Alaska Wind 101:
Wind for Schools Webinar
August 12th, 2010
Katherine Keith
Wind-Diesel Application Center
Alaska Center for Energy and Power
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
ACEP RESEARCH MISSION: To meet state and local need
for applied energy research by working towards
developing, refining, demonstrating, and ultimately
helping commercialize marketable technologies that
provide practical solutions to real-world problems.
Role of ACEP
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Verify performance and reliability of equipment
Assess technical and economic feasibility
Test emissions
Integration with existing power systems
Resource assessment
Procurement experiments
Work with manufacturers to improve products for use
in Alaska
Role of ACEP
Serve as an impartial agent on behalf of
Alaskan communities and agencies to ensure
we are investing wisely in energy projects that
make sense and that contribute to the longterm benefit of our residents
Help leverage external resources to address
Alaska’s energy challenges (funding,
businesses, national laboratories, other
universities, etc)
The purpose of the
Alaska Wind-Diesel
Applications Center (WiDAC)
is to support the broader deployment
of cost-effective wind-diesel technologies to reduce
and/or stabilize the cost of energy
In rural communities.
Alaska Wind-Diesel Test Center
Addressing issues to improve penetration
of wind-diesel systems through
improvements in controls and energy
storage.
Focus Areas
Research and
Development
• Independent analysis & testing
• Applied research
• Feasibility studies and
Technical Support
• Build human capacity
Workforce
• Wind for schools
Development and
• Technician levels
Education
Alaska Wind for Schools
Existing Projects
Loca tion
Kotzebue
St. Paul Island
Wales
Kasigluk
Insta lle r
Nome
Kotzebue EA
TDX Power
AVEC, KEA, and NREL
AVEC
Bering Straights Native
Corp.and Sitnasuak
Delta
AEP
Perryville
Chevak
Gambell
Healy
Hooper Bay
Kodiak
Selawik
Mekoryuk
Tin City
Toksook Bay
Savoonga
Unalakleet
Port Heiden/Pilot Point
Native Village of
Perryville
AVEC
AVEC
AEP
AVEC
Kodiak EA
AVEC
AVEC
TDX Power
AVEC
AVEC
UVEC
Sustainable Energy
Commission of the AK
Peninsula
Ye a r Insta lle d
Insta lle d Ca pa city
(kw)
1997
1998
2002
2006
2008
2008
2008
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
2009
T ype of T urbine s
1140
675
130
300
(15) Entregrity; (1)
Vestas; (1) Northwind
(3) 225 Vestas V-27
(2) Entegrity
(3) Northwind 100
1170 (18) Entegrity
(1) Northwind 100 (1)
1000 EWT 900
24
400
300
12
300
4500
260
200
225
400
200
600
(10) Skystream 3.7
(4) Northwind 100
(3) Northwind 100
(5) Skystream 3.7
(3) Northwind 100
(3) GE 1.5
(2)Northwind 100
(2) Northwind 100
Vestas V-27
(4) Northwind 100
(2) Northwind 100
(6) Northwind 100
20 (2) 10 kW Bergey
87% < 4 years old
76% < 2 years old
REF installed projects < 1 year of operation
Wind-Diesel Power Systems
•Intended to reduce diesel consumption
•Needs good resource to be economically
viable
• However, wind fluctuates…
• Power quality must be maintained despite the
variable wind.
JUST WIND…
This is strange because…
Wind Energy is the Fastest Growing Energy Source in the World!!
US installed capacity grew a WHOPPING
45% in 2007!!!
Why such growth…costs!
1979: 40 cents/kWh
2000:
4-6
cents/kWh
• Increased
Turbine Size
• R&D Advances
• Manufacturing
Improvements
NSP 107 MW Lake Benton wind farm
4 cents/kWh (unsubsidized)
2004:
3 – 4.5 cents/kWh
Other Reason to teach…
Elegant Power Source
Need to Change Perceptions…
Fuel is not getting any cheaper..
Wind Power
Early “WINDMILL” in Afghanistan (900AD)
Dutch Wind Mills
Water pumps
Jacobs Turbine – 1920 - 1960
Smith-Putnam Turbine
Vermont, 1940's
1250 kW
Modern Windmills
Orientation
Turbines can be categorized into two overarching
classes based on the orientation of the rotor
Vertical Axis
Horizontal Axis
Vertical Axis Turbines
Advantages
• Omnidirectional
– Accepts wind from any
angle
• Components can be
mounted at ground level
– Ease of service
– Lighter weight towers
• Can theoretically use less
materials to capture the
same amount of wind
Disadvantages
• Rotors generally near ground
where wind poorer
• Centrifugal force stresses
blades
• Poor self-starting capabilities
• Requires support at top of
turbine rotor
• Requires entire rotor to be
removed to replace bearings
• Overall poor performance and
reliability
• Have never been commercially
successful
Darrieus
Lift vs Drag
VAWTs
Lift Device “Darrieus”
– Low solidity,
aerofoil blades
– More efficient than
drag device
Drag Device
“Savonius”
– High solidity, cup
shapes are pushed
by the wind
– At best can capture
only 15% of wind
energy
Savonius Drag
VAWT’s have not been commercially
successful, yet…
Every few years a new
company comes along
promising a revolutionary
breakthrough in wind
turbine design that is low
cost, outperforms anything
else on the market, and
overcomes all of the
previous problems with
VAWT’s. They can also
usually be installed on a roof
or in a city where wind is
poor.
