Wind Energy for Individuals and Communities

1

Wind Energy for Individuals and Communities

Trudy Forsyth

[email protected] National Renewable Energy Laboratory

July 2008

Industry

Residential

Business

Farm

Schools

2

Presentation Outline

• Differences between small and large wind turbines

• US wind resource assessment map

• Importance of micro-siting

• Overview of small wind economics

• Listing of some commercial small turbines

• Case Studies using small wind turbines

• Introduction to community wind trade-offs

• Case Studies for community wind turbines & colleges

• More information

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• Utility-Scale Wind Power

600 - 1,800 kW wind turbines – Installed on wind farms, 10 – 300 MW

– Professional maintenance crews

– 13 mph (6 m/s) average wind speed

• Small Wind Power

300 W - 100 kW wind turbines

– Installed at individual homes, farms, businesses, schools, etc.

– On the “customer side” of the meter, or off the utility grid entirely

– High reliability, low maintenance

– 9 mph (4 m/s) average wind speed

Small Wind Turbines Are Different

1,500 kW

10 kW

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US Wind Resource Assessment Map (Small Wind market = all colored areas+)

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Importance of “Micro-Siting”

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Capacity Factor

Capacity Factor =

kWh produced per year/(Prated * 8760 hours/year)

• Prated – rated power of the wind turbine

– Small Wind Turbines have wide variation

• Used to judge the site more than the turbine

• Can be evaluated across any period of time

– Yearly, monthly or weekly

• Capacity Factor – typically ranges from 10 – 40%

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4.4% capacity factor

in first year of operation (July 2007)

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Warwick Urban Wind Trial www.warwickwindtrials.org.uk

• 29 small winds turbine installations on rooftops in urban

areas

• Plus, 1 reference turbine in an rural location (open field)

• Measurements of both wind speed (at hub height) and

wind turbine energy production

– First quantitative study of it’s kind!

• Interim reports published January & May, 2008 (< full

year of data)

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Warwick Wind Trials Preliminary Results

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Example:

Wind Turbine Installed Cost

Red highlights = Turbine System Cost

Updated: 5-Jul-07

High Cost Low Cost

Wind turbine & inverter $27,900 $27,900 $27,900

Tower (100 ft guyed) $9,200 $31,950 $7,400

Tower Wiring Kit $1,000 $1,140 $860

Shipping $1,500 $2,000 $1,000

Installation $8,000 $18,000 $2,000

Permits/Fees $500 $6,000 $0

Sales Tax, 2% $952 9% none

Total $49,052 $94,279 $39,160

Bergey Excel-S (10 kW)

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Wind Turbine Cost per kWincluding turbine, tower, and inverter

$0

$2,000

$4,000

$6,000

$8,000

$10,000

$12,000

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Rated Power, kW

$2,500-$5,000/kW

12 Federal Incentives: Mainstay Energy – green tag purchase (CA excluded); USDA Federal Farm Bill Title 9006 – grant for rural areas May 10, 2007

Future state

incentive in

development – IN,

CO, OR, CT, LIPA

Residential Small Wind Incentives www.dsireusa.org

Property Tax Incentives

Buydown/Grants &

Net Metering

Buydown/Grants,

Net Metering, & Loans

Productivity

Incentives &

Loans

Productivity

Incentives

Net Metering & Loans

Net Metering, Loans

& Prod. Incentives Net Metering &

Prod. Incentives Net Metering

BUYDOWNS/GRANTS PRODUCTIVITY INCENTIVES MINOR INCENTIVES

$

$

$

$

$

$ $

$

$

$ Income Tax Credits

$

$

$

$

Loans

RPS Puerto Rico

$

$

Buydown/Grants

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Small Wind Economics

Bergey Excel on 100ft Tower

Simple Payback

Bergey Excel, 100 ft Tower

0

10

20

30

40

50

5 7 9 11 13 15

Electric Rate, ¢/kWh

Sim

ple

Payb

ack,

Years

Net Metering Only, 12.5 mph

Net Metering Only, 16 mph

USDA Grant and Net Metering, 12.5 mph

USDA Grant and Net Metering, 16 mph

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Southwest Windpower Flagstaff, Arizona www.windenergy.com

AIR-X 300 W Whisper 100 900 W

(DC, water pumper, AC w/inverter)

Whisper 200 1000 W

(DC, water pumper, AC w/inverter)

Whisper 500 3 kW

Skystream 1.8 kW

(www.skystreamenergy.com)

Installed costs of

$14k (10m tower) - $22k (20m tower)

Estimated 3,600 kWh/year

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Endurance Windpower www,endurancewindpower.com

Turbine System Costs $34,995

(105’guyed tilt-down tower)

Estimated kWh 7,700/year

S-250

4.25 kW

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Abundant Renewable Energy Newberg, Oregon www.abundantre.com

ARE110 2.5 kW, 12 ft Dia.

Battery-Charging

Grid-Connect

Turbine System Cost =

$12,650 (no tower)

ARE442 10 kW, 24 ft Dia.

Battery-Charging

Grid-Connect

Turbine System

Cost = $50,000

(100’ guyed tower)

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BWC

Excel 10 kW

Bergey Windpower

1 kW

www.bergey.com Norman, OK

Turbine system costs of $2,600 + $2800 (100’ guyed tower)

Estimated 1,400 kWh/year Turbine System costs of

$27.9k + $9.2k (100’ guyed tower )

Estimated 11,700 kWh/year

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Wind Turbine Industries, Inc.

