World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

December 11, 2005 – Vol.10 No.38

WORLD WIND WATCH.

Much of the expense of wind turbines, large or small, is in how they’re installed. Typically utility grade turbines sit atop tall cylindrical towers firmly planted to the ground or the sea bottom. The towers are not only high enough for the sweeping blades to clear obstacles on the ground but to place the turbine into slightly higher altitudes where winds are stronger, more consistent and more productive.

Modern turbines are limited in their ability to produce power by the cost and engineering feasibility of raising them higher into the air. Though wind turbines get their energy from flowing air, they are constrained by their firm connection to the ground.

Is it possible that machines that could generate power from the wind don’t need to be as firmly attached? Is it possible that a wind generation device could fly to altitude, generate power and send it back to Earth via cable?

Magenn Power of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada thinks it’s possible to use floating wind generators and is developing the Magenn Air Rotor System (MARS) to do so.

MARS is, in essence, a helium or hydrogen filled tethered balloon which, with the aid incorporated blades, will spin on its horizontal axis. The cable tether attached by a yoke to either end of the device would be used as the electrical connection. Further, the rotation of the balloon also creates what is known as the Magnus effect which creates more lift. The combination of the lighter-than-air gas and the Magnus effect would fly MARS to altitudes higher than possible by putting a turbine at the top of a pole.

At those higher altitudes MARS will be able to capture strong breezes not available to turbines attached to solid structures. The elimination of the those structures should significantly reduce overall costs as well.

According the company’s website, the first product, a 4-kilowatt model, is planned for 2006. The model would be large enough to power a small home, cottage, be used for power in remote locations, or even deployed in crisis situations for emergency power. A smaller 1-kilowatt version is also planned (small enough, deflated to carry in a backpack).

Other sizes up to two hundred feet in length are being considered for power grid connections. Possibilities include far from shore, over the horizon offshore wind installations where water depths make tower installations for conventional turbines financially unworkable. A MARS tied to a barge, it anchored to the bottom, might be a simple deep-water solution. Visit Magenn Power at http://www.magenn.com/ .

With the completion of two wind projects in Iowa, MidAmerican Energy has become the third largest wind energy owner in the United States.

The two projects, Intrepid near Schaller in north west Iowa, and Century in north central Iowa together have a nameplate capacity of 360.5 megawatts from 257 turbines. Wind energy makes up 9 percent of the company’s generation portfolio. Visit MidAmerican at http://www.midamericanenergy.com/

With a contractor/developer chosen by Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L), construction of its 100.5-megawatt Spearville Wind Energy Facility can proceed and meet its online service date of October 1, 2006.

That contractor/developer is enXco which owns and operates 298 megawatts of wind capacity and, as a service provider, maintains more than 4000 turbines with a combined capacity of more than 1000 megawatts.

The facility will be built near Spearville, Kanas., about 17 miles northeast of Dodge City. Visit KCP&L at http://www.kcpl.com/ and enXco at http://www.enxco.com/ .

Two renewable energies are now working together at one of the largest - 8 megawatts - hybrid solar/wind projects on the planet.

The Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA) Wastewater Treatment Facility in Atlantic City has five 1.5 megawatt turbines and a 500-kilowatt solar system. At 380 feet turbines are taller than some of the city's casinos.

Atlantic City has over 30 million visitors each year that can decide which is a better bet for their future. Coins in a slot machine or clean, secure sources of energy.

The wind project is the first in New Jersey. It was developed and is co-owned by Community Energy. The solar portion of the project was engineered by Alternity Power of South Plainfield, New Jersey. Visit Community Energy at http://www.newwindenergy.com/ .