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Page added on September 18, 2014
Technology Advances Wind Energy Development
There have been significant improvements of late to equipment used to produce energy from wind. Towers are taller. Rotor diameters and blades are longer. Gearboxes, generators and bearings are more reliable. Onboard sensors are more effective at measuring and recording data. Power output sizes and ratings have increased.
These and other equipment improvements have increased the energy capture of turbines and made their operation more efficient. That, in turn, provides incentive for developing more wind farms. It makes financing these large projects more attractive.
Equipment improvements, however, do not paint the entire picture of how the wind industry continues to successfully compete in the highly competitive energy market. Technological advancements are impacting the industry as well. They, too, are making the development and operation of wind farms more efficient and profitable.
Wind companies can establish a centralized Web database of organizational and project information. Software featuring the Web platform’s dashboard-focused interface gives users quick and easy access to the centralized repository of information. Platform users can retrieve, edit, approve and complete assignments from any Web-enabled computer or mobile device. With standardized processes and workflow controls, companies have reported an average increase of 35 percent in efficiencies and a significant reduction in errors and duplication.
A good first step toward establishing this database is a data migration. Information is one of an organization’s most valuable assets. Yet, too many organizations maintain information in outdated formats that are time-consuming to retrieve and inefficient to update and utilize. Even spreadsheets, a commonly used tool, are inefficient due to amount of time needed to update them.
Data migration involves the transfer of information from a source database, correcting errors, reformatting and loading the files into a central repository of information. Many organizations that conduct a data migration take the next step of upgrading their software to utilize the benefits of the central repository. A data migration eliminates the need to store information in outdated formats. Record-keeping is centralized in a consistent format, increasing efficiencies in developing and operating wind farms.
Wind patterns, topography, existing infrastructure, government regulations, population density, land use, proximity to utility lines and site preparation costs are just some of the myriad of issues that factor into determining a suitable location for a wind farm. When the wind energy company adds GIS capability to its centralized database, it gains effective technological tools to navigate through these issues.
Some companies still rely on paper, pencil and calculator or a semi-manual computer-assisted design to site wind farms and turbines. Either process is trial-and-error, time-consuming and inefficient. Neither is likely to produce the best siting options.
Determining the best locations for one or more meteorological (met) tower and, eventually, individual wind turbines is essential to maximizing return on investment. Again, technological advancements provide a solution to streamline the siting process and arrive at the best possible siting decisions.
Multi-objective adaptive heuristic algorithms can take the guesswork out of wind farm siting. Algorithms are computer instructions that automatically search project criteria and siting issues in an efficient manner to provide wind farm planners with a set of near optimal solutions. With GIS data, applied to information from government agencies and other third-party providers, the best possible location for one or more met tower can be determined. Once the wind farm location is decided, algorithms can search the solution space quickly for the near optimal locations for each wind turbine.
Field mobility is critical to a successful wind farm project throughout development, construction, ongoing maintenance and operation. With the establishment of a centralized Web database, field agents can retrieve and upload information through their mobile devices. Some systems even provide detached or offline capability when Internet service is unreliable. The field agent continues to access the database, and syncs the new and updated information once connectivity is restored.
The centralized database, standardized processes and mobile technology improve and streamline maintenance and inspections of met towers and wind turbines. Project administrators, managing the workflows of company crews, can schedule inspections and automatic notifications can be issued to work crews by mobile devices. Each crew conducts the inspection, retrieves data on the turbine on mobile devices, uploads results of the inspection and performs any necessary work to properly maintain the turbine. The crew can update the database with the record of the inspection, reporting what work was performed and who did it. It ensures no duplication of effort.
Wind companies also must manage landowner property information. This task is essential from the outset of the project with the need to obtain right of way, lease and royalty agreements. But the responsibility does not end when the turbines are constructed. The company also must ensure that royalty payments are issued to landowners accurately and on schedule.
As the accompanying diagram shows, there are many variables associated with meeting financial obligations to landowners for a wind farm. Lease and royalty payments go out to multiple property owners on an irregular schedule. Landowners can be individuals, married couples, corporations or trusts. Landowners change address. Married couples might divorce. Corporations may be bought out or close. Payment amounts may be divided into percentages for multiple owners of one property. Some payments are adjusted by simple interest, others compounded annually.
The centralized database and Web platform interface can automate all the royalty calculations and schedules of payments necessary for the wind farm. What previously took days for wind company personnel to complete can now be done in minutes.
