Transcript Wind Farms - Fenwick High School

Can America’s Energy Problems be
Gone with the Wind?
By: Erin Wright and Mary Beth McLean
History of Wind
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Wind has been a part of history from
the beginning.
The early shipbuilding civilizations
relied on the power of wind to propel
their ships through the water.
The Dutch built some of the first wind
mills in order to mill grain and corn.
Since the 1970s, the United States has
been harnessing kinetic energy from the
wind and turning it into electricity.
What is a Wind Farm?
Wind Turbine: energy producing
windmill-like structure that converts
mechanical energy, produced by the
spinning rotar blades, into electric energy.
Wind farm: Many inter-connected wind
turbines that combine energy through a
grid-connected system.
Different Locations of Wind Farms
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Three types of Wind Turbines based on location : offshore, near-shore, and onshore turbines.
Different Turbine Designs
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There are many different ways to build a windpower creating unit, including designs such as:
Darrieus wind turbine • The Giromill • Savonius wind turbine • Windstar turbines
Horizontal axis Wind Turbine
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But the most common is the
horizontal wind turbine, which
seems to work the most reliably
and efficiently for a variety of
different situations.
Typically involves three rotar
blades spinning on a horizontal
axis connecter to a long tower
through which the power cables
run down.
Horizontal Wind Turbines
-The movement of the wind
over the aerodynamically
shaped blades makes them
rotate around a horizontal hub.
-This is connected to a shaft
inside the nacelle, where the
generator and gearbox are
found.
-The gearbox is a system of
gears that transmits the
mechanical power from the
blades to the generator.
-The generator converts the
rotating mechanical energy
into electricity.
Horizontal Wind Turbines (cont.)
-The power cables then carry
the electrical power to a
transformer which converts the
electricity to a high voltage
before running it back to
connect to the grid at a
substation.
-By connecting hundreds of
wind turbines throughout a land
(or water) region, you are
always guaranteed shared power
even if the wind is not blowing
in a particular area on the grid
region.
Horizontal
Wind Turbines
gearbox- A system of gears that
transmits the mechanical power
from the blades to the generator.
Generator-A machine that converts
mechanical energy into electricity.
Nacelle-The housing for the
generator and gearbox.
Yaw Mechanism- measures how
much the rotors are spinning off
axis due to wind stress and works to
keeps the blades in the direction of
the wind wherever that may be.
Wind Farm Facts
o The total height of the EcoEnergy wind turbine from the ground to the tip
of a blade is 397 feet.
o The rotar blades measure 131 feet long.
o Only 1% of America’s electricity comes from wind power.
o Each of EcoEnergy Wind ’s 1.5 megawatt wind turbines produces an
average of 4 million kilowatt hours of energy each year, releasing no C02
emissions. A typical power plant burning fossil fuel to produce the same
amount of energy releases 6.84 million pounds of pollutants into the air.
Information from
www. ecoenergyllc.com,
official EcoEnergy wind farm website
How Much Energy does a Wind
Turbine Create?
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Different turbine designs generate different amounts of power.
Individual turbines, even of the same design, will differ in the amount
of energy that they produce.
EcoEnergy’s turbines create approximately 1.5 megawatts (MW) of
power each.
The average American household uses about 10,655 kilowatt-hours
(kWh) of electricity each year.
One MW of wind energy can generate from 2.4 to more than 3
million kWh each year, so each one of EcoEnergy’s turbines can
generate enough electricity to power 337 - 422 homes each year.
Information from
www. ecoenergyllc.com,
official EcoEnergy wind farm website
Advances in Wind Farm Technology
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The first wind farms featured turbines with
blades that were forced to rotate at a rapid rate
to produce minimal efficiency. As a result,
some people believed that birds and bats were
killed by the rapidly rotating blades.
Now, wind turbines feature larger blades that
rotate at a slower rate.
The National Audubon Society now endorses
wind technology.
New wind turbine technology has also allowed
for more efficient turbines in areas where the
wind doesn’t blow extremely rapidly.
New generators have also allowed for more
“grid friendly” wind farms. This has been
achieved through low voltage grid ride thru
technology (LVRT).
Wind Farm Advantages
The advantages of wind power include:
 Free fuel source
 Environmentally benign
 No harmful emissions of greenhouse gases or other chemicals
 Safe for the surrounding environment
 Wind is the fastest growing form of alternative energy in the
United States in terms of overall market penetration.
