by Bruce Goodman

With a $1.4 million DOE grant in hand and a request for a $2.0 million MPSC grant pending, Grand Valley State University is preparing to issue a Request for Proposal for a Lake Michigan offshore meteorological tower and research platform.  The RFP will be seeking a partner ready to contribute the additional resources needed and take responsibility for siting, designing, and constructing the project.  It is expected that the site selected for the project will be favorably suited for a future utility scale wind energy project.

Tweet This Post

by Bruce Goodman

There are a number of factors identified as impediments to the robust development of offshore wind energy projects in the Great Lakes.  Amoung those most often cited are the following:

• inadequate data on wind speed over one year and over many years;
• the need for strong transmission lines from the lakes to the major populations centers;
• electrical rates in some areas  that are at a level to make wind power not competitive;
• lack of data on how winter ice flows will affect the wind turbine towers;
• the lack of large work ships needed for the construction of wind turbine towers in deep water;
• lake depths at distances offshore beyond line of sight;
• uncertainty in the regulatory system for the permits needed to begin construction; and
• incomplete studies on migratory bird patterns needed to help determined where offshore wind farms can be located

 Until each of these issues is addressed by government or project developers it is unlikely that the Great Lakes will see the rapid development of wind energy predicted by many.  Yet this is, without a doubt, the area of greatest wind resources for the Great Lakes States (and Canada).

Tweet This Post

by Bruce Goodman

Traverse City Light & Power has approved a 20-year power purchase agreement with Stoney Corners Wind Farm near McBain to purchase 10 MW from five wind turbines. It is anticipated that the five wind turbines will be operating by the end of 2010.

Between 2010 and 2012 Heritage Renewable Energy is planning to construct more projects with the goal of building an additional 400-500 MW. The interconnection at the site has been sized to accomodate a much larger number of wind turbines than what is currently committed. 

In a related development, the MPSC has approved an amendment to the existing Detroit Edison contract with Stoney Corners for a pilot, utility-scale 2.2 MW wind turbine with a permanent magnet generator and direct drive configuration.

This wind farm developer is undertaking a very unique approach on building a wind farm piece by piece, such that the electiricty at the site may ultimately be committed to many different entitites.  Already it has three different types of wind turbines assigned to the project.

Tweet This Post

Attorney Bruce Goodman

DELEG has funded the installation of anemometers to measure wind speeds on five towers across the state. MSU will collect the data from the towers in Gratiot, Delta, Antrim, Mason and Hillsdale counties and make the data accessible to the public online. The measurements will be taken at three heights, one of which will be as high as 100 meters. The data will be collected for at least one year.

The State of Michigan is doing what it can to encourage wind project developers to work on projects within the state.  The full impact of the renewable portfolio standard is still a few years away, and prices for power purchase agreements with state utilities are barely high enough to finance a wind farm.  Nonetheless, more wind data will be helpful.  Moreover, to the extent this data can be correlated to offshore wind data the long term impact is most likely to be to encourage in the lake projects.

Tweet This Post

 by Bruce Goodman

Developers Havgul Clean Energy and Scandia Wind Offshore are considering a 100 square mile area of Lake Michigan near Ludington for a $3 billion, 1000 MW offshore wind farm. After meeting with Mason and Oceana county officials, the team held a well-attended public meeting on December 15 to explain the details of the proposed project which would be located approximately 2-4 miles offshore between Pentwater and Ludington. Relying on wind statistics collected from lighthouses, they selected the location for its combination of grid access (Ludington Pumped Storage Plant), wind resource, proximity to major load centers, and favorable water depths.

Tweet This Post

by Bruce Goodman

Yesterday’s AWEA conference in Detroit was very interesting.  It was primarily focused on small wind turbines, and there certainly are a great number of them in production.  There are a multitude of designs, from all over the world.  I was particularly intrigued by the solar/wind power/battery backup/LED streetlight for $5000 per pole. 

The economics of many of the small wind systems do not yet justify their windspread use in Michigan.  However, when I heard Mariah Power talking about how 75% of their production was going to export that made sense.  There was an MSU economics professor that I spoke with who suggested that in his studies he has found that a 20 kw wind turbine might clear the economic ROI hurtles, even in Michigan.  He said that as strange as it seemed, both the smaller units and the larger units (i.e. 2.5 kw and 100 kw) had price points that made them uneconomic at this time.  I heard from a developer of a 2.5 kw unit that his product was already competitive with coal fired generation at $3000 kw.  It was neither the time nor the place to talk about availability or backup.  

Governor Granholm’s opening remarks in the morning were very much a cheerleading effort for Michigan’s  unemployed engineers and manufacturing labor force.  She made many good points about what the state brings to the alternative energy table.

Tweet This Post

by Bruce Goodman

Math has always been my friend:  it is certain, reliable, and precise. It can predict when train #2 will overtake train #1. In the realm of wind energy it explains why offshore is better than onshore. Wind energy is the product of [(air density) x (2 x turbine blade length)² x (wind speed)³].  Therefore wind turbines are most powerful if the weather is colder, the blade longer, and the wind blows harder. During the peak loads of summer, winds over the lakes are more dense than over the land. Larger turbine blades can be floated to locations than can be railed or trucked. And offshore winds in Michigan are stronger than the winds over land. Despite high installation and maintenance costs the exponents will make all the difference in bringing offshore wind to Michigan.  Ahoy matey.

Tweet This Post

by Bruce Goodman

Yesterday I was invited by Southwest Michigan First to make a presentation on Legal/Permitting Processes relating to the electric power industry.   It was interesting to have Consumers Energy and American Electric Power on the same panel discussing alternative energy options.  I know that for every independent power supplier contract they sign they are reducing their own chance to “build that capacity.”  And only when a utility is building is there a return on investment for the shareholders.  Nonetheless, they appear to be genuinely ready to buy third-party capacity.

There was a lively discussion on reliability and speculation on the future of electric rates.  I tried to focus the discussion on reserve margin and backup capacity issues, but that was a little too advanced for this stage of the discussion.  A few people wanted to talk about these issues, and the pros and cons of natural gas backing up wind energy (a la T. Boone Pickens), but the time constraints of the program prevented that.

Very interesting presentation on the Kalamazoo Valley Community College wind turbine technician program.

Tweet This Post