The benefits of a centralized database and platform for managing data extend beyond the scope of one software product. Most companies utilize several technology products to conduct business operations. Providers of centralized software products are building in the capability to connect and utilize information from other systems. That further extends the reach of a single platform to control business operations.
Each organization has its own set of processes that create inefficiencies and hurt the profitability of wind energy projects. In a world of intense competition from a variety of energy industries, wind energy companies must operate as efficiently as possible. Advancements in equipment accomplish that. So do advances in database and operating systems.
26 Comments on "Technology Advances Wind Energy Development"
J-Gav on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 4:52 pm
Ever-increasing competition has for now allowed access (at least for some of ‘the masses’)to high-tech gadgets which never cease to upgrade-update their prowess.
When the unforgiving law of diminishing returns sets in, however, the fragility, unsustainability and ultimate absurdity of this approach to our common future will become apparent. Basics + will be the name of the game then … (the “+” hopefully means we’ll be able use some of what we’ve learned to avoid reverting to 16th century status).
Norm on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 5:26 pm
Why wreck the landscape with just windmills? Lets have big hamster wheels. With giant hamsters. Put it next to the scenic vista. Tie it all together using the internet.
Nony on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 5:34 pm
Are peakers pro renewable since you are all liberal, crunchy, hippy green? Or do you dislike it since you are like Mikey (he hates everything)?
🙂
ghung on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 5:42 pm
I’m one of those who actually thinks modern wind generators are beautiful, elegant technology. Beats the crap out of mountain-top removal to fuel our coal plants, or drilling rigs everywhere (unless you’re the Rockman 😉
Kodiak, Alaska complemented their hydro with wind farms and cut their diesel use to 0.3% of their electrical production this year (through July). They added storage and are achieving 99.7% ‘renewables’ while expanding overall capacity/production. Wind really pays off in some locations. I wouldn’t one of these giant birds in my backyard, but that’s not usually where they go.
ghung on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 5:45 pm
Jeez again, Nony, a lot of the peakers I know aren’t liberal; not even close. You just makin’ shit up man?
Nony on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 5:52 pm
I think I would prefer the liberal hippy renewable types to Mikey hates everything types. Of course the best would be Palin drill baby drill. 😉
antaris on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 5:54 pm
For you Liberal hating Americans, just be glad you don’t have the NDP
JuanP on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 6:11 pm
I used a small wind generator on my sailboat for years. I could spend hours looking at that thing spinning and checking the battery charger every few minutes.
In my country, Uruguay, they are installing large commercial wind turbines at this time. A large bunch bought at an excellent prices. Most of our elecetricity down there is from hydroelectric sources, and the country is also starting a very large pumped water storage system at its second largest dam. We also rent large amounts of hydroelectric energy capacity to Argentina from a shared dam. Solar energy hasn’t taken as much because of many cloudy days a year. The weather down there is kind of like Southern England.
Nony on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 6:47 pm
Who do you like better, Brazil or Argentina? And do you have any shale to frack?
JuanP on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 7:31 pm
Nony, I prefer Brazilians to Argentines, but have been closer to Argentines all my life. My mother’s sister married an Argentine man and she and two of my cousins live over there. I have also had an Argentine girlfriend, my first love, and many friends. Brazilians are more friendly and outgoing and have more fun. And both countries have unusually beautiful, sexy people, IMO.
Both countries are very beautiful and worth visiting. I like Brazil better because I am into tropical islands, but Argentina is great for ecotourism and tourist farms. Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro are the two most beautiful cities in South America, IMO.
JuanP on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 7:40 pm
Nony, My understanding is they are trying to drill some test wells in some places and there are legal fights going on to try and stop it. In one of the 19 departments the country is divided into, fracking was made illegal a few months back. That was the first decision on this matter, which has been appealed already. It seems each of the 19 depts has the right to decide whether they will allow it or not.
I have absolutely no idea what the shale potential is at this time, but I’ll let you know as I hear.
JuanP on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 7:42 pm
Since my country is the size of the state of Missouri, those 19 departments are comparable in size to US counties. So, it will be a county by county thing.
