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US Dept. of Energy Wants Bigger Wind Energy Ideas
coondoggie writes "The Department of Energy wants to kick up the research and development of offshore wind projects as it looks to achieve its goal of producing 20% of the country's electricity from wind farms by 2030. The DOE Wind Program is looking to focus on what it calls specific advanced technology, gigawatt-scale demonstration projects that can be carried out by partnerships with a wide range of eligible organizations and stimulate cost-effective offshore wind energy deployment in coastal and Great Lakes regions of the country. The agency is also looking for more research that can help address market barriers in order to facilitate deployment and reduce technical challenges facing the entire industry, as well as technology that will reduce cost of offshore wind energy through innovation and testing."
Xcel has contracted an additional three hundred megawatts of wind energy by 2010 and must obtain ten percent of its own electricity from renewable sources by 2015. Xcel is expected to increase its wind power contracts from 302 megawatts to one 1125 megawatts by 2010.
If you're worried about avian species, Wikipedia quotes two studies that found in seven months a death of 1.1 to 1.4 birds killed per windmill. Bats are higher but it's lower than bat deaths related to lighthouses, communication towers, tall buildings, power lines, and fences. So while unfortunate, it could probably be viewed as acceptable.
The advancements in turbine technology and infrastructure will always be needed but to answer the DOE's "Annual installations need to increase more than threefold." Why don't they just buy up a bunch of (relatively) cheap farmland in Minnesota? I think you can get away with negotiating the small plot of land they use and service roads through fields while still letting the bulk of the land be used for farming. Farmers already maneuver around sloughs that rise and fall with the water table. I don't know how the rights to offshore wind farms work or what the costs to permits are but it seems like you'd just have a strip of them so why not just do a huge block out in the middle of nowhere instead?
You can see which states really took off with wind power, I don't know why you're highlighting coastal areas and the Great Lakes when Colorado and Texas have demonstrated an equally large potential.
My work here is dung.
Spend money on designing a Very simple.. I.E. single moving part. and efficient design that can be replicated in a garage with trash for nearly nothing.
Some of the vertical turbine types that do not follow the wind are interesting but need work.
make wind power super cheap to build out of trash or common materials, easy to build yourself....
That will be the BIGGEST wind idea to ever exist. make it so anyone can build a couple of 500watt generators in a weekend and you suddenly will have every farm and suburbia home with them.
Lots of smaller ones providing power for local sources are far more efficient than a single HUGE one trying to produce enough for a community.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I hope the offshore aspect solves the NIMBY mentality I often encounter whenever wind energy comes up.
Here's an example. One of my colleagues bought a lakefront property in rural Ontario. A couple of years later, a farmer on the *other side* of the lake leased land to a wind energy provider. They pay $10k per turbine per year, so ten of them went up. My colleague sold his property shortly thereafter, saying that he couldn't stand the turbines.
Can anyone explain this? I'm genuinely curious to know why some people dislike turbines.
Light the blue touch-paper and retire immediately.
Well as soon as DOE can convince FAA and the Air Force to stop blocking projects perhaps we can make some progress.
Its a little frightening that a non-emitting source could so easily fool radar and the best solution either agency has is to block wind farms.
Then there is the BLM and their restrictive access polices, not to mention the Kennedy clan.
There are some obvious problems with wind (hot calm days), but tied to an efficient national grid much of these should be manageable.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
First, they are generally not self starting which means you won't find cheap-o models at Wallmart to put in back of your house. They need wind sensors, electronic controllers, and motor/breaking control, and an alternate electrical power source, just to get started. Once moving they are self sustaining.
Two, they are subject to parasympathetic harmonic oscillations, which eventually lead to catastrophic self destruction. Its part of the physics of the design, as each forward blade produces shock waves in the air stream that hit the rear blades. That also makes them noisy. I have heard of even some 'aircraft quality epoxy-kevlar blades' self destructing after only one years use. I tried to get the laboratory to try again with some suggested design modifications and they basically blew me off because they were "done with it" (the project). No amount of persuasion was going to change anything, even on my own dime.
Three, in high wind situations they don't have a good mechanism for dealing with the 'high energy' situation. Horizontal systems can turn their blades, or rotate sideways (yaw) to reduce the surface area of the blades, but vertical systems can't. Mechanical breaking systems, used to stop all motion, seems to be the only option, and that produces zero power just when the most energy is available.
I can solve 1,2 on the drawing board at home, but have been held up by #3. If you can solve all three of the above, then I agree with you. They rock. But I won't hold my breath for anyone to solve all three without some major research funding. Even so, no amount of money can 'give you an idea', that has to happen all on its own.
Sadly, while North Dakota has the most potential for wind power in the US, its grid was built and designed by a bunch of Co-ops that were interested in getting power to farm houses. As such, it isn't sophisticated enough to be able to be able export any significant amount of power.
If they can upgrade their grid, then North Dakota could be a huge exporter of wind power.
*sigh* back to work...