ABSTRACT
To do this it is necessary to estimate a cost function for every component of the wind turbine and a maintenance cost. From a purely technical point of view, the optimum design could be a wind turbine which for a given rotor diameter captures as many kWh/year as possible. If the turbine is sited where the wind speed Vo is constant in time, it is obvious to optimize the power coefficient at this wind speed. Since in practice wind speed is not constant, however, an optimum design could have lower Cp,max as sketched in the second design in Figure 8.1.