Davy on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 7:55 pm
Yea, Juan, with half the population. Must be a wonderful place. I had a good friend in Europe in the eighties. He was half English and half Paraguayan. How do you get along with those folks?
rockman on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 9:26 pm
As far as locals fighting those ugly wind towers the situation in S Texas close to Corpus Christi is strange. First, the countryside is flat with virtually no vegetation other then mesquite bushes. And most of the greenery is cotton and cattle corn plantings. IOW not much “beautiful” scenery. There was zero debate over the new view of wind towers stretching as far as one cold see. Just my personal view but it’s a very nice addition. The natural landscape is as boring as it comes in Texas.
The only negative comments were potential bird kills. No one would like to see our coastal peregrines squashed but this is also a prime dove hunting region where hundreds of thousands are shot each season. As such cornmeal encrusted dove breasts for breakfast and windmills are compatible.
So again the irony: a state gov’t that oversees a vast hydrocarbon industry also gets huge credit for developing incentives as well as binding legal requirements for such alt development. And a local voter base that doesn’t have much of a problem with the sight of wind towers. Which is why most of us have difficulty understanding resistance in other regions.
Someone mentioned that CA had little wind potential. I haven’t seen the data but I’ve spent time on the coast there and wind blew just as well if not better the it does in S Texas. The CA politicians mandated a minimum alt source for their utilities. So instead of building towers on the coast they have buy supplemental power from Texas to satisfy those regs. Perhaps I’m reading it wrong but the issue seems to greatly hinge on the different personal attitude of esthetics.
Perhaps it fortunate for Texas that in addition to hydrocarbons we’re also blessed with unattractive coast lines. LOL.
Makati1 on Thu, 18th Sep 2014 11:35 pm
Littering the landscape on a fool’s errand. But, if it allows you to sleep better at night, go for it. The loss of energy is the least of our problems at the moment. Survival of the species is in question and we build windmills.
Davy on Fri, 19th Sep 2014 5:02 am
My penny is what is to be done when we see reduction in complexity, maintenance budgets, replacement parts difficulties, grid instability, liquid fuel shortages, labor availability issues, and unit obsolescence/replacement. I feel wind energy is an excellent investment where the conditions are optimal. If you do a “total” cost analysis of wind we know there is more costs to wind than the standard cost figures quoted but to be fair to wind the same is true of the other traditional energy sources. Look at NUK decommission or environmental damage from coal. Wind is a high tech energy source when we consider the big wind farms. Personally I believe in small scale, inexpensive, technologically simple/robust, and grid decentralized for what is coming in my doomer mind. My thoughts are what will provide the best bang for the buck in the coming descent. Yet, for a few years more BAU will hum along and the financial environment is not for small/simple/decentralized it is for big/capital intensive/economies of scale. Cornucopian, all is well, happy days are here again Wall Street wants big dollars to work with not pocket change. I would rather see large wind farms be built than more Nascar tracks or other non-essential large investments at this point in the descent game. My primary issues with large wind is with the complexity of large wind generators and the concentration of many large generators in wind farms we could find ourselves with big capital expenditures in vital energy supply shut in for multiple reasons I described in my opening sentence. Liebig’s law of the minimum will strike these and other large, expensive, complex, energy intensive, labor intensive, capital intensive energy sources like the pain of a thousand pin pricks. So many little things can derail the effective delivery of power from these sources driving them off line. Sure currently BAU is more than adequate in the ability to support these operations but in 3 to 5 years when we need them the most? Extend this thinking to the grid which is vastly more complex and we want to increase that complexity by making it smarter. We live in a world of BAU and paradoxically we have to use the complexity of BAU to reduce complexity at least at the bottom up level for preppers like me. This wind example and so many other BAU ideas of increasing efficiency and energy delivery intensity by increased complexity is something that just has to be lived with. I can take this example down to the garden level. My garden is not economical when I can run to Walmart for food. Sure garden food tastes good and I can grow things not found at Walmart but the economics are not there for small scale anything in many cases. Resilience, sustainability, lower complexity attitudes will have to come from a complete paradigm change for the security found in less complex, less energy intensive activities, and products to be economical. BAU’s attitudes are essentially anathema to these ideas. My final point is big wind farms are good considering BAU is the name of the game. Yet, we must consider the down side of loss of complexity. Resilience, redundancy, lower complexity reliability, sustainability of inputs, and finally availability of the human element. These items make these large complex endeavors more expensive but think of the lifetime ROI on these projects when they are shut in.
Nony on Fri, 19th Sep 2014 7:05 am
Davy: PARAGRAPHS!
