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Show Western Resources Wind energy nvHeleneC.Monberg hinrion-The Water and Power. rres Service (W&PRS, old 0f Reclamation) wants to authorize a study of the ff, of building a "windmill Jar Medicine Bow, Wyo., to rite 100 000 kilowatts (KW) of G power to integrate with its flower system. hit's for openers. What the Service Lm wants it; legislation authorizing it Kostmct, operate and maintain F "L generating facilities utilizing PL of renewable energy sources, L 'ending of feasibility, to integrate th its hydropower. Among the Uable energy sources that it wants liable to build and add to its hydro Uniting system are "all direct and keel forms of solar energy, tidal few wind energy, ocean thermal Uents, geothermal," additional U power projects, "biomass grown nosefully for recovery of energy wastes of all types, such as kn' industrial, agricultural, and ptry wastes, and any other type of Enable energy. , ft problem is that the Service can't ' B get a Democratic Senator to in-' in-' tfuce a bill to authorize it to do a ' p4 000 feasibility study of the jl'ed 40-unit, 100,000 KW wind fae field at Medicine Bow. A publican member of Congress from jh has offered to co-sponsor such a ifthe Service can find a Democratic : jsor. It has been unable to do so to j And if such legislation is not induced in-duced soon, such a study is not likely authorized this year, as the Senate ' ergy Committee plans to mark up n and send on to the Senate a House-i-jed bill authorizing the Interior partment to conduct a number of tibility studies. WORLD'S LARGEST S WIND GENERATOR ar several years the Service has n attempting to get into the wind oration business. In 1979 Congress raized it to build what it calls a vms Verification Unit into its "tarn. Under that authorization, IPRS Commissioner R. Keith pek announced on Feb. 4 the "toe had let a contract for $6 million familton Standard Co. of Windsor is, Conn., to build the world's . (est wind generator near Medicine t,, ....,...,-,,,- ' e: I is a 4,000 KW wind-turbine If mtor which will be built at the site .; I year after site preparation is : ipleted this year. The new mtor is twice as large as another i... d generating unit built near Boone, ; ', last summer. It will have a two-t two-t M, fiberglass rotor totalling 255 k in length. The blades will be uled on top of a tapered, hollow il tower 262 feet tall. When !f Hiving, the top of the blades' arc will - nearly 400 feet above the ground, the 8 we announced. liH.OOO KW unit, which looks more an airplane propeller than a 1 11 imill, will be built at Spade Flats, ""imalely five miles southwest of J ''cine Bow in Southeastern ming not far from the Wyoming-'t: Wyoming-'t: rado border. This is Site A, one of e ""'sites selected by the Service for . Relocation of a "windmill farm." r as selected, according to a study . ( win March by the W&PRS Lower Region in Denver, because it e to the existing Medicine Bow 'tation for utility-grid tie-in and it is -jewnt to the Union Pacific "ad Line for economical hardware importation." 7 ',ers'teselection for the new unit, a if 'logical tower was constructed 7 ; hi, the unit site- The new unit Muled to go into operation not : '"""Sept-M, 1981. it will be tested !K; No months after it initially goes Then a two-year period of - aeration will follow. What power u generate will be fed into the 1(f vision system of the Colorado " storage project (CRSP). ;'!s?VurPe is for testing, j l March rePrt of the oifice in Denver indicated the purposes of the installation of the .hJ t0 "a"alyze per-Z' per-Z' termine operation and '-'art !'e()uirements. verify the " ic rp r 'S design criteria. assess a h and acceptance, and tV'ii ana'yze enviornmental 1 any. 1 i w'l' the Service wants to be .Viv rks' The 2. KW u1 ertment of Energy put up 1 -on-'ii iC year in the service iw"J B'ue Ridge Economic fctri rat've (ie., local ''erso. C(H)p)- started to Wu y' sources told Western 5 raP-Up (WRW) on ApH1 I "'strar Rural Electrification F lVrin pREA) nor toe National SCA) j Operative Association f tive , PUshin8 """al electric W " erl get int0 solar or wind S Iitt had a disappointing Nther .me solar Panels that " Kon r? ,0titsnew building in I 1 U-U; and studies which INTEGRATION OF WIND AND HYDROELECTRIC POWER Diitribution Network Existing Colorado Rim Wind Turbine Array Storage Project Medicine Bow, Wyoming NRECA's Morgan UuDrow nas done on wind power are not promising, NRECA told WRW on April 8. The REA spokesman said that REA plans to help rural cooperatives build small hydro plants into their electric systems, but it does not encourage the construction of new types of wind power because they have not become commercially acceptable yet. The technology of most wind turbines has not been proved. INTEGRATION INTO CRSP SYSTEM FEASIBLE Several studies which the W&PRS has conducted on the possibility of integrating 100,000 KW of wind power into the Service's Colorado River Storage Project hydro system are favorable, according to the March report. Particularly at Medicine Row in southern Wyoming, it said. "Wind energy potential in this region, known as the 'wind corridor,' is one of the highest in the United States." "This favorable wind regime is greatly influenced by the westerly winds being funneled from west to east across a natural low along the Continental Divide and by other favorable topographic features, alignment and elevations" in the area, it said. Even tho the Service doesn't have the authority yet to proceed with a feasibility study of adding 100,000 KW of wind power to its hydro, system in the area, it has already a pretty firm idea of how it would build such a "windmill farm" to hoop up with its hydro system. It tentatively plans to erect 40 units, with an electrical output rated at 2500 KW each. The 40 units would be arranged in six clusters, with each unit about 4,500 feet from the next. They would be built at the C site, or at Greasewood . Flats, about 12 miles northeast of Medicine Bow, on 31,500 acres of land. The area is characterized by generally flat terrain with a number of dry lakes that have made low-lying depressions on the land. Average windspeed at both site A, where the single unit is being installed for testing, and at site C, where the "windmill farm" might be built, are 15 miles per hour at 32.8 feet, and the windspeeds are higher at both sites at greater heights, the report said. The energy generation from such a "windmill farm" is estimated to be 351 million kilowatt hours (KWH) per year, on the average. The Service's March report indicates it would be possible to sell 240,530,000 KWH as peak energy ie., at times of highest demand at 70 mills KWH, and 110,500,000 KWH as off-peak off-peak energy at 35 mills KWH. This is not much more than the 56 mills per KWH which federal power was selling for in the Southwest or the 65 mills per KWH which it was selling for in the Upper Missouri Basin as peaking power in 1979, according to a 1979 report of an energy task force to the Water Resources council, the March report stated. At a 30-year life of the wind project, with interest during contruction figured at a low eight percent, total reimbursable costs are figured at $213,169,000 for the windmill farm project, and reimbursable annual costs are estimated at $19,541,000. "If the construction of the wind field were started in the near future, the first windpower could be available about 1985. If the windpower were marketed in 1985 at a single rate for 52 mills. ..for a 5-year period and increased to 65 mills in 1990, the project would pay out in the 30-year repayment period. These rates are well within the price ranges cited by the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA), "which would market the federally-produced wind power, the report concluded. WAPA would market the wind power in the Colorado River Storage Project marketing area of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of the states of Nevada and California. At Medicine Bow the wind is higher in the winter than in the summer, and the windspeeds are highest in the middle of the day, when demand is highest. So it is "ideal for integration with the hydro system," according to the report. |