Wind Farm Model Project

In a bid to come to a full understanding of Wind Farms, I have embarked on a project which will involve modelling an actual wind farm.

As opposed to regular models by Architects, my model will be alive but not generating. This simply means that, the vegetation will be alive and growing.

To save up on time, since the grass and other vegetation will take time to mature, I will start by preparing the land and planting the grass. As the grass takes tits time to grow, I will be working on the turbine models and associated structures on site.

I have modeled on Google Sketch-up and GH WindFarmer 4.2 (Best) to know how everything will fall in place. Sorry the model is not ready as for now, but I will upload as soon as possible. The whole model will be covered with a glass cover to protect it against dust. A grass watering system will also be working to keep the vegetation alive.

▲The plywood is cornered by cardboard to stop the soil from falling off.

▲Inside view of the setup. Note the plywood is corvered by Formica to prevent any chances of rotting.

▲Complete. I used electrical insulation tape (Green)

There is more...▼▼▼

General Electric launches a 100MW Wind Power Station

The Kenya wind energy sector is getting a boost with a new wind power plant coming in just 2years.

General Electric has announced that it will set up a 100MW Wind Power Station in Ngong, Kenya which will be under a project called Kipeto Energy and construction is said to have already started.

General Electric is an international company with its headquarters in New York, US The project is estimate dto cost this company Ksh.25Billion and it will be ready by the time Lk. Turkana Wind Project is done.

Lets wait and see the outcome...

World Future Energy Summit 2012

There are many energy events that one can afford to miss out but this one is not. The World Future Energy Summit is the hallmark of energy and innovation events. Coming this 18th to 21st January 2012 is this year's World Future Energy Summit 2012. Under the Patronage of H.H. General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.


Products to be Launched

Gold Wind 1.5 PMDD Wind Turbine.
This products offers:

1. High power generating efficiency
2. Compact,Light & Easy to transport
3. Superior power quality and grid code compliance
4. Significantly reduced maintenance costs and total operating expenditures.
5. PMDD Technology, simple drive -train construction ,high reliability. Light and compact design compared to other turbines in its class. Sealed insulation design for excellent dust resistance. Full power converter, low voltage and zero voltage ride through capabilities for excellent grid connection characteristics

This product is being launched by GOLDWIND - China

South Korea to build the world's largest Wind Farm

The 50Million people Republic of Korea has announced plans to build the world's largest Wind Power Station which will be offshore. The government has said that it will invest 10.2 trillion won (US$9 billion) in building a 2.5 Gigawatt (GW) offshore wind farm, the largest in the world.

Korea Electric Power(KEP), the countries largest power company, will be incharge of the project.The project will be divied into 3phases:

1. 100MW, 353Million US Dollars, (Demonstartion Phase) - 2014
2. 400MW, 1.4Billion US Dollars, Second Phase - 2016
3. 2GW, 8.2Trillion won,Third Phase - 2019

Joining Korea Electric in the consortium of companies building the offshore wind farm are eight suppliers, including Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Co., Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., and Hyundai Heavy Industries Co.

“South Korea is a latecomer to wind energy and is coming in at a very difficult time for the industry, where severe competition and falling turbine prices are squeezing the profits of the entire supply chain,” Bloomberg New Energy Finance lead wind analyst Justin Woo commented.

“Offshore wind is probably the best entry point for Korean companies into this sector, given their extensive shipbuilding and marine engineering experience as well as the country’s excellent offshore wind resources.”

Source: Bloomberg Business Week
Clean Technica

Wind Farmer 4.2

When it comes to designing a wind farm project, no one does it better than WindFarmer 4.2. Yes, GL Garrad Hassan have released version 4.2 and I cannot wait to get my hands on.
This is what lies inside this release:

NEW: Increased support of ESRI shape files for site limits and object locations
NEW: Tools for design and optimisation of regular grid turbine layouts
NEW: Improved modelling of array effects between large wind farms

NEW: Expanded MCP+ Module with more displays and analysis
NEW: Arabic and Polish language versions.

You can try the demo here.

WindFarmer is wind energy software used to calculate turbine wake impacts, energy yield, and site conditions for determining turbine suitability. WindFarmer uses wind modeling inputs from WAsP or CFD software. WindFarmer is developed internally by the independent renewable energy consultant GL Garrad Hassan. WindFarmer can engage several types of wake models, including an Eddy Viscosity wake model which is more complex than the standard PARK model employed by WindPRO, a leading competitor.

More recently, the Eddy Viscosity model has been modified to account for previous discrepancies in the wake modelling of large wind farms. WindFarmer and WindPRO have both been trusted by investment banks to develop the published wind energy assessments used to determine financing for proposed wind farms.WindFarmer, like WindPRO, can optimize a wind farm layout for energy yield given turbine spacing, setback distances, shadow flicker, and acoustic noise level constraints.

Both products also feature wind farm visualization capabilities.

Wind Energy Installation Systems

When you decide to install a wind system in your house, there are a number of wind installation systems that are available and they depend much your nearness to the power line.
The 3 common installation systems are:

• Grid Connected
• Grid Connected with battery backup
• Off-Grid

The Grid Connected involves the wind turbine produces power (AC) which is fed into the house. Should the wind turbine produce more power than the demand of the house, this excess power is fed into the Grid via a meter which counts the units fed into the grid. On the other hand, should the wind system produce less power, the breaker box, shuts and opens power from the grid to be used. The Grid Connected with battery back-up  is similar to the Grid Connected  but inclusive of a battery. This battery is the storage of energy when the wind system is producing more power. In the event of a black-out energy from the battery is used. For the case of Off-Grid, the system is installed in places where the power grid is not available. It has batteries for harnessing excess power from the wind turbine.

In the next post we shall look in detail at the 3 systems.