Seismic Activity Impact Mitigation on Wind Turbine and Solar PV Energy Output Production

Abstract

The occurrence of seismic activity in regions that are previously considered to have a low seismic profile raises challenges to obtaining continuous energy output. In this case, the continuous energy output is that associated with renewable wind turbines and renewable solar power systems. The occurrence of seismic activity with low to moderate ground displacement is recognized to be a threat to the energy output from renewable energy systems. The research being presented in this paper addresses this challenge and proposes the incorporation of mobility in wind turbines and components of solar power systems. The mobility feature enables the components to be capable of changing location in response to harmful variation in the ground displacement in the surrounding region. Performance evaluation via simulation shows that the proposed mechanism enhances the solar power system and wind power system power output by an average of 49.3%, and 63.1%, respectively.