My neighbors in Mud Bay are worried about the noise of my helix wind mill.  It’s highly un likely when the wind is a blowing in ‘da hood, that they will hear anything other than the wind.   Their concerns are based on a windmill the former owner had on the property over 15 years ago.    As I understand it from some of the long time neighbors, the former windmill took up the majority of the two acre field and was well over 100 feet high.   It was also extremely loud.    My new windmill is a vertical windmill made by Helix for urban enviroments that produces a noise signature LESS than most ambient noise produced from windy locations.  http://www.helixwind.com/download/factSheet63_1_Helix_Noise_Assessment.pdf , It is four feet wide and stands less than 35 feet tall.   Anyone who has ever come out to my point when it’s windy, knows well the roar of the wind.   When it’s calm, the vertical helix wind turbine won’t be operating any how, therefore, there will be no noise.

I am doing my first presentation on what I’ve been doing with Cheetah Power tomorrow night (Dec. 14, 2009) at the Puget Sound PMI Chapter meeting. The presentation starts at 7:45 PM at the Bellevue Hyatt.

I have been working the alternative energy scenarios on my Connecticut property this past year.  When I started, the State of Connecticut was no longer doing the individual incentives for solar power.  While I was in the process of installing a 6kw solar system, they reinstated their program.   I put my project on hold, applied for the rebate and was awarded a $9071 rebate for my 6KW system based on the amount of energy it’s going to generate (which is pretty close to 9071 KWH per year).

To increase the amount of power my panels were going to create and get the maximum rebate possible, I had to chop down one tree (in a stand of about ten other trees).  Small price to pay.

I reran my payback analysis figures based on today’s scenario.  It came out that they system would pay for itself in 15 years.  The expected system life is 25 years.  I will keep the house until the market goes back up within the next 20 years (it’s bound to happen - CT has experienced two real estate “corrections” of this magnitude in the past 30 years).   This is still the best place to park my money for creating a retirement nest egg.

It is going to cost me a little over $28k to install the 6kw solar system.   Based on what else I could be doing with that money, this will generate a 4.5 x better return over 20 years than anything else I could be doing with my money right now.   Even the safest place to park your money - US Treasuries adjusted to keep up with inflation - the solar panels still generate a 2.3 x better investment.

The bolts arrived and the concrete pad for the first windmill is poured.   Next we have to get the pole and in a month after the concrete pad cures, we can install the windmill.

Pouring the first wind mill base in Alaska

We have had a bit of a delay in installing the 5kw helix wind mill in Alaska.   But we are moving along.   here is where we are with this project:

1.  Continuing with the wind feasibility study.  A huge 60+mph gust took out the weather station.    Since we are down south at meetings and conferences, we had to get a local friend to put it back up.

2.  The Helix 5kw windmill was shipped.  Part of the packaging was damaged.  We’ll have to inspect it when we get back up there in December.

3.  We had sticker shock for the concrete pad pour.  There is only one concrete vendor in town and they charge 3 times more than any other concrete place in the US because of their monopolistic hold on the town.  We are holding our nose and paying their bill.   And contemplating setting up our own concrete plant to give folks in town an option and introducing some competition.

4. We ordered four sets of bolts for the concrete pour even though we are just installing one wind mill now since we want to put in three more wind mills next spring.   The bolts are showing up next week.

5. Kent is taking a class on installing the windmills this week so we can put the windmill up in December.

6.  We are ordering the pole for the windmill this week.   When you get a windmill - they do not sell you everything you need to install it.  BIG lessons learned.

If you are unemployed, are PMP certified, and have an engineering degree in either Mechanical, Electrical or Aerospace Engineering, you may be eligible for a scholarship for the Project Energy Professional Level 1 Certificate.   Call 1-877-70-Cheetah for more information.

