Is Community Power Blowin’ in the Wind?
One advantage for solar over wind power is its ability to integrate with relative seamlessness into the municipal landscape. Wind turbines have either been too large, such as the 300-ft. tall behemoths comprising remote wind farms, or quite small, just big enough to power a single home. A dilemma for wind energy proponents has been how to create an effective, quiet, community-friendly midsize turbine for use with schools, government buildings, and other community-based facilities.
Middle Ground
Now a handful of wind turbine manufacturers are releasing products they hope will quell the issue of midsize wind power. Instead of the huge 3,000 kilowatt rated turbines shipped out to utility-scale farms on fleets of trucks, there are now much smaller 150 to 300 kilowatt turbines on the market — or coming soon. Manufacturers also hope these turbines will be found useful and financially sound in areas not known for a high wind resource. That includes Connecticut-based Optiwind, formed two years ago specifically to make midsize turbines that work in places like its home state and are geared toward schools, water treatment plants, and businesses — facilities with high energy needs which also lie within the community electrical grid.
There wind enthusiasts run into the hurdle of a population often leery of potential noise pollution, visual appeal, and flickering lights. In response Optiwind has varied considerably from the now-conventional three-blade turbine design. Instead they’ve opted for a cylindrical design (still about 200 feet tall) which has fans mounted on either side. The idea is that the wind will hit the circular structure swirl around it and through the fans, thus concentrating the wind so that it will enter the fans at a higher density and produce more power using less space.
FloDesign Wind Turbine has another design adapted from the jet engine concept. They are currently working on a prototype using venture capital funds that also stresses the notion of more power in less space. FloDesign hopes to have a product on the market by 2011.
Northern Power is yet another midsize turbine maker, only this company is sticking with the three-blade design. Instead of changing the look, they’ve altered the innards. Instead of a conventional gear box, the Northwind 100 (rated at 100 kilowatts) utilizes a direct drivetrain and a generator using permanent magnets, resulting in a quieter and more reliable turbine.
In Action
One example of a mid-size turbine at work can be found at the Hyannis Country Gardens in Cape Cod. After three years of obtaining permits, paying for studies on light flickering and acoustics, as well as hosting town hall meetings, the garden center finally got a 120-foot turbine up and running. It happens to be quieter than the center’s irrigation system and, after about four months, the turbine produced more electricity than the garden center consumes, generating an extra $1,200 worth of electricity.
This turbine is going a long way toward swaying public opinion around Cape Cod regarding wind power, an important turn as wind proponents in the area continue to push for their offshore wind project, aptly titled “Cape Wind.”
Indeed these sorts of innovations could come in quite useful in coastal communities at either end of the country, as well as in towns and cities in Texas, the Dakotas, and other more renowned windy places. The potential is especially easy to see for many coastal communities where wind is an abundant resources but the natural terrain does not leave a whole lot of room for onshore wind farms.
Even the makers of these turbines admit that at this point it would take a good mix of wind, high electricity costs, and incentives to make the turbines worthwhile. Yet more exhibitions like that of the Hyannis Country Gardens will really aid in their cause, bringing notoriety and assuaging longstanding community fears regarding wind production — two big steps for the wind industry.
Source: CNET News
Posted on July 1st in Solar Electric by Dan.