 Wind is one of the most cost-efficient large scale renewable
energy sources.
 Wind energy does not deplete any non-renewable natural
resources.
Wind Farm Advantages (cont.)
In 2000, the Harvard School of Public Health looked at the
human health effects from two fossil-fuel-fired power
plants in Massachusetts. It estimates that the air pollution
from the plants each year causes:
-159 premature deaths
-1,710 emergency room visits
-43,300 asthma attacks
The creation of alternative energy sources contributes to
lessening the harmful effects of fossils fuels.
 CO2, the gas oftentimes associated with global warming, is
not produced by wind energy.
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Wind Farm Disadvantages
Wind power disadvantages include:
•wind farms take up land space
•need a lot of funding to make, even if they will pay off later
•some people believe they take away from the beauty of the
landscape
•concern for birds and the turbine blades, but recent
improvements made sure that blades move slow enough that
they so not pose a real threat to wildlife.
•When interconnecting grids across large expanse of land are
not utilized, wind energy becomes very unpredictable and
inefficient. However, when wind farms are connected, the
wind output becomes more mathematically predictable.
Important Factors in constructing a
successful wind farm:
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A strong wind resource
An area with physical and topographical advantages
(Elevation, etc.)
o An area that is
interconnected to a grid
o These factors narrow
possible wind farm locations
in the Midwest to pockets
where successful wind farms
can be created.
Wind Farms in our Area
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Stephenson County, IL
100 MW
25000 homes
$200 million
9 months
200 jobs (6-10
permanent)
$11 million in taxes
No burden to local
infrastructure
Financial Implications
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Economically
Competitive
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Production Tax
Credit
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Boom and Bust Cycle
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Legislation
United States vs. Europe
USA:
-Legislation
-Willingness
-Oil Prices
-Energy Crisis
-Predictions for the
future: 2030
Europe:
-Offshore Technology
-10 years ahead of the
United States
-Leading European
countries
-Predictions for the future
Current Wind Energy Statistics
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The United States can currently
generate more than 10,000 MW of
electricity of the wind, which is
enough to power 2.5 million
average American homes.
California the state in which the
most wind power development has
occurred. In 2004, California
possessed 2096 MW of wind
generating capacity.
One MW of wind energy is
capable of supplying energy to 240300 average American homes.
Wind Energy Statistics
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Wind plant typically cost approximately $1000 per kilowatt of
installed capacity.
In total, the installed 6,740 MW of wind energy (as of January
2005) account for nearly $7 billion in investments in the US wind
market.
The current power
capacity of the Illinois wind
market is 735.66MW.
Technology capable of
producing an additional
171MW is currently being
constructed in various
locations throughout the
state.
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World Leaders in Wind Capacity
World Leaders in Wind Capacity
December 2004
Country
Germany
Spain
United States
Capacity (MW)
16,629
8,263
6,740
Denmark
3,117
India
3,000
Italy
1,125
Netherlands
1,078
United Kingdom
888
Japan
874
China
764
America’s Energy Crisis
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In 1999, the United States consumed 95 quadrillion BTUs of
energy, while only producing 61 quadrillion BTUs. = 34
quadrillion BTU energy deficit.
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We use more energy than we produce domestically.
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Along with dependence on expensive imported energy, the need
to transport energy over large distances contributes to the
shortage and cost of American energy.
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Our economy is threatened because all aspects of it are
dependent on a steady supply of affordable energy, which we
can no longer depend on.
America’s Energy Crisis
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Economic growth and increased energy demand are closely
linked to increased emissions of CO2.
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The recent "energy takeoff" of developing economies such as
China and India is placing pressure on a global oil supply
already struggling to meet demand.
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We are not only paying billions annually to foreign
governments for our economy's energy supply, but we are also
investing in their energy production instead of our own,
which weakens our economic capability and security.
America’s Energy Crisis
America’s Energy Crisis
Imported Crude Oil as a Percent of
US Consumption 1950-2003
World Energy Consumption:
PowerPoint Sources/
For More Information…
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www.awea.org (American Wind Energy
Association)
www.nrel.gov (National Renewable Energy
Laboratory)
www.ifnotwind.com
www.econenergyllc.com (Source for
Stephenson County, IL and other Midwest
wind farm projects)
United States Department of Energy
The End