Applications and Wind Industry - Wind Energy: Renewable Energy and the Environment - page 213

FIGURE 10.8 Top left, MOD-5B, Ohau, Hawaii. Top right, WTS, Medicine Bow, Wyoming. Top of MOD-2
is visible on lower right. Bottom, Westinghouse 600, Ohau, Hawaii. MOD-5B is visible on the right.
Electricity consumption had also increased over the small demand of the 1930s. There was a need
for larger wind turbines, as 5 m diameter rotors could not meet the demands of farmers and ranch-
ers. In addition, there were many more uses for electricity, which would require larger-size wind
turbines.
Since the electric distribution system was almost everywhere in the United States, there was a
market for wind turbines that were fully compatible with the utility system: 120, 240, or 480 V,
alternating current (AC). Inverters with solid-state electronics were now available to connect direct
current (DC) units and alternators to the utility line. Enertech and Carter were early proponents of
induction generators, which could be connected directly to the utility grid.
The second step was the influx of federal funding for research through the Energy Research
and Development Agency (ERDA) and later the Department of Energy (DOE). Federal support for
wind energy began with $300,000 in 1973, and by 1980 had increased to $67 million. The federal
program for development of wind turbines was geared to large units to connect to the utility grid
(Figure 10.8). These units were to produce power in the range of $0.02-0.04/kWh. The program
was managed by NASA-Lewis [43] starting with the MOD-0 (100 kW) and MOD-0A (200 kW)
and progressing to megawatt-sized wind turbines. Five of the MOD-2s ( Figure 10.9 ) were built, and
the original design of the MOD-5 was reduced from 7,200 kW to 3,200 kW. All of these units had
two blades.
During the 1980s, other large wind turbines were developed and installed in the United States and
Europe ( Table 10.10 ) . The Hamilton Standard WTS-4, Wind Turbine Generator, Bendix-Schachle, and