WindStor
WindTree
Mag-Wind
Wind Wandler
Horizontal Axis
Wind Turbines
• Rotors are usually
Up-wind of tower
• Some machines
have down-wind
rotors, but only
commercially
available ones are
small turbines
Types of Electricity Generating Windmills
Small (10 kW)
• Homes
• Farms
• Remote Applications
(e.g. water pumping,
telecom sites,
icemaking)
Intermediate
(10-250 kW)
• Village Power
• Hybrid Systems
• Distributed Power
Large (250 kW - 2+MW)
• Central Station Wind Farms
• Distributed Power
Modern Small Wind Turbines:
High Tech, High Reliability, Low Maintenance
• Technically Advanced
• Only 2-3 Moving Parts
• Very Low Maintenance
Requirements
• Proven: ~ 5,000 On-Grid
• American Companies are the
Market and Technology
Leaders
10 kW
50
kW
400 W
900 W
(Not to scale)
Wacky Designs out there…
Large Wind Turbines
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450’ base to blade
Each blade 112’
Span greater than 747
163+ tons total
Foundation 20+ feet deep
Rated at 1.5 – 5 megawatt
Supply at least 350 homes
Wind Turbine Technology
North Wind HR3
rating: 3 kW
rotor: 5 m
hub height: 15 m
North Wind 100
rating 100 kW
rotor: 19.1 m
hub height: 25 m
Lagerwey LW58
rating: 750 kW
rotor: 58 m
hub height: 65 m
Enercon E-66
rating: 1800 kW
rotor: 70 m
hub height: 85 m
Enercon E-112
rating: 4000 kW
rotor: 112 m
hub height: 100
m
Boeing 747
wing span: 69.8m
length: 73.5 m
Comparative Scale for a Range of Wind
Turbines
Yawing – Facing the Wind
• Active Yaw (all medium &
large turbines produced
today, & some small turbines
from Europe)
– Anemometer on nacelle tells
controller which way to point
rotor into the wind
– Yaw drive turns gears to point
rotor into wind
• Passive Yaw (Most small
turbines)
– Wind forces alone direct rotor
• Tail vanes
• Downwind turbines
Off-Shore Windfarms
Middelgrunden
The importance of the WIND
RESOURCE
Why do windmills need to be high in the sky??
Importance of Wind Speed
• No other factor is more
important to the amount of
power available in the wind
than the speed of the wind
• Power is a cubic function of
wind speed
– VXVXV
• 20% increase in wind speed
means 73% more power
• Doubling wind speed means
8 times more power
Calculation of Wind Power
•Power
inWind
the wind
Power
in the
= ½ρAV3
Effect of air density, 
– Effect of swept area, A
– Effect of wind speed, V
R
Swept Area: A = πR2
Area of the circle swept
by the rotor (m2).
Key Issues facing Wind
Power
FACT:
Avian Deat hs Per Year
500
Glass Windows
174
Elect ric Transmission
Line Collisions
House cat s
100
100
Hunt ing
75
Aut omobiles
1
67
Agricult ure
7
Communicat ion Towers
1.5
Oil and Gas Ext ract ion
0
0.001
Elect rocut ion
0.000809106
Wind Turbines
100
200
300
400
Annual Bird Deaths (Millions)
500
600
1980’s California Wind Farm
Older Technology
+ Higher RPMs
+ Lower Elevations
+ Poorly Sited
= Bad News!
• In the November-December Audubon Magazine,
John Flicker, President of National Audubon
Society, wrote a column stating that Audubon
"strongly supports wind power as a clean
alternative energy source," pointing to the link
between global warming and the birds and other
wildlife that scientist say it will kill.
Impacts of Wind Power:
Noise
• Modern turbines are
relatively quiet
• Rule of thumb – stay about
3x hub-height away from
houses
Transmission Problems
•6.5 million customers
• 330+ generating units
• Over 8,000 miles of
transmission lines
• 11 Interconnections
• 28,100 MW of capacity
• Peak demand:
22,544MW
Siting and NIMBY
Predicting Power Output
eWind Day-Ahead Hourly Forecast
Reported
eWind Forecast
Power Output (MW)
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
2/5
2/6
2/7
2/8
Date
2/9
2/10
2/11
How will this impact my classroom?