Davy on Fri, 19th Sep 2014 7:50 am
NOO, I am not here writing for you. Just don’t read it. Is that simple enough?
JuanP on Fri, 19th Sep 2014 9:22 am
Davy, Paraguay is very different from Uruguay. Uruguay has the largest middle class in Latin America while Paraguay has one of the smallest. Our two peoples don’t mix much, except the 1%ers. Because my grandfather was a 0.1%er, I did get to interact with them a bit.
Many Paraguay 1%ers vacation in Punta del Este, Uruguay in summer, and I had some Paraguayan summer friends, but they were very different from us. The rich in Uruguay are more humble and low key, and don’t spend and show off like they did. To be honest, most of the Paraguayans I met were very spoiled brats.
I visited Paraguay as a teen with my school rugby team and was shocked by the poverty of the masses, the open racism, and brutal discrimination against the indigenous people(they wouldn’t dare look me in the eye and some of them crossed to the opposite side of the street to avoid us and keep their distance because they feared the kids we were hanging out with). In Paraguay back then, if you were white, you were very rich and powerful and the indigenous people were very poor and had no rights. I went back there as an adult once to visit the ambassador (a former Uruguay President) with a friend and had some wild times there while staying at the embassy. Back then there were a lot of Nazis in Paraguay, and they mostly ruled the country, but I think that has improved since.
Davy on Fri, 19th Sep 2014 9:43 am
Juan, I really appreciate your insight into South America. I have been to Peru when the development of the gas fields was being discussed in the early 90’s. My family is involved with the pipeline industry. I loved Peru and the people there. I had lots of fun with the girls there! Ah found memories of my younger wilder days.lol
JuanP on Fri, 19th Sep 2014 11:00 am
Davy, I may visit back home for the first time in almost twenty years in the coming months. I am going to visit some of my friends and family that I haven’t seen since I settled down here and stopped travelling abroad. And make up with my enemies, too. I am very curious to see how it has changed. I know life is harder than it used to be and there is a lot of crime now compared to before.
Kenz300 on Fri, 19th Sep 2014 11:32 am
Wind and solar are growing in use around the world.
Fossil fuels are increasing in price and causing environmental damage……..
Wind and solar are dropping in price and are safe and clean.
Climate Change is real….. it is time to speed up the transition to safe, clean alternative energy sources.
Renewables to Receive Lion’s Share of $7.7 Trillion in Global Power Funding
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/07/renewables-to-receive-lions-share-of-7-7-trillion-in-global-power-funding
Makati1 on Fri, 19th Sep 2014 7:31 pm
Davy is one of those people who seems to try to prove he is smarter, better, more intelligent than you are by using volume instead of quality. That he cannot write a properly structured rebuttal is his loss. Maybe he never had composition in school? Or never had to write a proper letter? Always had a secretary to do it for him? Not that I bother to read past the first sentence or two, if that. Run-on sentences and paragraphs lose most readers before they finish his comment.
Davy on Fri, 19th Sep 2014 7:42 pm
bark bark
Makati1 on Sat, 20th Sep 2014 2:48 am
LOL … perfect rebuttal, Davy. You proved my point.
Davy on Sat, 20th Sep 2014 7:45 am
Just a word on my style. I post comments without paragraphs as a style. Comments are different than articles. It is a capsulized paragraph point. The size can be an issue but I do limit the size to less than a word doc page. I never post more than a page. The grammar and spelling I apologize for I had learning disabilities in school. I graduated cum laude with a BS in finance from St Louis University. I went to a college prep high school. I had 25 years in a 300MIL a year family business where I moved to the top with 4 other family members. I got there by hard work and achievements. I am now retired on a farm practicing what I preach. I consider myself worthy of commenting here. I am not here for a popularity contest. Often my comments are an attempt at balance because a significant and majority of commenters here are anti-American. The Americans here tend to comment on the science not the other issues that crop up here. I understand if you have issues with my style. If you have issues with the style or length just skim and read between the lines or skip the post. I have some good points that are generally there for balance. If I seem unbalanced that is because I am fight imbalance on this site. My postings are also for my benefit. I find the mental exercise vital to my aging process. I firmly believe it is these exercises that keep the mind sharp into our old age. The barking above is only criticism from someone very insecure in his beliefs. The barks are a symptom of someone who has mental issues that underlie most of his comments.