Standard industry thinking around small wind has been that any wind machine below “utility size” should be categorized as “small.” And, typically, that meant really small: anything from a Southwest Wind Power Skystream 3.7 (a 1.8 kW machine), to a Bergey XL (a 10 kW machine) up to a Jacobs 31-20 (a 20 kW machine). Small wind.
Well, as a pickup manufacturer said in the 1990s: The rules have changed.
Check out the live feed (yes, this is a live feed folks) for Energy Concepts latest completed turbine project in Fort Atkinson, WI: a Northern Power Systems Northwind 100, a 100 kW machine. This size turbine, capable of producing 100,000+ kWhs a year in a decent wind regime, would have hardly been “small” 25 years ago, but compared to the mammoth 1.5 MW machines going up today, it is, indeed, classified as small wind: capable of powering a farm, light industrial plant or even a campus.
Meet the new small wind.
This turbine sits atop a 121′ tower, and with its 35′ blades, the Northwind tops out just short of 160′. At its current location, on the campus of Madison Area Technical College in Fort Atkinson, the certified site assessment estimates production in the range of 120,000 kWhs at an average wind speed of 11.3 mph.
Putting a 100 kW turbine up is not for the feint of heart. Bringing all necessary tower sections, nacelle and rotors to the same place at the same time takes strategic planning and practiced logistical excellence. And, arranging for a 90 ton crane to be on-site and effectively working to off-set its hourly rate above $500 an hour requires a level of project management far beyond most construction firms.
And, of course, before any of this happens, there is the entire backstory to a project. A successful bid had to be assembled. One that takes into consideration all matters of fact in regard to installation, operation and maintenance, personnel training, the works. Energy Concepts not only won that bid, but consummated the grant writing on behalf of MATC, ensuring that two different $100,000 grants–one from Focus on Energy and one from WE Energies–would flow to the project.
So, small wind just got a lot bigger. And making it happen, coordinating the entire project, collaborating with all contractors and completing a full $500,000 project on-time and on-budget is anything but small or easy.
More details after the jump.
Readers should understand that wind turbines, unlike solar energy, undergo huge production gains as they scale up because potential generation expands at the cube of a turbine’s swept area (essentially the circumference of the wind blades). Increasing the swept area of a turbine by 2 units (i.e. making the blades longer) can lead to an 8 unit increase in power generation.
So, virtually everyone who puts up a wind turbine has to confront this basic axiom: if I put up a bigger turbine, with a larger swept area, I dramatically increase the amount of power I can produce. Sometimes that means a bigger turbine, sometimes it means a taller tower to capture increased wind speeds.
But, the dynamic around wind is clear: capture 2 more units of wind, increase production 8 times. That’s not true of solar, where another panel or another string of panels yields no additional advantage, other than increased generation same as every other panel or string.
And, this is why, as time goes on, small wind is getting bigger, and so is big wind, the utility-scale turbines. Bigger is better in wind, and Energy Concepts is both proud and excited to be a part of helping a customer like Madison Area Technical College get out front in scaling up to pretty big small turbine.
