INNOVATION POLICY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT
Economic Comparison of the Two Proposed Wind Farms in Mamaj, Albania
The study addresses to an economic comparison of two proposed wind farms in the same area in Mamaj, Albania, respectively 10.8 MW and 12.6 MW. The 12.6 MW wind farm proposed is predicted to produce 34 GWh energy, with a capacity factor of 30.8%, while the 10.8 MW wind farm is predicted to produce 30.4 GWh, with a capacity factor of 32%. For the 12.6 MW wind farm since there is a higher installed power, is expected to produce more energy, but referring that they will be built in same area, the wake losses will indicate in overall efficiency of the wind farm. The wake losses calculated for the 10.8 MW wind farm are 0.98%, meantime for the 12.6 MW wind farm wake losses is calculated 2.58%, means that the overall efficiency of the 10.8 MW wind farms is higher. For the economic evaluation RETScreen Expert software is used. With a discount rate of 7%, the benefit-cost ratio is 2.9 and simple payback period 7.6 years for 10.8MW wind farm, and for the 12.6 MW the benefit-cost ratio is calculated 2.6, with a simple payback year of 8 years.