www.RogerWendell.com
Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic EvolutionSM
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National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Wind Technology Center, Colorado - April 2006
NREL (photo by Roger J. Wendell)
Wind Technology Center
Wind Energy
and Appropriate Technology
(Renewables and other good ideas!)

 

 

"Wind can already be harvested profitably along the coasts and in many other areas throughout the country. It is estimated that only 0.16 percent of the U.S. land mass would be required to generate 300 gigawatts of continuous wind energy - enough to meet the entire electricity demand of the United States. These wind farms could be installed on farm and grazing lands, far away from population centers. Coupled with energy efficiency measures and photovoltaic arrays on most south-facing roofs, this energy mix could provide enough energy to meet our demands."

- Ulf Bossel, The Myth of A Hydrogen Future,
Home Power Magazine 114, August & September 2006, p. 83

 

Yellow Arrow Pointing Right Click Here for my solar energy page...
Yellow Arrow Pointing Right Click Here for my page on energy in general...

 

"The Department of Energy came out with a study in April of '07 that said we could generate 20 percent of our electricity from wind. And the wind power is -- you know, it's clean, it's renewable. It's -- you know, it's everything you want. And it's a stable supply of energy."

"It will be located in [the] central part of the United States, which will be the best from a safety standpoint to be located. You have a wind corridor that goes from Pampa, Texas, to the Canadian border. And it has -- the wind, it's unbelievable that we have not done more with wind. Look at Germany and Spain. They have developed their wind way beyond what we have, and they don't have as much wind as we do."

"But look at Sweetwater, Texas. That town was 12,000 people, then went down below 10,000. The wind came in, it's above 12,000 in population now. The local economy is booming."

"That can be repeated over and over and over again all the way to the Canadian border. Then you have a solar corridor that goes from Sweetwater, Texas, west to the West coast, and that solar corridor can also be developed."

"But we are going to have to do something different in America. You can't keep paying out $600 billion a year for oil."

- Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens
in a CNN interview on his investment in
a new Texas wind farm - Mary 19, 2008

 

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Why the Wind is So Good for Power

Renewable Energy Certificate for Roger J. Wendell, Sierra Club Auction - 2005
WindSource Thank You!
"The power in the wind rises as the cube root of the velocity (wind speed). Because of this wonderful relationshsip, the difference between a 5 MPH breeze and a 15 MPH blowing wind is as follows:"

  5 X   5 X   5 =   125
10 X 10 X 10 = 1000

"Or, 1000/125 = 8 times more power at 15 MPH, than at 5 MPH. This cubic relationship means that the power is increasing with wind speed at a really impressive rate! Every electron from the wind can be stored by the battery (or used by the repeater), and even gusts can be 'capture' and put to work."

- Austin Lesea (AB6VU)
Sun, Wind Energize Club Repeater (How can a small club deal with the
ever-increasing repeater electric bill and the vagaries of the power grid?)
QST, November 2006, p. 46

 

Understanding Wind Speed

Wind Power Turbine Diagram
"Below about 10 mph, there isn't a huge amount of energy available in the wind. Wind power is cubic - so assuming 1 mph produces 1 unit of power, a 10 mph [16 km/h] resource will yield 1,000 units (10 x 10 x10). at 5 mph [8 km/h] - 50 % of that speed - you'll wind up with 125 units (5 x 5 x 5) - 12.5% of the power in 10 mph winds. At the other end of the scale, 25 cubed - which is 15,625 - represents a lot of potential energy, and a lot of force on your turbine and tower. Between 25 and 30 mph [40 & 48 km/h], most turbines worth buying start shedding wind in one way or another, to protect the machine. A machine built to generate reliably in higher wind speeds would have to be awfully beefy, and it would probably not perform well at the lower wind speeds experienced most of the time at most sites."
- Ian Woofenden
Home Power magazine # 143,
June & July 2011, p. 107

 

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Oklahoma

I travel, a lot, and over the years have discovered wind generators in all kinds of places around the globe. These shots are from a frequent route I take along Interstate 40 in Oklahoma. This is the 100+ megawatt Weatherford Wind Energy Center located near Weatherford and Clinton, Oklahoma. These particular towers are HUGE and I can't help pulling over, each time I drive by, to take a long hard look. Of course, I want to discourage others from doing this and especially wouldn't want anyone trespassing to get close-ups either!!!

