Joint Swedish – German Wind Farm

Subtitle: Meanwhile, Canada and the United States cooperate on Tar Sands

Enercon currently makes the world’s largest (in capacity) HAWTs (Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines). Nothing new to inveterate AG readers, nonetheless Gothenberg Treehugger April Streeter wants us to know that Lapplanders are getting their Enercons; and, if everything goes according to plan, Sweden will be home to the world’s largest wind farm.

Photo of a single turbine at the Markbygden site by Svevind.

At least the biggest for the time being, acknowledges the Swedish Treehugger, since “projects are percolating onshore and off from Delaware to Demark, from London to Latvia.”

At the Markbygden project in the heart of Sweden’s Lappland, the plan is to erect 1,101 turbines for a total capacity of between 3 and 4 GW. If Svevind, Markbygden’s project developers, succeed, they’ll not only have the biggest wind farm in terms of turbines, but also in size of territory – the farm would spread over 450 square kilometers of land. And if all goes according to plan, Markbygden may also be graced with some of the world’s biggest turbines – at 7.5 MW of capacity they tower over turbines currently in use.

Speaking of Monster German HAWTs, Jesus Diaz writes, “Can you see them? Look in the holes. There are workers inside that turbine. Not little people, but full-scale humans. So no, it’s not an airplane propeller: It’s gigantic propeller waiting to be mounted on power windmill turbine by people working from inside the turbine itself.”

Joint Swedish – German monster wind farm

The Swedes have thus far approved only small portions of the Markbygden wind farm, which will require a huge amount of capital and technology. Right now Svevind is in the process of erecting 12 pilot turbines and just got permission to put up 8 more, one of them the monster 7.5 MW turbine. Svevind has also received permission to make the turbine platforms up to 200 meters tall (the world’s tallest). Parent company Svevind has partnered with German turbine manufacturer Enercon on the Markbygden project, which is estimated to cost 55 billion Swedish crowns (US$6.9 billion). Enercon will build its own factory for turbines in the region as well as a service center. Markbygden is not scheduled to be complete until around 2020.

The IEA told the WSJ that 1,100 GW could be installed by 2030. I wonder if that was before or after General “Swift Boat” put wind development on the back burner?

Too bad, Texas?

Texas currently holds the title for the world’s biggest wind farm with the 627-turbine Roscoe Wind Complex, which spreads across 100,000 acres of Texas farmland, and provides 781.5 MW of capacity – enough to power 230,000 homes. T. Boone Pickens was planning an even larger wind farm in Texas, but this summer he scrapped those plans in favor of smaller wind sites scattered around the mid-West.

At least, the Swedish Treehugger was kind enough to avoid mention of West Virginia, where we prefer to blow the tops off mountains rather than build wind farms. Or, for that matter, she avoided mention of Indiana, where they could switch from 90% coal-fired electric power to a substantial amount of wind power in a very short time, if desired.

Related Treehugger posts about Wind Farms

Renewable energy? It’s an offshore thing (guardian.co.uk)

This entry was written by jcwinnie, posted on 2009-11-24 at 3:33 pm, filed under collaboration, development, energy, environment, forecast and tagged Canada, development, emissions, EU, petroleum, wind power. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

2 Comments

jcwinnie

Posted 2009-11-24 at 5:46 pm | Permalink

It would seem that General Electric is getting back into this market. Thus, it comes as no surprise after the House recently passed a wind energy bill, that “up to $45 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” has been allocated toward testing “the performance, durability, and reliability of utility-scale wind turbines,” according to Green Car Congress, Just in case, there is any real intention to achieve 20% wind energy by 2030, eh?

DOE has selected Clemson University as the site for a wind energy test facility.

“Wind turbine sizes have increased with each new generation of turbines.”

The Large Wind Turbine Drivetrain Testing facility will enable the United States, which leads the world in wind energy capacity, to expand development and testing of large-scale wind turbine drive-train systems domestically.

The new facility will be located at the Charleston Naval Complex, a former Navy base in North Charleston, South Carolina, and will be a part of the Clemson University Restoration Institute campus. The test facility will operate as a non-profit organization with a business model designed for sustainability while providing ongoing state-of-the-art testing to wind turbine manufacturers.

The Large Wind Turbine Drivetrain Testing facility will feature power analysis equipment capable of performing highly accelerated life testing of land-based and offshore wind turbine drive systems rated at 5-15 megawatts (MW). These dynamometer tests of drivetrains are required to demonstrate compliance with wind turbine design standards, reduce wind turbine costs, secure product financing, and reduce the technical and financial risk of deploying mass-produced wind turbine models.
jcwinnie

Posted 2010-1-11 at 7:36 pm | Permalink

EIN Presswire has a story that casts doubt upon wind power. When the UK needs energy, existing wind farms fail to produce sufficient electric power due to a lack of wind during the Cold Snaps.

In the first week of January, the UK suffered its coldest night of the winter so far with temperatures plummeting to -22.3C (-8.1F) in a village in Sutherland in the Highlands.”

The recent cold spell in the UK has residents turning up the heat, but the lack of wind and subsequent failure to produce wind energy put into doubt the future of wind farms as a reliable energy resource.

Of course, there also is a shortage of natural gas. Cold times certainly put an emphasis upon avoiding an Energy Crisis.

And, would seem a more immediate problem than the climate crisis than went unaddressed in Copenhagen at COP15. Thus, it is worthy of note that some scientist suggest with the warming of the Arctic and a change in wind and ocean currents, specifically, diminishing of the Gulf Stream, we could see the Emerald Isle turn icy.

After Gutenberg