Message-ID: <199703312003.MAA18378@cdp.igc.apc.org> Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 12:03:37 -0800 From: Tom Gray <mailto:tomgray@IGC.ORG> Subject: --USAF Wins with Wind To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
ASCENSION ISLAND WIND TURBINES START CHALKING UP FUEL SAVINGSFour wind electric turbines installed in a U.S. Air Force (USAF) project on Ascension Island are beginning to rack up some impressive fuel savings, according to a USAF news release (see WIND ENERGY WEEKLY #665, September 25, 1995).
The machines generated 351,000 kWh in the first month and a half of operation, the release said--an amount of power that would require 28,000 gallons of diesel fuel to be shipped to the lonely British-owned island in the South Atlantic where wind speeds average 17.5 mph. The units are expected to pay for themselves through fuel savings in eight to nine years and to continue generating power that will essentially be free thereafter.
Ascension Island is home to the Ascension Auxiliary Airfield, a satellite tracking station and the most southerly tracking facility for space launches from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It has no civilian population. The 1,000-kW wind plant supplements the JP-8 diesel power plant that is the primary supplier of electricity to the Air Force installation.
The four 250-kW turbines--Micon M700-250-40s built in Minnesota--are expected to generate about four million kWh annually, saving 300,000 gallons of fuel. To date, according to Tom Hodges, the USAF wind farm project manager, they are providing between 20% and 25% of the air stations electrical demand.
Each turbine automatically tracks varying wind directions to optimize performance. And while they operate automatically with monitoring through a ground-based computer control system, they can also be operated remotely via a fiber-optic communications link from a computer terminal in the main base power plant control room.
According to Hodges, the idea for the wind plant originated in the 1980s at Cape Canaveral. After years of surveys and a small test project, the Air Force gave its approval for the Ascension project. The U.S. Department of Energys Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INEL) collected wind data for over a year and based the plant's design on the data gathered. The contract for the installation was awarded to a joint venture of Pacific Industrial Electric and Difko Service Corp., both of which have been involved in wind projects in California. The projects cost was just over $3 million, the release said.
Hodges commented, "The combined efforts of the team organized to design and construct this renewable energy project resulted in the work being completed ahead of schedule and below the programmed amount of $3.5 million, with no cost growth."