Prior Lake, MN

Jacobs

31/20 20 kW

Turbine System costs of $53k (100’tower)

Estimated 11,700 kWh per year

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Entegrity Wind www.entegritywind.com

EW15 60 kW

Turbine System costs of $165k (100’ lattice tower)

Estimated 96,900 kWh per year

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Distributed Energy Systems Barre, Vermont

www.distributed-energy.com

NorthWind 100A –

Cold Weather

turbine

NorthWind 100B

(prototype)

100 kW, 69 ft dia.

Grid-Connect

Turbine Systems costs of $265k (120’ tube tower)

Estimated 187,000 kWh per year

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Case Study: Public School

• Quinter High School,

Quinter, KS

• Entegrity EW15, 50kW,

100 ft tower

• $145,000 installed cost,

2007

• $9,100 annual utility

bill reduction, plus…

• $2,800 income from

electricity sales

• 12 year simple payback

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Case Study: On-Grid Farm

• Southwestern Kansas

• Utility bill reduction

• Bergey Windpower Excel turbine

10 kW, 23 ft rotor, 100 ft tower

• ~21,000 kWh/year generation,

utility bill savings ~$2,800/year

• Installed in early 1983, ~$20,000,

received federal tax credit

• Maintenance costs $50/year

• One lightning strike, damage was

covered by farm insurance

• One blade was replaced

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Localized Growth

San Bernardino County, CA

• Guasti Construction – started in 2000 with first small turbine installation

– ½ Full Time Equivalent (FTE)

• Worked the local zoning and interconnection issues

• As of 12/07 – installed 116 turbines (114 in San Bernardino County)

– 6 ¾ FTE

Building a module that will work with Jobs, Economic Development Impact (JEDI) tool – in development

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University of Vermont – Bergey 10 kW

• Estimated turbine

production – 3,000 –

5,900 kWh/year

• Turbine incorporated

into curriculum

• Cutting CO2

emissions by 3,500-

5,900 lbs/year

• Co-funded by DPS -

$30k

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How to get the rest of the US to follow?

Buffalo Ridge Minnesota from 10,000 feet

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How did Minnesota become a

Community Wind leader?

• Xcel Energy’s wind mandate (1994)

• Minnesota’s 10-year production incentive of 1.5¢/kWh (1997)

• Minnesota’s renewable energy objective (2001)

• Xcel Energy’s small wind tariff and standardized power purchase agreement (2001)

• Xcel Energy’s Renewable Development Fund (implemented in 2001)

• USDA Farm Bill, Energy Title Grants (2002)

• C-BED Tariff (2005 and 2007)

Successful incentives address financing issues, provide access to capital, equipment, and/or strengthen the market for community wind.

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Cost of

Money

Wind

Speed

Electricity

$ Savings

Higher Values

DISCOURAGE

Wind

Generation

Higher Values

FAVOR

Wind

Generation

Cost of

Turbine

Cost to

Interconnect

Financial

Incentives

Overall Economics of Wind Generation is Determined by a Balance of Factors

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Spirit Lake Community School District

• 250-kW and 750-kW turbines

• Funding: DOE grant & low-

interest loan Iowa DNR

• District has saved more than

$125,000 on utility bills

• Both turbines will be paid off in

2007, the revenue generated

(est. $120k/year) will be used for

school programs

• Funds from electricity sales used

to fund instructional costs

• Used in district's curriculum.

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Portsmouth Abbey, RI

• Originated by Dom Joseph Byron

• Installed in May 2007

• Meet approx. 40% of school’s energy needs

• 1st year of operation – reduced schools’ electricity by 39.35%

• Brought in $200k for

– Electricity cost savings

– Electricity sold to the grid

– Renewable energy credits

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Carlton College - MN

• Installed NEG/Micon 1.65 MW

• Xcel purchasing kWh @ 3.3cents/kWh for 20 years

• Estimated 5,000,000 kWh/year

• Turbine installed and commissioned in Sept. 2004

• Anticipated to replace 40% of college load

• Reduce emission by

– 4,318 tons CO2

– 170 tons of volatile organic compounds

– 11.6 tons of NOx

– 11.5 tons of SO2

– etc

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For More Information

- Wind Powering America – www.windpoweringamerica.gov

- American Wind Energy Association

www.awea.org

- Community Wind - Windustry

www.windustry.org

- Incentives

www.dsireusa.org

- Results of building integrated wind turbines

http://www.warwickwindtrials.org.uk/

- Information on wind and schools

www.windpoweringamerica.gov/school

www.aashe.org/resources/wind_campus.php

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Wind and Coal Economic

Impacts in Kansas

Notes:

1. Coal property tax may be significantly lower as a result of statutory abatements available to coal power

generation property. No new coal plants have been built since the abatement was created;

therefore, no data are available for expected payments in place of the abatement.

2. Property taxes are calculated based on straight-line depreciation 25-year lifetime for wind

power facilities and a 7-year rapid depreciation period for coal plants (minimum depreciable value of 20%, average

state mill levy).

$0.0

$0.5

$1.0

$1.5

$2.0

Wind (1700 MW, 35% Cf) Coal (700 MW, 0% in-state coal

resources)

Bil

lio

ns o

f D

oll

ars

(2007)

Landowner revenue

Property taxes

Operations

Construction

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1. Assess your electricity consumption, cost, and

your utility tariff

2. Be more energy efficient reduce your

consumption

3. Estimate or measure wind resource

4. Select turbine size (model) and tower height

5. Investigate incentives & economics

6. Get zoning approval

12 Step Program for a

Small Wind Project

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7. Complete a utility interconnection agreement

8. Obtain building & electrical permits

9. Order turbine and tower

10. Install the turbine

11. Commission the turbine

12. Perform periodic inspections & maintenance

12 Step Program for a

Small Wind Project