Wind Turbines - Wind Energy: Renewable Energy and the Environment - page 95

NREL has a site for hybrid systems for village power, Renewables for Sustainable Village
Power (RSVP). The RSVP Village Power Project Database contained around 150 projects (wind
is part of 50 projects) from over 30 countries. Project information included basic, technological,
economic, financial, host country, lessons learned, pictures and graphics, and contact information.
The database is now archived and is not available online, and there have been a large number of
projects installed since 2004. For example, China now has over 700 village installations (capacity,
16 MW) powered by mini hydro, PV, or wind/PV hybrid systems [26]. China has also installed a
few wind/PV/diesel systems [27].

5.10.5 S UMMARY
Applications will be considered in more detail after more is learned about design and construction
of wind turbines. Wind power for generating electricity is the most used application. The problem of
load matching in pumping water for irrigation has to be part of the design consideration.

5.11 STORAGE
Of course if a way could be found to cheaply store energy, then there would not be a need to con-
struct new electrical power plants for some time. In addition, the economics of renewable energy,
including wind systems, would improve and wind farms could provide firm power. Batteries are
used with stand-alone systems and hybrid systems, and even provide load leveling for short-term
fluctuations. XCEL Energy will begin a demonstration project consisting of 1 MW of battery stor-
age to store energy from wind farms [28]. There will be 20 battery modules (50 kW each) that will
store around 72 MWh. Other storage ideas have been to change the electrical energy to chemical
energy, such as the production of hydrogen or fertilizer. Village power systems that include wind
turbines and the production of hydrogen are now on the market. Another idea would be to store the
energy in flywheels, which would be a good load match between the wind turbine and the load.
Compressed air, pumped water storage, and superconducting magnets have all been considered,
and some prototype systems with wind turbine input have even been constructed. In general, the
efficiency of storage systems is around 60 to 70%.

LINKS
Compressed air energy storage, State Energy Conservation Office, Texas, www.seco.cpa.state.tx.us/re_
wind-reserve.htm.
Global Village Energy Partnership International, www.gvepinternational.org .
Renewables for Sustainable Village Power, www.nrel.gov/villagepower.
WindCAD performance models, Bergey Windpower. www.bergey.com/Technical.htm . Spreadsheet.

REFERENCES
1.

E. F. Lindsey. 1974. Windpower. Popular Science , July, 54.

2. B. Kocivar. 1977. Tornado turbine. Popular Science , January, 78.

3. V. Chase. 1978. 13 wind machines. Popular Science , September, 70.

4. J. Schefter. 1983. 5 wild windmills. Popular Science , June, 76.

5. B. Juchau. 1983. 650-foot power tower. Popular Science , July, 68.

6. J. Schefter. 1983. Barrel-bladed windmill—Power from the Magnus effect. Popular Science , August, 70.

7. G. Lorente. 1982. Nuevo concepto de generador elctro-eólico. Metalurgia y Elctricidad , Numero 532,

Marzo, 51.

8. SERI Second Wind Energy Innovative Systems Conference , December 3-5, 1980. SERI/CP-635-938

and SERI/CP-635-1051, Vols. I and II.