ATTRA and Farm energy

ATTRA

• is part of the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service is managed by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) and is funded under a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Business-Cooperative Service.

• provides information and other technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, Extension agents, educators, and others involved in sustainable agriculture in the United States.

• services are available to farmers, ranchers, market gardeners, Extension agents, researchers, educators, farm organizations, and others involved in commercial agriculture.

Its "Farm Energy" sidebar link goes to a page listing publications, success stories, and additional links regarding "Renewable Energy" categories, which are discussed in the "Introduction"

• Biodiesel
• Ethanol
• Wind Energy
• Solar Energy
• Anaerobic Digesters and Other Biomass Options
• Energy Co-ops and Local Ownership and
• Funding Opportunities.

This post focuses on the "Wind Energy" link. Future posts will cover more farm energy topics in greater detail.

Renewable Energy Opportunities on the Farm

• can be read online or as a PDF (20-page)

• is not a technical guide for designing or installing renewable energy systems

• is an overview that provides information on wind, solar, and renewable fuel technologies, cost and savings, site planning, and financial incentives

• introduces three renewable energy resources that can be attractive and economically feasible for the farm: solar, wind, and renewable fuels.

Renewable energy can prevent the release of pollutants into the atmosphere and contribute significantly to local economies, creating jobs and keeping energy dollars in the local economy.

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Small wind turbines-
--Skystream 3.7, Southwest Windpower USA, MSRP: $5,400, residential wind generator that hooks up to your your home, Rated Power not provided, Peak Power 2400 W, Output/Month 400 kW @ 20 mph (9.5 m/s).

--Whisper 500, Southwest Windpower USA, The 3000-watt rated turbine will deliver in excess of 500 KWH per month in a 12 mph (5.2 m/s), Rated Power 3000 Watts, Peak Power 3200 W @ 27 mph (12 m/s), Output/Month 538 kW @ 12 mph (5.3 m/s).

--BWC Excel & Excel-R, Bergey USA, well suited for large rural homes, remote villages and facilities, Rated Power not provided, Peak Power 10 kW @ 31 mph (13,8 m/s), Output/Month 1500 kW (XLSheet) @ 12.5 mph (5.6 m/s).

--Wind Turbine Industries Corporation's 20Kw Jacobs® Wind Turbine, Rated Wind Speed (mph) 26 mph, in 16 mph wind may yield 60,665 kWh annually, Complete System with 120 ft. tower- $56,100.00, Grid Intertie System option.

--Fuhrländer FL 30, Power Output: 30 kW, specifications are in PDF.

--Energy Maintenance Service, LLC, Remanufactured E15 35kW or 65kW (approx. $2 per output watt purchase price), proven track records of reliable performance. Small/community wind turbine.

Community wind turbine-

--Distributed Energy Systems (previously known as Northern Power Systems) NorthWind 100 wind turbine NorthWind 100 Wind Turbine brochure/specification is a PDF.

--Fuhrländer's FL 250 has proven in inland and coastal location that wind turbines of the medium class continue to be of commercial use. Designed for a life of 25 years.

129 items found for wind turbine on eBay (24 June).

Wind power and wind energy definitions #3

Before getting to the definitions, a proposed change in the 2007 "Farm Bill" and farm energy has to be mentioned so producers can think about their businesses.

In late May, the former Senators Bob Dole (R-KS) and Tom Daschle (D-SD) released "New Markets for American Agriculture", a report by the 21st Century Agriculture Project, sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center. The report highlights investing in biofuels and wind farms to provide farmers and ranchers with new and diversified sources of income. One mentioned changein farm energy projects was "... streamline the application process for smaller, standardized projects by reducing paperwork."

HR 2154 IH is cited as the "Rural Energy for America Act of 2007" as the amendment of Section 9006 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (7 U.S.C. 8106)
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Green credits/tags- These are but two of the units that are traded by wind farmers to organizations that want to reduce their pollution impact or that want to promote wind power development. Related term- green revenues.

Hub height- the height (40 - 320 feet and higher) at which the turbine rotor hub turns in the wind.

Interconnection- an electrical connection between one or more wind turbines and the power utility company's transmission line. If a wind turbine is built before an interconnection has been granted to the turbine operator, interconnection is not guaranteed. This predicament would be a "show stopper."

Each utility has its own requirements for an interconnection to prevent damaging the ability of the overall grid to distribute electricity. (Everything is connected to everything else.)

Large wind turbine- a wind turbine that typically generates 500 kW to 2 MW or more. Newspaper and television reports often focus on these turbines in corporate wind farming, but individual installations are also at school districts, colleges, and communities as well as off-shore. Examples are here.

Levelized- the present value of the total cost of building and operating a generating plant over its economic life, converted to equal annual payments. Costs are levelized in real dollars (i.e., adjusted to remove the impact of inflation).

Magnitudes of watt include-

• one watt, the amount of electric current in one ampere acting across a potential difference of one volt. Picture a 4W nightlight- not much ooomph.

• kilowatt (kW), 1,000 watts, the typical unit of measuring electrical power. One kW = 1.34 hp. A South Dakota home may use about 780 kWh per month.

• megawatt (MW), the increasingly common power output of large wind turbines. 1 MW = 1,000 kW = 1,340 hp.

Met tower- A "met tower" is a meteorological tower that collects wind speed and direction data at a number of heights on the tower. These towers are lightweight, guy-wire supported and have simple base plate and anchors for simplified erection. (One type is not guy-wired.) They are temporary structures that do not need a foundation. You may want to conduct a soil analysis to determine the soundness of the area in supporting a met tower and the associated guy wires.

The taller the meteorological tower, the better. Towers may be between 40 and 50 meters (132 and 165 feet) tall. Data is collected for up to 12 months and analyzed to give the site owners

• some sense of where the prevailing winds are
• what the diurnal wind speeds are and
• what the winter, summer and annual speeds are.

Since wind speeds vary from location to location, many lenders and investors tend to be skeptical of the general wind resource maps for site specific data verification. It is important to gather wind data from the location where a wind turbine will be sited.

Micro turbine- a wind turbine that typically generates less than 2 kW. The turbine is considered to be "silent," and can be attached to a home or work building {though this is not usually done}. An example is here.

Mid-size wind turbine- a wind turbine that typically generates from 10 - 500 kW. This power rating is often installed for community and ag operations wind power. An example is here.

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A handful of South Dakota wind (though not much yield)-

• 7 PM Jun 13, SSE at 10 mph light rain
• 4 PM Jun 13, S at 12 mph light rain
• 11 AM Jun 13, SSE at 10 mph light rain; mist
• 3 AM Jun 13, Calm
• 8 PM Jun 12, S at 18 mph.

Do contact me if you want to buy any of this blog's content or would like to have other specific wind power-related content uncovered.

'Til next time. Best Wind.