Modelling the wind potential energy for metallurgical sector in Albania

Abstract

The metallurgical industry, in the context of the global energy crisis and the new European green deal, needs urgent investments on energy and resource efficiency. The metallurgical sector, which includes the production of different metals is an energy-intensive industry that requires large amounts of energy for various processes such as smelting, refining, and casting. One of the largest consumptions of energy in Albania comes from the metallurgical sector during the production of iron, steel, chromium and aluminum which corresponds respectively to three private companies called “Kurum International Ltd”, “AlbChorme Ltd” and “Everest Ltd”. During the last three years, these companies have temporary interrupted the production process due to the higher electricity price that come from imports. Based on it, our research work presents the energy efficiency analysis in the Albanian metallurgical sector by focusing on the implementation of wind energy in the above mentioned private metallurgical companies, because adding new generation capacity from Renewable Energy Sources in a context of industrial energy communities, will contribute to improve the security of supply for this industry. The Wind Balkan Atlas, New European Wind Atlas, and Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program (WAsP) has been used to select the appropriate areas and to develop the wind potential distribution maps, as well as to select the most suitable type of wind turbine based on capacity factors. Two areas were selected close to the metallurgical sectors in the regions of “Vajkal” in Bulqizë and “Selitë e Malit” in Tirana. It has been installed the power of 9 MW for each wind farm, with a capacity factor of 40% and 36.6% respectively, and with a total annual energy production of about 60 GWh/year, these wind farms will cover about 26% of the total annual consumption of companies. Clean Energy Management Software (RETScreen Expert) was used for the detailed economic analysis and environmental impact of proposed wind farms. The economic sensitivity analysis of the proposed wind farms showed that even for the highest installation cost value of 1350 €/kW, for discount rates 5, 7, and 11%, the LCoE values are within the statistically established range for wind farms in Europe.