji Islands

Abstract: With nearly 90% of all the life cycle costs (LCC) of a wind power plant being upfront, the financial and economic viability of electricity generation from wind energy is dependent on the level and extent of energy content in wind prevalent at a particular site and also on the payment expected for power generated. This paper presents a brief overview on the economics of wind energy conversion systems (WECS). This paper also presents an economic analysis on two cases: 1 for a wind turbine alone installed at Vadravadra site in Gau Island in Fiji; 2 for a hybrid of wind-diesel configuration. A number of economic related parameters were calculated for the two cases. RETScreen software was also used to perform economic analysis on the wind turbine installed at the site and it was compared with the economic analysis done using cash flow.

Keywords: economic analysis; wind turbines; wind energy; wind power; energy costs; Fiji; life cycle costs; electricity generation; energy economics; energy conversion.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2009.023246

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2009 Vol.4 No.1/2, pp.41 - 59

Published online: 15 Feb 2009 *

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