Windflowers

Class 4 Winds has begun hosting a networking luncheon in Amarillo once a month; I have been lucky enough to be able to attend the first two meetings. Both meetings have featured excellent speakers full of wind industry knowledge, not to mention great networking opportunities (hence the name networking luncheon). Last week's speakers were Dr. Vaughn Nelson, director of the alternative energy institute at WTAMU and Brad Christopher, project manager at the Wildorado Wind Ranch.

I wanted to share with you some of the interesting facts I picked up at the luncheon. First of all, if you are looking for a good comprehensive overview of everything wind energy you might consider picking up Dr. Nelson's new book Wind Energy: Renewable Energy and the Environment. The book covers everything from the history of wind energy to wind turbine design, and much more.

During the meeting I believe I found my new favorite nickname for the towers that have been springing up across our great state: windflowers. To me the nickname is very forward-looking; it references the 30 story structures as just another part of our landscape. And from hearing Brad Christopher talk about the Wildorado Wind Ranch, that's just what they have become for them and the landowners in that area.

Mr. Christopher talked mainly about the construction of the farm that sits just west of Amarillo. It was interesting for me to hear that construction of this 161 MW (70 2.3 MW turbines) venture took less than a year. Construction of the farm started in June 2006 and the turbines were operational by April of 2007. Once the foundation for a turbine and underground transmission that connects a wind farm has been built, it takes around 8 hours to get a turbine up.

More interesting stuff (well at least I thought so anyway), each turbine has its own weather station on the tip top of the tower. That weather station basically tells the turbine when to start up, shut down, which way to turn, etc. When the blades are turning they are usually spinning at somewhere between 10 - 18 RPMs, the speed can be fixed or variable depending on the turbine. These particular turbines (or windflowers) at the Wildorado farm stand approximately 410 ft. high and the blades are each 150 ft. long.

Dr. Nelson offered up probably one of the most straight forward statements about what you need for wind energy development to happen. The three things were: windy land area, transmission, and someone to sell the energy to. Mr. Christopher added one other necessity: public support. The good news for our area is that we have these things, with the exception of transmission (which is on its way). Most importantly, we have landowners that see the benefits of wind energy development and therefore developers have less "not in my backyard" (NIMBY) issues to deal with. I know our landowner members are ready to see a build out of windflowers on their land.

Until next time...