[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Wind turbines and resiliency

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Weaver, Sam




I thought the Council and Hotline readers would enjoy seeing the email below that Brett KenCairn sent about wind turbine developments and resiliency.
 
All the best,
 

Sam Weaver
Member of Boulder City Council
weavers at bouldercolorado.gov
Phone: 303-416-6130
 
-----
 


 
 


Sam Weaver
303-588-5148 : mobile
sampweaver at gmail.com
 

 

 


From: KenCairn, Brett [mailto:KenCairnB at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 10:32 AM

Subject: FW: Study: Wind Turbines Are Much More Durable Than Previously Thought


 
You all may have seen this but thought I’d send it along.  Very encouraging. 


For those of you who didn’t get to see Mark Jacobson speak last week, he told a very fascinating story about his team doing a modeling exercise to see what the failure rate would be for a large wind farm in the Gulf if you ran a hurricane like Katrina over
 it (they literally used models of Katrina).  Many have asserted that wind farms are not viable in areas that have category 4 hurricanes.
 
What his team discovered, to their surprise, was the significant energy absorption characteristics of a large windfarm actually absorbed sufficient energy
 from the leading edge of the hurricane that there were very few turbine failures.   More significant, however, was the fact that—at least based on some pretty sophisticated modeling—the storm surge that subsequently would have made landfall was 80% lower and
 the wind speeds were over 50% lower.  It appears that the wind farm doubled not only as a day-to-day energy producing asset, but could also serve as a significant hurricane mitigation.  This makes a wind farm a much more productive resilience investment than
 the enormous (and enormously expensive) sea walls currently being contemplated.

Recent experience during the major winter storms also demonstrates the significant advantages to wind resources over other fossil-based energy sources from a resilience perspective.  In Texas, utilities were able to keep their grids operational during the heart
 of these major storms because the large wind farms in the state were actually over producing during the storm events—even as other power plants in their service territory had to be curtailed due to storm impacts.  In adjacent states that did not have large
 wind resources, there were rolling brown outs as conventional power facilities were impacted by the storm.
 
As an interesting side note, with the new 5 megawatt wind turbines now available, Boulder would conceivably need only 40 turbines to more than cover its
 average electricity load.  Granted there are lots of factors to consider around this but it starts to demonstrate that 100% renewable power is—as Jacobson has spent his career proving—totally possible now: no new technology, no new economics—just political
 will.
 
A fair wind is a blowin
.See article below.
 
B
 


From: Brett KenCairn [mailto:bkencairn at mac.com]

Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2014 9:07 PM
To: KenCairn, Brett
Subject: Fwd: Study: Wind Turbines Are Much More Durable Than Previously Thought



 

Begin forwarded message:

 

Subject: Study: Wind Turbines Are Much More Durable Than Previously Thought


Date:
February 25, 2014 9:06:06 AM MST


 
Wind turbines can produce electricity for 25 years before needing an upgrade, according
 to new research out of the United Kingdom. That’s considerably longer than previously thought.
 
The U.K. boasts 4,246 individual wind turbines across 531 wind farms. The paper, produced by researchers at Imperial College Business School, carried out a comprehensive and nationwide
 analysis of that fleet, and covered about two decades worth of data. They found that the oldest turbines, which were built in the 1990s, are still producing three-quarters of their original output 19 years later. Furthermore, the turbines should last about
 25 years before needing an upgrade, which is on par with the lifespan of the turbines used in natural gas power plants.
An earlier study predicted the
 turbines’ output would drop by a third in as little as ten years, and could need to be replaced by that point. The finding had led opponents to dismiss wind power as a poor financial investment.
 
“There have been concerns about the costs of maintaining ageing wind farms and whether they are worth investing in,”said professor
 Richard Green, a co-author of the paper and the Head of the Department of Management at the Imperial College Business School. “This study gives a ‘thumbs up’ to the technology and shows that renewable energy is an asset for the long term.”
 
The study pulled
 data from NASA to determine the wind speed at each onshore wind farm in the United Kingdom over two decades. The researchers then compared those numbers with the actual recorded electrical output
 from each wind farm to build a formula for how wear and tear affects the turbines. The
 previous study that found a lower lifespan took a far less granular approach, only looking at average estimates of nationwide wind speeds.
Beyond their topline numbers, the researchers also
 found evidence that the latest turbines are performing even better than their earliest models, suggesting they could outlast the 25-year threshold.
 
Here in America, wind turbines recently proved their value in Texas. The state, which
 leads the nation in wind capacity, wound up relying on its wind farms when the recent polar vortex drove up electricity demand to a new winter record and forced several power plant shutdowns. Texas avoided
 many major outages because the winds from the storm drove up wind electricity generation.
Other states like Tennessee, South Carolina, and Indiana weren’t so lucky, losing power and suffering rolling blackouts at various times as the storm swept through.
Pointing to the U.K. study, Dr Iain Staffell, another co-author and a research fellow at Imperial College Business School,said:
 “Wind farms are an important source of renewable energy. In contrast, our dwindling supply of fossil fuels leaves the U.K. vulnerable to price fluctuations and with a costly import bill. However, in the past it has been difficult for investors to work out
 whether wind farms are an attractive investment.
 
“Our study provides some certainty, helping investors to see that wind farms are an effective long-term investment and a viable way to help the UK tackle future energy challenges.”
 
The post Study:
 Wind Turbines Are Much More Durable Than Previously Thought appeared first on ThinkProgress.


Read
 more