AGL secures rights for second wind farm

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/AGL-secures-rights-for-second-wind-farm/2007/05/11/1178390526260.html

Australia's largest retail energy supplier AGL Energy has snapped up the development rights for a second wind farm in South Australia.

The go-ahead for the SA project, 200km north of Adelaide, comes as AGL Energy is constructing a $236 million 95 MW wind farm almost 20km away, which is expected to be Australia's largest.

"The Hallett Hill development could provide enough renewable energy to power 40,000 average Australian households and abate approximately 250,000 tonnes of C02," Mr Anthony said.

He said by the end of the decade, AGL could be operating 134 wind turbines in South Australia with a combined capacity of 255MW.

"Combined with an existing 645MW of hydro, with a further 145MW currently under construction, and an additional 400MW of wind generation permitted and under investment consideration, these assets will make AGL far and away the largest listed owner and developer of renewable generation in Australasia," he said.

AGL expects to build 34 wind turbines with a total capacity of 71MW at Hallet Hill, which is expected to enter commercial operation in the second half of 2009.

Second wind farm? they already have several. I have visited one, and it contributed 2% of SA power, SA has ten times that much renewables.

I heard of a wind powered mill designed for multistory buildings in cities.
These buildings cause an updraft. The wind mill is mounted about 2 - 3 meters above the roof and about 1.5 meters inside the edge of the building. Apparently this is the postion for the most updraft.
They are in europe and could be used in any building in any city.
Probably the largest output would be during the hottest days when it is required the most.

The wind mills are in a cylinder shape as opposed to the traditional wheel shaped ones. The wind is moving vertically as opposed to horizontally.

Seems there are a few different options to be explored ?

Wonder of they could be used to heat water ?

I'm not aware of any practical method for heating water directly from mechanical power. You would have to generate electricity, at which point it's no different from mains supply and could be used the same way. With solar and gas you can heat the water directly so it is more efficient that generating electricity.

yes, solar or gas is simple and direct.
To convert wind power to mains is a bit complex. It is supplied at a varying AC voltage and frequency.
Is normally converted to DC, stored in batteries, then reconverted back into ac at the correct ac voltage and frequency. Also have to put it in synch with the maoins supply.
A bit complex.

Supposing the AC from the windmill is fed directly into heating coils in the water.
The coils will take any voltage or frequency.  It is kept isolated completely from the AC mains supply.
Cheap, efficient, durable, reliable. Sort of like me.  :-)

Yes that would be cheaper, but you would be forgoing the opportunity to use the electricity for other purposes when there is an oversupply, or sell it into the grid. If you are going to have that infrastructure there to put it into the grid anyway, you might as well do it all that way. Even if your heating requirements would always consume all the power generated, you would need to use mains power when the wind stopped blowing, so you would need a heating system that can switch power sources. I guess this may be cheaper than the system to put the power into the mains supply.

yes, the simpler method would forego selling the electricity or using it anywhere else.
The simpler method would be a LOT cheaper to install, maintenance and testing woujld be negligable.
I see it as working in addiition to an existing mains electrical syatem , in muchthe same way as a solar water heating system does.

Might do some research about putting one in at work . We have a tall building and use hot water.

Will be interesting. The boss always quashes ideas of mine, so what ??

Let us know how much the various options cost.

Cheap, efficient, durable, reliable. Sort of like me.  Smiley

Simple physics should tell you that converting electricity to heat and back is neither efficient nor cheap.

...sort of like me  ;D

IQSRLOW - I like your style.

Even though it is wrong, it shows intelligence.

Take care

Even though it is wrong

How so Sprint?

I take a keen interest in this type of technology, same as solar- and a lot of the marketing and hype is just that. Same as solar water heaters are really inefficient electric hot water systems with a solar booster- unless you fork out for the more expensive gas boosted system which aren't really common.

Wind is a reasonable option for generating some forms of power, but converting it to heat to generate electricity is definitely not efficient.

I think the idea was to convert it to heat to generate heat, not electricity.

wrote on May 15^th, 2007 at 12:02am:

Wind is a reasonable option for generating some forms of power, but converting it to heat to generate electricity is definitely not efficient.

Not inefficient - stupid and redundant. Heat energy is only generated to be converted into work energy, to use work energy to create heat that in turn generates more work will just result in lost energy or a violation of the second law of thermodynamics.

I think in terms of what sprint was getting at, it is likely that it is still more efficient to use a windmill to generate electricity and use the electricity to generate heat. Electricity is a suprisingly efficient method of generating heat.

I oppose wind power on the basis of aesthetics. all those windmills are an eyesore.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/wind-hydrogen-ltd-launches-12m-ipo/2007/06/20/1182019190727.html

Renewable energy company Wind Hydrogen Ltd launched its $12 million public offer on Wednesday, saying the funds raised would help develop wind farms in Australia and the UK.

