Wind-farm

Project goals: To determine the feasibility of a utility scale wind farm being constructed in the fields back campus.

Progress:

• I have talked with Arlene DeBlanc about possible government grants

• I have analyzed data from RP&L's tall towers survey.

• I have analyzed data from the Indiana Tall Towers Wind Survey

• I have analyzed the data from the weather station on the roof of Dennis

• I have contacted numerous manufacturers for price quotes and other information on possible turbines

• I have investigated various funding sources

Turbine Possibilities

Feasibility requirements

• Long blades (100M diameter+)

• Tall tower (100M+ height)

Candidates

Nordex N100

Fuhrlaender FL-2500

RE Power 3.3 MW

Siemens SWT-101

Vestas V-112

Vestas V-100

GE-2.5xl

Contact Numbers

Contacts:

REpower USA 1-503-517-7160 PDT

Nordex Germany +49 - (40) - 300 30 - 1490 GMT+1

Fuhrlander Germany 49-(0)2664-9966-0 GMT+1

Vestas USA (+1) 503 327 2000 PDT

GE 877-435-7375

Grant research

USDA Guaranteed Loans

• B&I guaranteed loans
• Cover up to 10 Million $ (up to 40 in some cases)
• Guarantee 60-70% of the loans against default

Rural Business Opportunity Grant

• Up to 50,000$ for economic development
• Deadline for this year has already passed

EDA Public Works Grant

• Average award of 9 Million $
• Must show that project will help the local economy
• Need to find or create comprehensive economic development strategy

Data Processing

RP&L Data

• RP&L placed anemometers at the Kicks 96 tower
• anemometers were placed at 50m and 100m, in sets of 2.
• The data we received doesn't state where each anemometer is
  • After processing the first two sensors correspond closely (8.39 M/s, 8.31 M/s)
  • Sensor three reports a slightly higher windspeed, corresponding to a doubling of altitude (9.24 M/s)
  • Sensor four reports what appears to be an anomalously low average speed. (5.38 M/s)
• Prior to processing all values about 30 M/s were removed
  • Removal was justified by the range of values (up to 8008 M/s) that failed sanity check
  • Removal does not affect power generated as there wind speeds above 25 M/s are not usable by the wind turbines.
  • Prior to removal of 300 M/s+ data sensors three and four had roughly similar average values
• RP&L data shows a significantly higher windspeed than is estimated by satellite data (6.5 M/s)
  • This increased the estimated output by turbine by roughly one third.

Dennis Roof Data

• Data was retrieved from the weather station on the roof of Dennis
• Data ranges from January 5th 2000 to March 10 2009
• The average wind speed over that time is 5.64 M/s
• Assuming the sensor is at 10 M the 1/7th power rule extrapolates that the wind speed at 100M should be 7.84 M/s
  • 1/7th power law is: u/u_r = (z/z_r)^?
  • With our numbers: (100/10)^0.143=7.84 M/s
• This indicates that the RP&L survey is more likely to be closer to the true wind speed than the satellite data.

References

• http://www.rpc.com.au/products/windturbines/wind-book/wind9.pdf