My graphics design team and I came up with this conceptual drawing of a wind farm in Haines Alaska.   Depending on the size of the wind turbines, this wind farm can create from 9 to 18 mw of power.  The town right now only uses 3 to 4 MW of power.  The extra power could be used to create a hydrogen refueling station for a fleet of fuel cell powered fishing boats at the small boat harbor.

I got the second anemenoter fully operational and recording on the internet - go to www.weatherlink.com and zoom in on Haines Alaska.   The two anemoneters are about a mile apart but the wind direction and velocity could be hundreds of miles apart.   Right now, the wind is gusting at the Mud Bay weather station in excess of 60 MPH from the south.  The weather station up on the hill is actually reading “calm” with a gust of 40 MPH from two hours ago.    Maybe the solution out here is to use both as when it’s very windy up on the hill, it might be quite a bit calmer at the sea level location.  Time will tell what is the best approach.

If you think you have an area that would offer sufficient wind to create energy from wind power, you need to do a wind feasibility study.   A wind feasibility study gives you measured data so you know the direction, and speed of the wind at various times of the year.   Without the measured data, you are making an uneducated guess about the viability of the site for creating wind power.

Right now I am doing two wind feasibility studies on two different locations.   The first wind study, it took about a month to get all the equipment working correctly to accurately log the wind speed and direction over the internet.

Weather Station Standing Tall

The first problem I ran into was location.   I had a large pole already on my property that I thought I could mount the weather station.   The location of the pole was in a wind shadow on the property - so while it was in a convenient location for me to capture the wireless data and be able to view it via the internet, it was not in the location where there was sufficient wind to create power from a wind turbine.   So I had to move the weather station to the windier location on the property.    I needed mounting equipment to do this.  It took several attempts to get the weather station to stay upright, especially in high winds.  I finally got the weather station pole to stay up right in high winds by attaching three 75 foot twisted wire cables to the pole anchored into the ground by three foot long steel posts (the type used in pouring concrete).

Weather Console connected to DSL

The new location of the weather station was not close to the house with the internet connection.  I tried a signal booster from the wireless transponder on the weather station - but there were large boulders in between where the weather station was and the weather station receiver.   So I had to get a DSL connection into a small house by the weather station.   After about two weeks of collecting data, we noticed that there was a stand of trees about 50 feet in front of the weather station that was blocking most of the winds from the south from reaching the weather station.  You guessed it, down they came (they were on my property).   It didn’t make any sense to block the wind from the proposed wind turbine site or the weather station collecting data to assess the speed and direction of the wind.

The second weather station is up on a hill where I have another piece of property.  The neighbors had a large telephone pole I could use to mount the anemometer (measures wind speed and direction).   They also had electricity and an internet DSL connection.   We mounted the anemometer on their pole, hooked up the weather station inside their house and connected it to the internet.  IT WORKED.   For a day.   Then they disconnected it claiming it was messing up their internet connection.   Not sure how this could be - but regardless, it required that I have a temporary power pole connected on my property and the phone company connect DSL and a phone line on my empty lot so that I could continue the wind feasibility study.

Having set up two of these wind feasibility studies now, I’m learning.   Here is what is required to set up a wind feasibility study:

1. Figure out where the wind blows the strongest and the most consistently on the property where you want to put up a wind turbine.  You might need to clear some trees, or remove structures obstructing the flow of wind through your area.

2. Determine how you are going to mount your weather station or anemometer- make sure you mount it about the same height as your wind turbine will be.   The higher you go, the stronger the wind gets and the more you will need to take measures to keep the equipment upright.

3. Get the equipment - some states have weather station loaning programs.   You will still have to get the mounting equipment as this varies based on location.   If you want your own weather station long term, I recommend the Davis Vantage Pro 2 Wireless Weather Station.  It comes with a solar powered transponder that sends all the weather station data to the Davis Vantage Pro 2 weather station console.  Get it with the internet connectivity equipment.   You can get the USB connector to just download the information from the weather console onto your computer - HOWEVER, it is far easier to connect the weather station console to the internet and see the data from wherever you are.

