Wind Energy Educators Workshop

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Wind Energy Educators Workshop
Michael Arquin The Kidwind Project St. Paul,
MN michael_at_kidwind.org
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What is KidWind?
The KidWind Project is a team of teachers,
students, engineers and practitioners exploring
the science behind wind energy in classrooms
around the US. Our goal is to introduce as many
people as possible to the elegance of wind power
through hands-on science activities which are
challenging, engaging and teach basic science
principles.
KidWind Project www.kidwind.org
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Why Wind Education in K-12 ?

• Students learn science/math standards
• Lessons are completely scalable from elementary
  through college level
• Addresses myths regarding wind energy
• Improves the local understanding of wind energy
• Provides a bulwark against misunderstandings and
  fictional problems with wind energy
• Encourages higher interest in Science and Math
• Science/Math activities with larger social
  purpose
• Students learn about jobs/careers in wind
  industry, as well as opportunities for further
  training

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Expensive Wind Kits
200 !!
99 ??
800 !!
200 ??
300 Complete Renewable Energy
Set Demonstration little experimental value
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Typical Wind Lessons - Not Technical

• Beaufort Scale
• Pinwheels
• Student Reports
• Demonstrations
• Discussion Activity
• All very interesting but very little of the
  science and technology related to the current
  wind industry is presented.
• In fact most text books are pretty negative about
  the future of wind and misrepresent the
  technology miserably.

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This is strange becauseWind Energy is the
Fastest Growing Energy Source in the World!!
US installed capacity grew 45 in 2007 and 50 in
2008!!!
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2008 8,358 megawatts (MW) of new wind energy
capacity installed

• 50 growth rate!
• Brings US total installed wind energy capacity to
  25,170 MW
• Enough electricity to power the equivalent of
  close to 7 million households!
• 2009 was a slower year due to the economy

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Why such growthcosts!
1979 40 cents/kWh
2000 4 - 6 cents/kWh
NSP 107 MW Lake Benton wind farm 4 cents/kWh
(unsubsidized)

• Increased Turbine Size
• RD Advances
• Manufacturing Improvements

2004 3 4.5 cents/kWh
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Other Reason to teach
Elegant Power Source
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Need to Change Perceptions
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Wind Power

• History
• Technology
• The Wind Resource
• Wind in the Classroom

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Early Windmill in Afghanistan (900AD)
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Jacobs Turbine 1920 - 1960
WinCharger 1930s 40s
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Smith-Putnam Turbine Vermont, 1940's
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Modern Windmills
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Orientation

• Turbines can be categorized into two overarching
  classes based on the orientation of the
  rotor Vertical Axis Horizontal Axis

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Vertical Axis Turbines

• Advantages
• Omnidirectional
• Accepts wind from any angle
• Components can be mounted at ground level
• Ease of service
• Lighter weight towers
• Can theoretically use less materials to capture
  the same amount of wind

• Disadvantages
• Rotors generally near ground where wind poorer
• Centrifugal force stresses blades
• Poor self-starting capabilities
• Requires support at top of turbine rotor
• Requires entire rotor to be removed to replace
  bearings
• Overall poor performance and reliability
• Have never been commercially successful (large
  scale)

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Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines

• Rotors are usually Up-wind of tower
• Some machines have down-wind rotors, but only
  commercially available ones are small turbines
• Proven, viable technology

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Modern Small Wind TurbinesHigh Tech, High
Reliability, Low Maintenance

• Technically Advanced
• Only 2-3 Moving Parts
• Very Low Maintenance Requirements
• Proven 5,000 On-Grid
• American Companies are the Market and Technology
  Leaders

(Not to scale)
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Over-Speed Protection During High Winds
Upward Furling The rotor tilts back during high
winds
Angle Governor The rotor turns up and to one side
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Yawing Facing the Wind

• Active Yaw (all medium large turbines produced
  today, some small turbines from Europe)
• Anemometer on nacelle tells controller which way
  to point rotor into the wind
• Yaw drive turns gears to point rotor into wind
• Passive Yaw (Most small turbines)
• Wind forces alone direct rotor
• Tail vanes
• Downwind turbines

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Wacky Designs out there
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Large Wind Turbines

• 450 base to blade
• Each blade 112
• Span greater than 747
• 163 tons total
• Foundation 20 feet deep
• Rated at 1.5 5 megawatt
• Supply at least 350 homes

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Wind Turbine Perspective
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Maintenance
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Wind Farms
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Off-Shore Wind Farms
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Middelgrunden
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Importance of the WIND RESOURCE
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Why do windmills need to be high in the sky??
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Turbulent wind is bad wind
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Calculation of Wind Power

• Power in the wind
• Effect of swept area, A
• Effect of wind speed, V
• Effect of air density, ?

Power in the Wind ½?AV3
R
Swept Area A pR2 Area of the circle swept by
the rotor (m2).
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Importance of Wind Speed

• No other factor is more important to the amount
  of power available in the wind than the speed of
  the wind
• Power is a cubic function of wind speed
• V X V X V
• 20 increase in wind speed means 73 more power
• Doubling wind speed means 8 times more power

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Key Issues facing Wind Power
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Wildlife Impacts
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1980s California Wind Farm Older Technology
Higher RPMs Lower Elevations Lattice
Towers Poorly Sited Bad News!
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• In the November-December Audubon Magazine, John
  Flicker, President of National Audubon Society,
  wrote a column stating that Audubon "strongly
  supports wind power as a clean alternative energy
  source," pointing to the link between global
  warming and the birds and other wildlife that
  scientist say it will kill.

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Impacts of Wind PowerNoise

• Modern turbines are relatively quiet
• Rule of thumb stay about 3x hub-height away
  from houses

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Transmission Problems

• Where is the wind?
• Where are the population centers?
• Where are the wind farms?
• How do we get wind energy from the wind farms to
  the population centers?

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Siting and NIMBY
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Wind Energy in the Classroom
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Standards/Skills

• Scientific Processes (Collecting Presenting
  Data, Performing Experiments, Repeating Trials,
  Using Models)
• Use of Simple Tools Equipment
• Forces Cause Change
• Energy Transformations (Forms of Energy)
• Circuits/Electricity/Magnetism
• Weather Patterns
• Renewable Non Renewable Energy

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Elementary

• Engineering is Elementary
• Wind Chimes
• Wind Art
• Building simple blades

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Middle

• Building Wind Turbines
• Assessing Wind Resource
• Mathematics

balloon
3m
streamers
Kite or balloon string
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Secondary

• Advanced Blade Design
• School Siting Projects
• Data Analysis
• Advanced Math

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Math Curriculum
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Circuits, Wind Farms, Battery Charging, and
Hybrid Systems
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Questions???
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The KidWind Project www.kidwind.org