Miscalculations on the Estimation of Annual Energy Output (AEO) of Wind Farm Projects

When the economical feasibility of any wind farm project is carried out, the power curve of the candidate wind turbine is used for estimating the Annual Energy Output (AEO). Next, the AEO is used for estimating the levelized production cost (LPC), which is a key parameter used for estimating the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of the project, which is one of the main indicators used by the investors. Therefore, any error or uncertainty introduced in the estimation of the AEO will affect the value of the estimated IRR. Once that the project is built this error could be responsible of the economic failure of the project to a greater or lesser extent.In this paper it is addressed a sensibility analysis of the error on AEO estimations that could be generated by using a power curve obtained with a trading power curve of a wind turbine, as well as the effect on the estimation of the LPC.