• Finding Solutions to Avoid Wind Energy Waste

    by in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Energy, Wind
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    wind_farm

    via University of Denver: As onshore and offshore wind energy farms have proliferated in recent years, new research highlights a previously underexplored consequence: a wake effect from upwind wind farms that can significantly reduce the energy production — and related financial returns — of their downwind neighbors. The research appears today in the journal Nature Energy. Over a century ago, oil and gas law recognized the “rule of capture,” which allows a landowner to capture a neighbor’s oil resources by sucking them from an adjacent well. This resulted in poor well-field recoveries and waste, so states intervened to regulate production through well-spacing, pooling, and other coordination measures. Similarly, states have developed water law regimes that protect rights for prior users. But current U.S. property law contains no such provisions for wind energy. “It took oil and gas and water law decades to create these legal regimes,” said K.K. DuVivier, a co-author of the study and professor at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law. “It appears that wind energy has not yet reached a similar stage of maturity. I hope this research will help raise awareness about the extent of the waking problem and educate those seeking a legal remedy.” The study, led by the University of Colorado Boulder in collaboration with the University of Denver (DU) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), combines legal and economic analysis with atmospheric modeling to demonstrate that wake effects — which occur when groups of turbines reduce wind speed for up to… Read more

  • The World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farms [Infographic]

    by in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Energy, Wind
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    via Forbes: Earlier this week, the world’s largest offshore windfarm officially opened off the northwest coast of England. Covering 55 square miles or an area equivalent to 20,000 soccer fields, the Walney Extension is made up of 87 wind turbines manufactured by Siemens Gamesa and MHI Vestas. The latter are 195 meters high and are the largest wind turbines in operation worldwide, with each optimized to generate 8.25 megawatts. The £1bn windfarm is owned by Denmark’s Ørsted and it can generate 659 megawatts – enough energy to power about 600,000 homes. Even though it has less than half the number of turbines, the Walney Extension has still overtaken the London Array to earn the title as the world’s largest offshore wind installation. That’s due to its turbines being larger and more powerful as well as the fact that it’s placed further out to sea. A distinct trend becomes evident on the following infographic which shows the top 10 offshore windfarms worldwide by capacity, according to Renewable data published by The Guardian. All of them are in Europe and most have been constructed in the United Kingdom. The only non-British entries on the top-10 list are Gemini in the Netherlands (600 megawatts) and Germany’s Gode and Veja Mate (582 and 402 megawatts respectively).The first non-European windfarm is China’s Huaneng Rudong which only has a 300-megawatt capacity by comparison. The opening of the Walney Extension highlights the UK’s global leadership in offshore wind installations and according to the Global Wind Energy Council, Britain… Read more

  • Taking A Look At The Future Of Wind Energy in Colorado

    by in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Energy, Wind
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    wind_energy

    via KRDO: EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. – When you turn the light switch on or off, do you really know where your power is coming from? As more and more wind farms are popping up on the northeast corner of the state, KRDO spent a few days in those areas investigating whether or not the cost of wind energy is worth it for ratepayers in Colorado. If you haven’t visited northeastern Colorado in a while, you’ll likely be stunned at what you see. The vista of Colorado farmland has changed in recent years. People like Susan Burrows, who has turbines on her property enjoy their presence. “I think they’re beautiful because they’re a wonder that most people don’t ever get to see,” she said. But while they’re a beauty in her eyes, they’re a scar to others like Tyler Koehn. “I’m not a huge fan of the way they take from the landscape. They take away from the skyline views. So I’m not a fan,” he said. “Plus, all the traffic it brings to the county roads.” Koehn is referring to the traffic that is mainly construction or maintenance crews on the dirt roads. According to the research from the American Wind Energy Association, there are nearly 2,000 individual turbines spanning across a total of 25 wind farms in Colorado. The majority of those wind farms are in a stretch from Calhan to Limon. The Department of Energy reports the average cost of one turbine ranges between $1-2 million. Years ago,… Read more

