Introduction to Wind Energy

Stewart C. Russell

WindShare

Scope

Introduction
The Technology
Wind Energy in Ontario
Barriers & Opportunities
WindShare

Introduction

Who is WindShare?
Who is Zephyr North Ltd.?
… and who is Stewart Russell?
Apology
Disclaimer

This talk does not represent WindShare, its partners, Zephyr North Ltd., or anyone but the author.

Wind Energy Isn't Alternative

History

came to Western Europe around 12th C CE
watermills belonged to church or feudal lords
windmills didn't pay taxes
… until the bishops burned them down, or demanded taxes on the wind that “belonged to none but [the church]”.

Quotation from the 1881 Mechanical Dictionary.

The traditional windmill

Photo Credit: Michael Reeve.

Some things to do with a windmill

grind grain
saw lumber
pump water
make wood pulp for paper
crush rock
mill pigments

The American farm wind pump

This one was made in Ontario, and was on display at this year's Markham Fair.

The Chicago Wind Pump

developed in mid 19th C CE
wind-tunnel tested
scientifically refined: curved airfoils, efficient transfer gearing
allowed the westward expansion.

Typical Wind Turbine Configuration

photo credit: Siemens

Alternative: Direct Drive Wind Turbine

photo credit: Americas Wind Energy

The Also-Ran: Darrieus VAWT

photo credit: Atlantic Wind Test Site, via CanWEA.

Despite extensive research work in Canada and abroad, the vertical axis wind turbine has never been a commercial success. It won't self-start, shows variable torque throughout its rotation, and tends to suffer from fatigue. Its ability to accept wind from any direction is less of an advantage than you'd think; in strong (useful) winds, the wind pretty much comes from the same direction.

Turbine Size: Tiny - Marlec 50W

Turbine Size: Small - Bergey 10kW

Turbine Size: Utility: Vestas DWT 400kW

Turbine Size: Huge - RePower 5MW

photo credit: RePower

Wind Turbine Energy Capture

is related to the turbine's swept area
in lower wind sites, is greatly affected by the turbine cut-in speed
wind speed increases with height
the rate of increase is affected by ground roughness.

How Turbines Have Grown

figure credit: Vestas

Energy yield has increased 42x in 21 years. That's over 19%/year, or doubling in less than 4 years. Not quite Moore's Law, but pretty nifty for rotating plant ...

Other applications

water aeration
wind/diesel hybrids for remote areas
water purification
Hydrogen? Who knows!

Wind Energy in Ontario

Until 2005, has only had a token presence, including:

OPG, Pickering
Sky Generation, Ferndale
WindShare/Toronto Hydro, Toronto

Power is seen to be too cheap and too abundant to care about where it comes from.

OPG, Pickering: 1.8MW

photo credit: Google

Sky Generation, Ferndale: 1.8MW

photo credit: Sky Generation

WindShare/Toronto Hydro: 750kW

photo credit: Toronto Hydro/WindShare/TREC

Building a Wind Farm

You will need:

land
transmission
wind resource
permitting/environmental assessment

Wind Siting: Selection

So how do you find good land?

photo credit: Vestas

Wind Siting: Wind Map

ontariowindatlas.ca

You'll note the highest winds over the lakes

Wind Siting: Offshore

photo credit: Siemens

Wind Siting: Measurement

Wind Siting: Measurement

Wind Siting: Measurement

Power Purchase

RFP
Standard Offer/Renewable Tariff

Power Purchase: RFP

highly competitive; results in lowest-cost projects
onerous entry requirements; high qualifying bonds
inefficient; often results in unbuilt under-bid contracts
Small scale; results in a few hundred MW of capacity

The author survived several rounds of the UK NFFO/SRO, with sanity relatively intact.

Ontario RFP Winners

Erie Shores Wind Farm, Erie Shores Wind Farm L.P. (Port Burwell), 99 megawatts
Prince Wind Farm, Superior Wind Energy Inc. (Prince Township, near Sault Ste. Marie), 99 megawatts
Melancthon Grey Wind Project, Canadian Hydro Developers, Inc. (Shelburne), 67.5 megawatts
Blue Highlands Wind Farm, Superior Wind Energy Inc. (Blue Mountains), 49.5 megawatts
Kingsbridge Wind Power Project, EPCOR (Goderich), 39.6 megawatts

Erie Shores Wind Farm

But for all my complaints, RFPs are resulting in turbines in the ground.

Power Purchase: Standard Offer

allows anyone with a site to get a long term government-backed contract; easy funding!
very low paperwork
local utility obliged to take all generation
ideally, shouldn't be capped
created the world-leading German wind industry
Ontario is releasing its SO terms early 2006.

Unregulated Standard Offer, or the thought thereof, gives the IESO a coronary. I guess we wind types are still causing trouble seven centuries on.

Barriers & Opportunities

Mistakes were made …

Visual Clutter

photo credit: Stan Shebs

Barriers to Wind

The perceived bird problem
Noise
Intermittency
Public (lack of) awareness

Opportunities for Wind

Fastest growing generation sector
New markets in green attributes
Canada has huge wind potential
Whole new manufacturing sector

One of the advantages of coming late to the party is that Canada can learn from other countries' experience.

Wind is Germany's single largest user of steel.

WindShare to MindShare

why?
what?
how?

WindShare: Why?

because we could
because we should
we're disconnected from the sources of generation, and should consider the consequences
it's a cool landmark
because people wanted it

WindShare: What?

currently own half of a 750kW wind turbine at ExPlace; other half owned by Toronto Hydro
community coop with ~400 members
members invest, and get dividends from sale of power
looking to expand share in turbine and build another turbine, and/or be part of community wind farm, LakeWind

WindShare: How?

started building community support in 1997
unbelievable amount of permitting and bureaucracy required before building
secured various grants from federal/provincial/city bodies
first share issue 2002
turbine built December 2002 – January 2003
our co-op model now in use by groups associated with OSEA, and worldwide

Obligatory WindShare Commercial

memberships are still available
Standard Offer will change everything for us
Our first turbine generates goodwill
... but our second will have to generate revenue for members.

Credits / Acknowledgements

Jim Salmon, Zephyr North Ltd.
Paul Gipe
WindShare, OSEA, and TREC
image credits: Americas Wind Energy, Atlantic Wind Test Site, CanWEA, Google, Michael Reeve, RePower, Siemens, Sky Generation, Stan Shebs, TREC, Toronto Hydro, Vestas, WindShare
Eric Meyer, for the S5 presentation package
IEEE Toronto Section.

The Michael Reeve and Stan Shebs photos are open content licensed, and are taken from Wikipedia.

Links

WindShare, windshare.ca
OSEA, ontario-sea.org
Kortright Centre, trca.on.ca/parks_and_culture/places_to_visit/kortright_centre
Canadian Wind Atlas, windatlas.ca
Ontario Wind Atlas, ontariowindatlas.ca
Canadian Wind Energy Association, canwea.ca
Bullfrog Power, bullfrogpower.com

IEEE Toronto Section, Ryerson University — http://scruss.com/talks/02005/ieee_toronto/