AWEA News Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 11, 1999
Contacts:
Bentham Paulos (608) 241-9351
Christine Real de Azua (202) 383-2508

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ALGONA WIND TURBINES HARVEST A BUMPER CROP OF WIND IN NORTHERN IOWA

JOINT PROJECT PERFORMS BEYOND PREDICTIONS

Three wind turbines in Algona, Iowa, owned by a consortium of municipal utilities, have performed well beyond expectations in their first year of operation. Thanks to a bumper crop of wind and outstanding equipment reliability, the turbines produced 13 % more than was predicted before
construction.

"The turbines have done really well, and they continue to shine for us," said Rod Vitzthum, Line Superintendent with Algona Municipal Utility. Vitzthum supervises the operation of the turbines. "We've been happy with the units, we really have. It's been a real learning experience."

"The Algona project demonstrates how far wind energy technology has come," said AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher. "In areas with a good wind resource, today's turbines represent  a reliable and cost-effective way to generate clean electricity." 

The turbines are owned by a consortium of seven Iowa municipal utilities, including those in Cedar Falls, Algona, Ellsworth, Estherville, Fonda, Montezuma and Westfield. The turbines were installed in November 1998 as part of the Turbine Verification Program (TVP), a joint research project of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Electric Power Research Institute, which provided some funding.

"The project is going extremely well," says Diane Kelley of Cedar Falls Utilities, which receives the majority of the wind power. "We have a responsibility to our customers to explore every opportunity to provide them with a cleaner, more environmentally friendly power. It's all about serving the people in the best way we know how."

CFU offers customers the chance to sign up for wind power, paying an extra $2.50 per month. Over 600 residential customers have signed up since February 1999. "We're very pleased with the response," says Kelley. 

Electricity production from the Algona wind farm over the 12 months ending November 1999 was 6,527 megawatt-hours, enough to supply all the power needs of 673 typical Iowa households. The peak output, or capacity, of the wind turbines is 2.25 megawatts (MW). Each of the three turbines is mounted on a white  tubular tower 165 feet tall, with three 76-foot long black fiberglass blades.  The turbines were built and installed by Enron Wind Corp. of Tehachapi, Calif., which also has large wind farms near Storm Lake, Iowa and Lake Benton, Minnesota.

"The high output is due to a combination of good winds, excellent turbine performance, and high equipment reliability," according to the TVP News Bulletin, in their December 1999 issue. Although each turbine has been hit by lightning over the year, Vitzthum said, damage was minimal. Just in case, Vitzthum and his crew installed a lightning protection system to deal with future strikes.

The high performance of the wind farm was helped by higher than normal wind speeds over the past year. Winds averaged 16.8 mph between November 1998 and November 1999, compared to 16.3 mph in the previous three years. Because power output grows with the cube of the wind speed, the slightly higher wind speed boosted the power in the wind by 8 %.

The three turbines offset over 13 million pounds of global warming emissions (carbon dioxide), 54,000 pounds of acid rain-causing emissions (sulfur dioxide), and 55,000 pounds of smog-causing emissions (nitrogen oxides), as well as trace metals like mercury and arsenic commonly released from coal-fired power plants.

In all, Iowa is home to 327 large-scale wind turbines, with a total generating capacity of 242 MW. The turbines provide enough power for about 80,000 homes. Iowa has only begun to tap its wind resource. The state's wind energy potential is the 10th largest of the contiguous U.S. states, according to a federal study. It is considerably larger than California's, the state with the most wind development to date and a wind energy generating capacity of 1553 MW. 

AWEA, formed in 1974, is the national trade association of the U.S. wind energy
industry. The association's membership of more than 700 includes turbine
manufacturers, wind project developers, utilities, academicians, and interested
individuals from 49 states. More information on wind energy is available from the home page
of the AWEA web site: www.awea.org


 

© 1999 by the American Wind Energy Association.
May be freely distributed provided this notice is included.
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