Assessing the potential wind resource available for standalone renewable street lighting in the urban environment -- Cardiff, a case study.

Rhodes, Michael 2009. Assessing the potential wind resource available for standalone renewable street lighting in the urban environment -- Cardiff, a case study. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.

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Abstract

Street lighting is a significant energy load for local authorities in the UK (currently 16% of the annual energy load for Cardiff City Council) and standalone hybrid renewable street lighting systems, powered by small wind turbines and / or PV panels, may help to reduce the associated carbon emissions. This thesis considers the potential wind resource available for these novel systems when deployed in urban settings. A literature review of street lighting standards, urban wind regime, siting guidance and modelling methods has been undertaken, together with a review of current policy development that may promote the wider use of such systems in urban locations. A case study location in Cardiff was selected based on its urban nature and close proximity to an existing weather monitoring station. Here 3 no. monitoring stations were sited for 9 months and the resulting wind data was used to calculate energy yields for 12 small wind turbines which were also compared with the results from an existing energy yield estimator tool. While the tool predicted no or very little energy yield, the monitored data suggested th a t the available wind resource has the potential to allow small wind turbines to contribute a proportion of the power required by street lighting systems at these locations (between 24% and 60% for the best performing turbine, dependant on the load). In order to identify the potential maximum wind energy yield, physical modelling (boundary layer wind tunnel) was employed. This method was found to enable the differentiation of sites but cannot be seen as a substitute fo r physical monitoring. Limitations to the deployment of these lighting systems in the urban environment include: regulation, practical and physical factors, together with the poor performance (characterised by low capacity factors) of the wind turbines studied. These factors lead to the recommendation of this study that hybrid street lighting systems are not located in dense urban areas without further research and development. Further work should focus on the advances made in CFD modelling and low energy lighting since this study was undertaken.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Architecture
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NA Architecture T Technology > TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
Funders:	Technology Transfer Initiative
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2016 23:29
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/54171

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