The situation of wind energy in Hungary

The first lecture of the József Liska memorial semester of the BUTE SBC was given by Szabolcs Molnár, the Supervisory Production Director of MVM .

In the first part of the lecture, we heard a brief overview of the current situation of MVM in Hungary. The company has 4 GW of installed electricity capacity, which allowed for the production of 20 TWh of gross energy per year in 2022. This share represents 59% of the Hungarian energy consumption. The speaker also briefly discussed the need for energy generation diversification for a stable and sustainable operation.

This was followed by a quick overview of the history of wind energy harnessing, from its maritime applications to its current use. Wind energy has been expanding rapidly in recent decades, with a global installed generation capacity of 406 GW, though only 323 MW is installed in Hungary, with the largest power plant park in Sopronkövesd with 16 MW.

The energy conversion mechanisms of wind power and their impact on output are then discussed. The amount of electricity generated depends on the speed and humidity of the air, the surface area swept by the rotor, the speed of the wind and is also affected by wind loss. The efficiency of wind turbines can be increased by extending the blade length and height and by improving the generator. In addition to this information, we learned about how turbines work and how to explain the physics behind them.

We then discussed the causes of wind formation, the presence of global and local air movements and topography. In general, continental wind strengths are decreasing in Europe due to warming and the poleward pull of cyclones. In Hungary, the prevailing wind direction is north-westerly, with a relative frequency of 15-35%. The typical wind speed is 2-4 m/s, which allows only low-power turbines to be installed.

The presentation was concluded with a few words about the phenomena to be taken into account when installing a turbine and the Hungarian wind energy strategy. These factors included the energy content of the wind, the roughness classes, the wake effect and the park effect – the proximity of turbines to each other. The installed wind power capacity in Hungary is expected to increase by 100-600 MW by 2030 and is predicted to reach 700-1800 MW by 2050.