I found it easiest to purchase it directly from Davis Instruments.   They are very prompt and I got my equipment within three days up in rural Alaska.   You do not need to get the entire weather station, but it costs as much as the anemometer, solar transponder and weather console.   The ONLY reason I would NOT get the entire weather station is because the large rain bucket from the weather station puts too much weight on the weather station pole.   If you can securely anchor the weather station pole and the weight isn’t a problem, just get the entire weather station.   It provides a much more comprehensive picture of the weather where you would want to put a wind turbine.

4. When you get the equipment, set it all up indoors to make sure it works BEFORE you mount it outside.  This means assembling all the parts, hooking up the solar transponder, and making sure the weather station console is picking up the data.  Once you get that working, then you can connect your weather station to the internet.  This is extremely simple as you just plug the internet adapter into the weather console and connect it to your DSL modem.   You may need to get an ethernet hub so you can plug in multiple devices to your DSL (computer, weather station, etc).   The weatherlink software explains how to set up the weather station on www.weatherlink.com.   It also explains how to download the weather data onto your system with their weatherlink software.   You can also track your weather data on the Weather Underground station.  This takes a bit more work.   But it is fairly simple if you are technically oriented.  If using the internet in anyway confuses you, hire someone to help you set this up as you will save yourself a lot of headaches.

5. Once the system is working inside the house, now it’s time to mount the system outside.   If you have a clear line of site from where you are mounting your weather station to your house where the weather console is, you are done.  If not, you have to get power and an internet connection to within line of site at your weather station location.

How much does this cost?

That depends on your mounting requirements, site prep requirements, availability of power and internet.

Basic costs could include:

1. Clear trees - one day of labor - I had the tractor and the guys already working for me.  Land clearing estimates would apply - $100 per hour for the equipment and $25 per hour for each laborer.  Four hours of work - $600.

2. Mounting the hardware - three days of experimenting and the mounting hardware.  Cost for my labor - I’m free (for my projects) but you could expect to pay someone who knows what they are doing $150 an hour.   Cost for the hardware - $350.  Cost for the installation - estimate $600.

3. Cost of the weather station equipment - $1100.   I still have to return the signal repeater I purchased that did not work, that was an extra $300.

4. Cost of temporary power - $250 to install.  Estimating $25 per month (on the high side)

5. Cost of the phone line and dsl - $50 per month.

6. Cost to monitor the wind study - again my time is “free” on my projects - I spend about an hour a week looking at the reports.   If you have to pay someone, estimate $500 per month.

Total Cost for a Year Long Wind Study (if you’re paying someone else to do it) = $9800.  This does not include their travel costs.   If you can “borrow” the equipment,  use existing poles, and tie into existing power and internet,  hypothetically, you can do this for no cost.     The more you can do yourself,  obviously the less it will cost.    If you’re doing this for someone else, they should pay you as they are going to get a payback from your efforts.

How long does it take?

That depends on where the wind feasibility site is.  If you don’t have power and dsl - it could take up to a month to get the whole system installed.   If the site for the weather station is ready, estimate a week to get the equipment and a couple hours to set it up and install it.  If you’ve never done this before, estimate a month for the first one to work out all the bugs.

A note here - if you are doing a wind study in a remote location - you really need to think about how you are going to use the power that you are creating in this remote location.   If you are going to create the power for use by a small community - you will need transmissions lines out to the site.  You can get remote data loggers for the anemometers - and pull the information off the data loggers when you visit the site. This will add to the cost and complexity of doing the wind study.

Servidyne was awarded a $3.1 million dollar contract to retrofit all the lighting fixtures at the Naval Base in Guam.  They were selected in part because of their exceptional project management skills.   The Navy expects the project to save them $825k in electrical costs per year for a 3 million KWH per year reduction in energy usage.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS164599+02-Sep-2009+BW20090902