Anyway, this particular wind farm is run by Public Service Company of Oklahoma and featured about 70 generators when I took these photos - each capable of about 1.5 megawatts. Apparently an expansion was underway, at the time I took these photos (Spring 2006) but I couldn't see any evidence of it. Nevertheless, 100 megawatts is still a lot of clean energy that can power over 75,000 typical American households!!

Weatherford Oklahoma Wind Farm - 05-13-2006
1. IEA Wind 2009 Annual Report
Weatherford Oklahoma Wind Farm - 05-13-2006
2.
Weatherford Oklahoma Wind Farm - 05-13-2006
3.
Roger Wendell's shadow at Weatherford Oklahoma Wind Farm - 05-13-2006
4.
Weatherford Oklahoma Wind Farm - 05-13-2006
5.
Weatherford Oklahoma Wind Farm - 05-13-2006
6.
Weatherford Oklahoma Wind Farm - 05-13-2006
7.
Weatherford Oklahoma Wind Farm - 05-13-2006
8.
Weatherford Oklahoma Wind Farm - 05-13-2006
9.
Weatherford Oklahoma Wind Farm - 05-13-2006
10.
1. I was honored to have IEA Wind use this photo in their 2009 annual report! (Chapter 30, page 156, describing the U.S. as having 35 GW of wind generating capacity)

 

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What is Appropriate Technology anyway??

- Roger J. Wendell

*I received permission from Steve, himself, to quote him here
**I've also been doing some work on "Frugality" at www.VoluntarySimplicity.info

 

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Birds and Wind Turbines

National Renewable Energy Laboratory - April 2006
NREL
Wind Power along China's Silk Road - June, 2001
China's Silk Road
Although I think wind is an important energy source I do have a concern about bird collisions with turbines. However, it may be interesting to note (unfortunately) that birds collide with all kinds of buildings and structures regardless their function. Anyway, I'm pretty lucky in that I live near the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) Wind Technology Center. I hope to stop by more often and grab a few more photos for this page. In addition to the NREL photos, at far left, I also ran across a field of wind turbines while traveling near the ancient Silk Road in northwest China.

 

Did You Know?

Renewable Energy Certificate for Roger J. Wendell, Sierra Club Auction - 2005 3.7 Pounds of fossil fuel and chemicals are needed to create a single 2-gram microchip.
Source: Environmental Science & Technology, a journal of the American Chemical Society.

 

100 Percent Wind Powered My computer, reading light, and everything else at home
(where I create these web pages) is 100 Percent wind powered!

- Roger J. Wendell

 

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Links:

  1. 120 Volts - where it came from and why we use it
  2. Backwoods Solar Electric Systems
  3. Colorado Straw Bale Association
  4. CRES - Colorado Renewable Energy Society
  5. Deep Ecology Living as if Nature Mattered
  6. Earth Day
  7. Earth Friendly things and ideas!
  8. Ecological Footprint Calculator
  9. Electric Civic by Lynn Adams, Amateur Radio Station KE2EN
  10. Energy
  11. Fossil Fuels and Peak Oil
  12. Home Energy Awareness by Chuck Wright
  1. Home Power Magazine
  2. I4AT Institue for Appropriate technology (Global Village)
  3. Mother Nature wind Energy Basics
  4. NCAT National center for Appropriate Technology
  5. No Nukes
  6. NREL - National Renewable Energy Laboratory
  7. Recycling
  8. Solar and Appropriate Technology
  9. Sustainability
  10. Village Earth Consortium for Sustainable Village-Based Development
  11. Voluntary Simplicity
  12. Wind power without blades

 

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