Standards/Skills
• Scientific Processes (Collecting & Presenting
Data, Performing Experiments, Repeating
Trials, Using Models)
• Use of Simple Tools & Equipment
• Forces Cause Change
• Energy Transformations (Forms of Energy)
• Circuits/Electricity/Magnetism
• Weather Patterns
• Renewable – Non Renewable Energy
What does it take to install a Turbine?
• Utility Engineers
• Geophysical Engineers
• Concrete/Structural Engineering
• Turbine Engineering (ME/EE/Aerospace)
• Site/Civil Engineering
• Microelectronic/Computer Programming
• Business Expertise (Financial)
• Legal Expertise
• Meteorologists
Elementary
•
•
•
•
Engineering is Elementary
Wind Chimes
Wind Art
Building simple blades
Middle
balloon
~3m
streamers
Kite or balloon string
• Building Wind
Turbines
• Assessing Wind
Resource
• Mathematics
Building Blades!
• Advanced Blade
Design
• School Siting
Projects
• Data Analysis
Secondary
Questions???
The Kidwind Project
www.kidwind.org
Turbine Sizes
• Small (<10kW)
– Residential
– Farms
• Intermediate (10-250kW)
– Small Hybrid Systems
– Distributed Power
• Large(250kW-5MW)
– Centralized Generation
Wind-Diesel Penetration
Wind Power Output (kW)
Instantane ous Penetratio n 
Primarly Electrical Load (kW)
Wind Energy Produced (kWh)
Average Penetratio n 
Primarly Energy Demand (kWh)
Wind-Diesel Classification
Penetration Level
Penetration
Class
Low
Medium
High
Operating Characteristics
Diesel(s) run full-time
Wind power reduces net load on diesel
All wind energy goes to primary load
No supervisory control system
Diesel(s) run full-time
At high wind power levels, secondary
loads dispatched to ensure sufficient
diesel loading or wind generation are
curtailed.
Requires relatively simple control system
Diesel(s) may be shut down during high
wind availability
Auxiliary components required to
regulate voltage and frequency
Requires sophisticated control system
Peak
Annual
Instantaneous Average
<50%
<20%
50%-100%
20%50%
100%-400%
50%150%
Wind-Diesel Classes
Capital Cost
Fuel
Consumption
Generator Control
Frequency Control
Voltage Control
Ian Baring-Gould, NREL
DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS
KOTZEBUE
•Average load 2500kW
•1140 kW Installed Wind
Kotzebue Performance
• Evaluated initially for cold and other offworldly applications
• Avg. Net Capacity Factor of 10%
• Avg. Net Wind Penetration 4%
• Simple COE $0.52/kWh
WALES
Wales, Alaska
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Two 65-kW Entegrity
wind turbines: 130 kW
total
AC/DC rotary power
converter-NREL
130 Ah SAFT Ni-Cad
battery bank
Two electric boilers
(secondary loads)
PLC based main system
controller
Lessons Learned from
Kotzebue and Wales
• A fully automated plant is needed to allow for
unattended parallel operation of any
combination of generators.
• Supervisory controller must be able to quickly
and reliably start and synchronize each diesel.
• Increase thermal energy conservation to
enhance waste heat recovery.
• Turbines need to be ‘cold and ice-proofed’.
MODERN SYSTEMS
Low Penetration Wind-Diesel System
Ian Baring-Gould, NREL
NOME - BANNER PEAK
•Average load 4000kW
•1170 kW Installed Wind
•Installed December 2008
•Jan – April 2010 Capacity Factor 23%
•Simple COE $.14/kWh (est.)
Banner Peak Production
October 2009
Capacity Factor 6.3%
April 2010
Capacity Factor 23.09%
MEDIUM PENETRATION
TOKSOOK BAY
•Average load 400kW
•400 kW Installed Wind
•Average Penetration 24.2%
•Average Capacity Factor 26%
•Simple COE $0.25/kWh
High Penetration
Ian Baring-Gould, NREL
St. Paul Island
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3 Vestas V-27 (one connected) for total of 675 kW
Electric boiler for hot water
2006- 60% capacity factor
Average Load: 70kW electrical & 50 kW Thermal
Class 7 wind resource
Average wind penetration : 55%
Average Capacity Factor: 32%
Simple COE $.08/kWh
• March 2008- diesels ran only 27%
of the time!
St. Paul Island
KODIAK ISLAND
•Average load 16,000 kW
•4,500 kW Installed Wind
•Average Penetration
•(Wind) 10%
•(Wind + Hydro) 90%
•Avg Capacity Factor 33%
•Simple COE $0.07/kWh
Slide Show Thanks!!!
This slide show is a conglomeration of many different
slide shows and some additions and editing by Kidwind.
Some major contribution to the slide show are from
Sally Wright, NREL, Randy Brown, Southwest, GE
Bergey Windpower and surely many, many others.
For more information visit:
www.akwidac.com
www.kidwind.org
www.windwise.org
Katherine Keith
Wind-Diesel Application Center
Alaska Center for Energy and Power
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
kmkeith@alaska.edu
907-590-0751