World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

May 25, 2003 – Vol.8 No.9

WORLD WIND WATCH.

Hub heights need to be higher, wind farms need to be interconnected and larger capacity turbines need to be employed - that is one recipe to provide more, cost-competitive wind power to U.S. markets.

A new Stanford University report shows that 24 percent of sites in the U.S. could provide wind power as cheaply as coal or natural gas if hub heights were raised to at least 262 feet (80 meters). At those heights wind speeds were 2.9 -3.8 miles per hour (1.3 -1.7 meters per second) faster than when measured at lower levels using common, older methods. Those common methods have been used in the past to develop U.S. wind resource maps.

The Stanford research - measuring wind at higher levels - would make those maps obsolete. The U.S. would end up having more wind resources than now thought.

Larger turbines now on the market could be used at these sites such as GE WindEnergy’s 3.2 and 3.6 megawatt machines that could be installed with hub heights of 80 meters - or more. The greater capacity combined with the stronger winds would incease wind power output at a given site - and at lower costs.

Further, since wind is intermittent and variable, wind farms should be interconnected. If one wind farm isn’t producing any electricity because of a lack of wind, another on the same grid may be operating. The Report is available at http://news-service.Stanford.edu/ Click SciTech, Harnessing the Wind.

The European Wind Energy Association, along with Greenpeace has launched its report Wind Force 12 - seen by them as a blueprint for the world wide growth of wind energy. If the blueprint is followed, wind energy could meet 12 percent of the electricity demand by 2020 and grow to be a 75 billion Euros ($ 88 billion) per year industry by then. Visit the EWEA at http://www.ewea.org/

With a power purchase agreement for the next 20 years already in hand, Community Energy has announced that the 20-megawatt Bear Creek Wind Power Project in Northeast Pennsylvania will get underway. To be built in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area, within view of the Pennsylvania Turnpike (the windfarm will a good billboard for the promotion of wind energy), the project should be complete by the end of the year.

PPL EnergyPlus, the energy marketing division of PPL Corporation will market the wind power to customers in the seven states and the District of Columbia connected by the PJM regional power grid. Community Energy will develop the project along with partner Global Wind Harvest. Visit Community Energy at http://www.newwindenergy.com/ , PPL at http://www.pplweb.com/ and Global Wind Harvest at http://www.globalwinds.com/ .