Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
By 2007, there were approximately 270 MW of community wind projects installed in the United
States. In the United States the market for farm/industrial/business and community is estimated
at 500 MW by 2010 and 3,900 MW by 2020 [11]. Distributed wind systems will have an impact
especially on smaller utilities and electric cooperatives [12]. The international market is difficult to
measure, as most of that market would be in village power and remote systems; however, for farm/
industrial/business, the market is estimated at 400 MW by 2010 and 600 MW by 2020.
Distributed wind turbines for farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses will be somewhat similar to the
farm implement business. The barriers and possible incentives for distributed wind applications are:
1. Cost, not enough production to get economies of scale
a. Favorable life cycle costs will not sell these wind turbines.
b. Payback has to be 4 to 6 years.
c. That means they have to compete almost directly with cost of electricity from utility,
$0.10-0.15/kWh.
2. No infrastructure
a. Enough units have to be installed in a region for local business for sales and O&M.
Within a 250 km radius, need $1,000,000/year in sales. At $50,000/unit that would be
twenty units sold per year.
b. For O&M need around 300 units installed in that area, 250 km radius.
c. In time, distributed wind should be like the farm implement business. A large tractor
costs over $200,000.
3. Not enough selection of wind turbine sizes
In 2008, Fuhrländer suspended production of its 30-600 kW units due to lack of supply of
components and the big demand for utility-scale turbines.
Suggested sizes for rural, grid connect:
Residential: 10 kW
Farm-ranch resident: 50 kW
Agribusiness: 100, 250 kW
Large agribusiness: 500-1,000 kW
In a sense, they should be modular components. For example, Wind Eagle has a 30 or
50 kW unit, depending on wind regime. Again, once started, there will be a trend toward
larger sizes.
4. For agribusiness, need to sell total package
a. Wind turbine, electrical energy
b. Demand side management
c. Service
5. Incentives
a. Able to use production tax credit.
b. For irrigation market, wind class 3 and above, net energy billing on year basis for units
up to 500 kW. The introduction of net energy billing of 50 kW (residential size wind
turbines) in Texas resulted in essentially zero sales.
c. Benefits for NOX and SOX: When carbon trading arrives, then distributed wind tur-
bines need to be included.
d. Installation of distributed wind turbines on rural electric cooperative grids.
There are projects classified as community wind [13], but they are not strictly distributed systems.
Two or more farmers could purchase large wind turbines on a cooperative basis. In Minnesota, there
are farmer-owned wind projects under 2 MW, with one or two large turbines, as there was a state pro-
duction incentive of $0.015/kWh for the first 10 years. Sixty-six farmers raised 30% of the $3.6 million
cost of four turbines (950 kW) for two projects. The remaining 70% was raised through local banks.
A Community Wind Development Handbook [14] was developed on behalf of the Rural Minnesota
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