Wind Energy Balance-of-plant Design
Wind Energy Balance-of-Plant Design covers wind resource assessment, turbine selection, civil and electrical infrastructure design, and project economics including LCOE.
Summary
Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 3.55 GPA, 80.0% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.54 GPA, 80.8% A/AB (n=26 letter grades).
What you’ll be able to do
Provide the necessary steps to evaluate the wind resource at a prospective site by characterizing and correlating (vertically and horizontally) the wind speed distribution functions
Translate (forward and backward) wind power: kinetic to mechanical to electrical and select appropriate wind turbine given site wind resource and turbine power curve
Demonstrate knowledge of the mechanics and principles of the tower load document, shallow and deep foundation designs, transportation logistics, geotechnical investigation and reporting, thermal resistivity and collection system design, and interconnection
Develop civil balance-of-plant engineering calculation design bases for access roads, stormwater control, turbine foundations, and crane pads and electrical balance-of-plant engineering calculation design bases for the collection system, grounding, substation design, and interconnection
Analyze sustainability issues and/or practices using a systems-based approach.
Describe the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of wind energy and identify potential tradeoffs and interrelationships among these dimensions at an intermediate level.
Prepare an economic Pro Forma for a successful distributed wind project and calculate Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) and environmental Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of green-house gasses, water use, and CO2 per kW h.
Source: UW Guide 1· UW Guide 2
Grade history
↗All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors
Prerequisites
Course mapPHYSICS 201, 207, 247,E M A 201, graduate/professional standing, or member of Engineering Guest Students
- PHYSICS 201
- PHYSICS 207
- PHYSICS 247
- EMA 201
- graduate/professional standing, or member of Engineering Guest Students
“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.
Prerequisite text tree
- Any of
- PHYSICS 201
- PHYSICS 207
- PHYSICS 247
- EMA 201
- graduate/professional standing, or member of Engineering Guest Students
Professors
Spring 2027No instructors recorded for this selection.
Historical instructors & teaching patterns
Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.
Calendar & sections
Spring 2027Schedule loads here as you scroll.
| Section | Mode | Enrolled / capacity | Waitlist |
|---|
Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.
Meeting source records
No records available.
Student experience
the class
Recent recorded grades — Spring 2022: 3.55 GPA, 80.0% A/AB (n=30 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.54 GPA, 80.8% A/AB (n=26 letter grades).
difficulty & workload
No workload feedback recorded.
Topics
- Wind energy science, turbine basics, and resource assessment
- Balance-of-plant design: site layout, foundations, and electrical infrastructure
- Project development: permitting, stakeholder engagement, and energy policy
Skills
- Wind resource assessment and characterization of wind speed distributions
- Civil and electrical balance-of-plant engineering design
- Economic pro forma preparation and LCOE calculation
Grades
Latest available · Spring 2024— not enough history to project Spring 2027.
Grade distribution · % of letter grades
Grades over time
Through Spring 2024
More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data
Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.
Sources & history
Catalog & offerings
Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.
Catalog observation history
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Raw records
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Student reviews
Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.
Read original reviews
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Grade history
Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.
Explore recorded gradesRecorded 2026-10-14
Model outputs & technical records
LLM outputs across runs
Full model traces
Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.
Model & dataset provenance
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