TECHNO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF WIND POWER GENERATION AT VARYING HUB HEIGHTS FOR WATER PUMPING APPLICATION IN NIGERIA

The lack of access to clean and affordable energy supply is one of the factors affecting people's socioeconomic life and well-being in several local communities in Nigeria. This has birthed several other issues such as a lack of potable water, good healthcare service, etc. Therefore, this paper presents the techno-economic design and analysis of wind power-based water pumping systems, considering the average daily wind speed of a location in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. The wind potential was modelled using a two-parameter Weibull distribution to determine its viability for water pumping in the location. Five 25-kW, pitch-controlled wind turbines (WT1 - WT5) from different manufacturers with dissimilar characteristics were examined at varying hub heights. The annual energy generated, the cost of energy (COE) and the cost/m3 of water produced (Cunit) were then evaluated. The results indicate that WT3 has the least COE ranging from $0.03/kWh to $0.13/kWh and Cunit ranges from $0.003/m3 to $0.012/m3 for hub-heights of 10m to 50m, while WT5 has the highest COE ranging from $0.011/kWh to $0.64/kWh and Cunit ranges from $0.011/m3 to $0.063/m3for hub- heights of 10m to 50m. The results further reveal that the proposed system is more economically viable than the public utility system.