Improved CoE through turbine design, maintenance and operation for onshore and offshore wind turbines.

The Cost of Energy (CoE) for a wind turbine is described as the overall cost per kWh produced (unit cost) and has been traditionally calculated by discounting and levelising investment and O&M costs over the lifetime of the WT, divided by the annual electricity production. [1]
In modern wind turbines the drivetrain is one of the main areas that differentiate one turbine type from another. As a result while investigating the CoE for different turbine designs, the different drivetrain types will be the primary area of focus. In the past the Cost of Energy has been modelled for wind energy in general [1] but not for specific wind turbine types.
Operations and maintenance costs can make up 20-25% of the annual levelised costs for a wind turbine this in turn drives up the CoE. [2] From this it can be seen that availability, Lost Production Factor (LPF) and maintenance/operation strategies impact on the CoE. A brief initial literature review showed few publications relating to the effect on the CoE from maintenance/operation strategies, LPF and availability.
As the CoE for wind power is currently higher than for rival generation techniques such as gas and coal [2], methods of reducing the CoE for wind generation through design, maintenance and operation are worth investigating.