Wind Energy — Playing a Role in Distributed Generation
When we think of wind energy, we generally think of those multi-megawatt farms in western Texas, the plains states, and California. Conversely, when we think of solar PV, we normally conjure images of “distributed generation” — “DG” for short — rooftop mounts on thousands of geographically dispersed homes and commercial buildings.
Increasingly, however, wind is sporting a DG face, with smaller turbines appropriate for “campus” settings: schools, cities, counties, farms, factories, communities, and other large power users who want to stabilize their energy costs.
My colleague Jim Boyden acts as an advisor to a company called Continental Wind Power, which offers a range of campus wind solutions. Considering that an incremental 8 gigawatts of new capacity will be installed in the U.S. alone this year, this may not be a bad place to be.
I live about 3 miles from a class 3 windzone. Many of the farmers out here have water pumping windmills. About 15 miles south of me at a farm equipment sales place is a nice 2 year old turbine on about a 125′ tower and I have never seen it sitting still and I am sure it is earning it’s keep. About the same distance north is a nice turbine about the same age mounted to the top of a barn which is less than an optimal condition for turbines. I have only seen that sitting still maybe twice and I am sure it is earning it’s keep also. I personally have a small 5 footer on a 20′ pole. It is mostly a “science experiment” and it needs to go up much higher but the township height limit is 35′ without going through some extreme measures to get wavers and permits and it is also “shaded” by two maple trees. Wind law says a turbine should be 30′ higher than anything within 300′. Still it does contribute to charging my batteries and maybe half a dozen times a year I find myself running around the house to find ways to use the power it is generating like running a load of wash or my refigerator for a while or something like that. I know if I could get it up to 45′ or 50′ it would do much better much more often as the tops of trees here grow leaning away from the wind. It would be helpful for townships to make suitable provisions in their building codes for windturbines.
I do some work at a university about 30 miles from me where I have never seen the flags not sticking straight out from their poles.
3 miles from me is a walmart and a home depot and a small strip mall. These all share a giant common parking lot with many light poles. The buildings are huge and both are in excess of 100Kft2 each. Plenty of roof space for solar panels. It is always windy and usually sunny also. I imagine each light pole with a 5-10 foot turbine on top and then a pair of solar panels under that and then the lights below them so that if nothing else they would at least each be generating enough power to cover their usage and probably more than that. I look at this area and the amount of power it consumes and think of what a waste that they are not taking advantage of the power they could be generating.
While some people might try to say that one form of energy harvesting or another may or may not be the answer, I find that to the extent that it is feasible in a given area, one should be prepared to harvest and use or store any and all forms of energy mother nature chooses to send your way at any given time. It is not one form or another that will save us but rather a combination of all forms.