Wind Hydrogen - chaired by a former NSW premier, Neville Wran - is offering 60 million shares at 20 cents a piece, to raise $12 million.

Wind Hydrogen has plans for 19 wind farms in the UK and one in Australia, with a capacity of 350 megawatts.

Nifty Neville out collecting $12 mill.  for the nonsensical name "Wind Hydrogen."


I won't be buying any.  Not in a fit.

Actually, it does make sense to some extent. Wind power is one of the less reliable sources of electricity. If we do develop a hydrogen economy, wind would be the way to produce it because it is cheap compared to other renewables and hydrogen production does not need to be as consistent as electricity production because it is an energy storage device.

freediver,  there are a bank of things that can go astray with the very best new business.
Let alone any unforeseeable ones .

nifty neville got that name for a reason.
Anyone put their money to his reputatiuon wants to be able to move quickly.
He won't be in there for your benefit.

About a year ago i was researching a canadian mining company.
Their physical business was in africa, they floated on the aussie market.
What is a canadian owned african company doing floating on the aussie market one may well ask ??
Same as an dodgy ex nsw premier chairing a renewable energy company.

They are both mining.  Mining the punters pockets.

just increase the capabilities of the snowy river scheme and there will be enuogh renewable electricity for all.

if we really was wind power it should be mandatory for all windmills to look like 16th century dutch windmills, at least then they wont hurt my eyes.

Hydro electricity is more suited to baseload supply because it can be turned on and easily as needed.

Sprint, are you familiar with the association fallacy? Is there any meaningful link between those two companies? Is there anything specific about this one that you have a problem with, other than the political affiliations of the guy running it?

the mining company was suss .
nifty neville is suss.

enough good companies to select from.

Is he suss because his political affiliations are different to yours?

I have no idea of his political affiliations.
He is linked with dubious behaviour and having good footwork.

How is he linked? Tenuously?

---

Debate over wind energy factory closure

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Debate-over-wind-energy-factory-closure/2007/08/22/1187462306939.html

The federal government has been accused of dawdling on green energy amid news a Victorian wind turbine blade factory will close.

Vestas Wind Energy will shut down its Portland blade factory by the end of the year, saying it is not profitable enough.

More than 130 jobs will be lost in what is a major blow for Victoria's wind energy industry.

Labor, the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) and Greenpeace have blamed the federal government for the closure.

---

sounds like an odd place for a wind farm:

Mac Bank signs on as wind farm partner

http://news.smh.com.au/mac-bank-signs-on-as-wind-farm-partner/20080108-1ku5.html

Australia's Macquarie Bank has signed with renewable energy company Epuron to build a $2.5 billion wind farm near Broken Hill, in far western NSW.

Epuron said the project would have as many as 500 turbines generating about 1,000 megawatts of electricity - enough to power about 400,000 homes.

The project, estimated to cost about $2 billion when first announced in October, is awaiting development approval from the NSW government.

It could be operational in stages by late 2009.

NSW Energy Minister Ian Macdonald supports the project that would create 100 permanent jobs in the local area.

Four landholders have already agreed to host the wind turbines.

---

Portland wind farm gets go-ahead

http://news.smh.com.au/portland-wind-farm-gets-goahead/20080124-1nw2.html

The third stage of Australia's largest wind farm development, at Portland in Victoria's southwest, has been given the go-ahead by the state government.

Acting Planning Minister Peter Batchelor said Pacific Hydro now had development approval to build the Cape Nelson South Wind Energy Facility, south of Portland.

He said the third stage in the $330 million Portland Wind Energy Project (PWEP) will involve the construction of 22 generators which will provide 44 megawatts to Victoria's electricity grid when completed.

Stage one of the project at Yambuk has been completed and construction is well underway on stage two at Cape Bridgewater.

"The next stage of this project is significant as PWEP will provide enough renewable energy to power more than 100,000 Victorian homes or a city the size of Geelong," Mr Batchelor said.

"It will avoid production of around 750,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year - equivalent to taking more than 150,000 cars off the road or planting around three million hectares of plantation forest."

The Cape Nelson site brings the number of approved wind farms in Victoria to 13, in addition to the five already operating.

---

This doesn't look good for wind power:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power

Theoretical potential
Wind power available in the atmosphere is much greater than current world energy consumption. The most comprehensive study to date[53] found the potential of wind power on land and near-shore to be 72 TW, equivalent to 54,000 MToE (million tons of oil equivalent) per year, or over five times the world's current energy use in all forms. The potential takes into account only locations with mean annual wind speeds ≥ 6.9 m/s at 80 m. It assumes 6 turbines per square km for 77 m diameter, 1.5 MW-turbines on roughly 13% of the total global land area (though that land would also be available for other compatible uses such as farming). The authors acknowledge that many practical barriers would need to be overcome to reach this theoretical capacity.

The practical limit to exploitation of wind power will be set by economic and environmental factors, since the resource available is far larger than any practical means to develop it.