  • The First Floating Wind Farm Is Ridiculously Efficient

    by in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Energy, Wind
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    wind_farm

    via Popular Mechanics: Wind turbines are showing up on top of mountains, across vast plains, and in the waters off the coasts of the world’s cities. Even the open ocean isn’t closed to wind turbines, and in even better news, the project off the coast of Scotland is dramatically surpassing expectations. The Hywind wind farm is the world’s first floating wind farm, located about 15 miles off the coast of Scotland. Unlike other offshore wind farms, Hywind isn’t anchored to the seafloor. Instead, Hywind relies on buoys and anchors to stay afloat even in high winds or waves. This makes floating wind farms like Hywind a great choice for regions where traditional offshore wind farms aren’t viable. “The west coast of the USA, Japan and Hawaii are all places that need a lot of energy and that are consistently windy, but where the sea is very deep,” says Hywind engineer Halvor Hoen Hersleth. “Floating wind power is ideal for these areas.” But for floating wind farms to be successful, they have to be more than just versatile. They also have to be profitable, which means generating enough energy to justify the large construction costs. Fortunately, the Hywind farm seems to have succeeded in this area as well, reaching a 65 percent capacity factor over the past three months. A generator’s capacity factor is the ratio between the amount of electricity it generates and the maximum amount of energy it could possibly produce. Most baseline plants, like nuclear or natural gas plants… Read more

  • Artificial Island Hub Will Collect Wind Energy and Divert it to Shore

    by in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Energy, Wind
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    wind_energy

    via Futurism : AN ENERGY ISLAND The winds of change are blowing towards renewable energy, and nations are becoming increasingly more creative in how they can capitalize on the growing trend. At present, the most popular sources of renewable energy come from either solar or wind. Both, however, require tracts of land for their infrastructure. With real estate for wind farms becoming increasingly expensive and scarce, Dutch power grid and energy network operator TenneT wants to build wind turbines on the sea. Well, not on water per se: rather, on shallow areas in a region in the North Sea called the Dogger Bank. Located some 125 km (78 miles) off the East Yorkshire coast, Dogger Bank is supposedly a windy enough site, allowing the company to optimize wind energy generation. The Dogger Bank project is effectively what’s called an offshore wind farm, but what makes this project radical is the artificial island built in the middle. This would serve as a hub for the vast offshore farm, expected to be even bigger in scale than the current largest windfarm in Gansu, China. TenneT expects the Dogger Bank project to be able to handle a capacity of 30GW. What’s more, TenneT’s proposed project might give wind energy a necessary push towards continuing to lower the price of wind energy. “It’s crucial for industry to continue with the cost reduction path,” Rob van der Hage, TenneT’s offshore wind grid development program manager, told The Guardian. “The big challenge we are facing towards 2030… Read more

  • The World’s First Floating Wind Farm Is an Incredible Feat of Engineering

    by in Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Energy, Wind
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    wind_energy

    via Singularity Hub : Wind turbines are a valuable source of renewable energy, but it can be hard to find a good place to put them. They need to be close to a populated area so that transporting the power they generate isn’t too expensive—but they suffer from some serious “not in my backyard” syndrome when it comes to being too close to populated areas; they’re noisy and, though a field of them looks scenic from far away, up close they’re sort of huge and ugly. So why not put them out in the ocean? It’s not a new idea—as of the end of 2016 there were 14,384 MW of installed offshore wind power capacity, the bulk of it in Europe—but what is new is having the turbines float instead of being anchored to the sea floor. Last week saw the launch of the world’s first floating offshore wind farm. Located in the North Sea off the coast of Peterhead, Scotland, the wind farm consists of five enormous horizontal-axis turbines that together can generate 30 megawatts of electricity. That’s enough to power about 20,000 homes. The wind farm is called Hywind, and it’s been in the making for over 15 years, spearheaded by Norwegian energy firm Statoil. Key facts about the turbines and their location include: The turbines are positioned in water up to 129 meters (423 feet) deep (anchored turbines are usually placed at maximum depths of 50m (164 feet)). Each turbine is 253 meters tall in total (around 830… Read more