Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
From the early Bonus and Nordtanks 65 kW from the rush
period, to advanced medium-sized Vestas machines around
200 kW of the late 1980s, the Tehachapi Pass still today gives a
strong impression of the turbulent and dynamic development
the wind industry has gone through. Drivers using Interstate 10
starting in Los Angeles will be surrounded by some thousands of
Micons, Vestas, Nordtanks and other 1980s turbines when heading
for the city of Palm Springs in the San Gorgonio area.
But the development of wind turbines was always of fast
nature and did not cease with the mid-1980s crisis. The advent
of mid-size wind turbines in California was just a matter of time.
Already in 1988/89 a first set of 500 kW units (Floda 500) was built
at San Gorgonio. Consequently, representatives of the mid-1990s
state-of-the-art machines in the 400-600 kW range, megawatt
and multi-megawatt designs of the early 2000s and the more
recent years can be spotted in newer developments across whole
California.
For example, 20 Dutch Nedwind 500 kW turbines were put
up at San Gorgonio in 1994. Kenetech's KVS-33, a 360 kW model,
is well represented there since the mid-1990s. Zond's Z-48, a
750 kW model, Vestas 660 kW and Mitsubishi's MWT-600 have
quite a dominance in the San Gorgonio area since the late 1990s and
early 2000s.
In Tehachapi, Vestas put up dozens of its ubiquitous V-27 225 kW
between 1990-1993, while German Tacke installed four of its
TW-600 in 1994. They were followed by some 500 kW Vestas at a
nearby site the following year.
The long awaited and late introduction of megawatt machines
in California came with the realisation of four Nordex N-54
1 MW in 1999 at the Energy Unlimited site in San Gorgonio. The
Tehachapi “Oasis” wind farm in 2002 comprising 60 Mitsubishi
units rated at 1 MW was the first larger project in the state using
Megawatt turbines.
Large-scale Megawatt machines are strongly represented at
Solano County with hundreds of Vestas and GE turbines all rated
at 1.5 MW and above. These wind farms were built between
2003 and 2009. And even completely undeveloped sites are
now taken into consideration. The Hatchet Ridge wind farm in
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