The curious case of wind power in the desert

While warm desert climates typically provide excellent conditions for photovoltaics, there are also desert regions with very good wind power resources. Due to its different generation profile, wind power could complement photovoltaics and batteries especially in large scale power grids where wind power can enjoy economies of scale. However, there is a need to insulate the turbines from dust and sand as well as prevent excess heat. Since stock wind turbines have not been designed for sandy conditions, and there is no readily available information on the additional costs caused by maintaining wind turbines in desert conditions, this article explores the scenarios under which wind power could be an important part of desert power systems. The case study concerns a system from the middle of Algeria in the Sahara Desert, a power grid serving eight cities with a peak load of 400 MW. The system has sufficient gas-based generation capacity, so PV and wind power are profitable only if their investment costs can be compensated by operational cost savings from the gas power plants. The model minimized total investment and operational costs and yields a least cost system portfolio. Under a large variation of assumptions, wind power remains the most cost-effective source of energy with the exceptions of the most extreme scenario.