Wind Turbine Global Control Center Opens in Canberra Innovation Precinct

On Monday, Simon Corbell, ACT Minister for the Environment, opened Windlabs headquarters at 60 Marcus Clarke Street in Canberra. Wind farms in Australia, and around the world, will be monitored and controlled from here.

Windlabs new HQ is at the north-west corner of what I call the "Canberra Start-up Business Boomerang". These are the city blocks between the Australian National University campus and the Canberra CBD. In the geographic center of this area is the Canberra Innovation Center, which is surrounded by numerous technology and education companies, as well as  related government agencies.

ps: In 2010, my student Sam Fernandes, undertook "Project Cervantes: Can a web server be powered by a wind turbine?". The answer was "no", but he found, that under ideal conditions 40% of the power for a data centre could be provided by the wind.

Digital Camouflage for Wind Towers

The Australian Prime Minister has described wind farms as "visually awful". Previously I suggested Digital Camouflage for Wind Turbines. The towers need to be made visible close up so that low flying aircraft do not collide with them. This could be done by painting the towers with  a pattern of high contrast colors. Close up a pilot would see a checkerboard pattern, as used on radar antennas at an airport. From a distance the pattern would merge into a green/blue color which would blend with the ground and sky. The checks of about 200mm would act as camouflage from about 3 km, but still allow the pilot of a light aircraft sufficient time to see and avoid the tower (about twenty seconds).

Bulk Energy Storage for Renewable Energy

Greetings from the Australian National University Energy Change Institute, where Peter Rood from General Compression is speaking on Bulk Energy Storage. He discussed two types of bulk storage: Pumped-storage hydroelectricity and Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES). Pumped hydro has a low capital cost where an existing hydro-electric system is used, such as Snowy Hydro's Tumut 3. Natural Gas Fired CAES is added to natural gas turbine power station. At times of surplus power, compressed air is pumped into a reservoir, usually an underground chamber. At times of energy need the compressed air is used to drive the turbine, without the need for natural gas fuel. More advanced systems extract heat from the compressed air and stores it separately in a liquid. The heat is then added back into the air during decompression.

Peter pointed out that as well as supplementing a conventional power station, energy storage can be used to allow a renewable intermittent energy source (such as wind and solar) to be used as a base-load supply.

General Compression uses a electric motor/generator connected to water cooled two stage pistons to compress the air. Interestingly the system uses a hydraulic motor/pump between the electric and air systems. Their pilot system is 2MW, but the system can be expanded.

Peter commented that the engineer technology used is based on that of automotive engines (whereas to me it is reminiscent of steam engines). Perhaps the Australian Government would be interested in a grant to investigate having former automotive workers manufacture this equipment in Australia using surplus capacity at car plants. This would provide Australian jobs as well as lowering Australia's carbon emissions.

Bulk energy storage projects offer unique benefits over smaller distributed storage technologies. Primarily driven by the significantly lower relative costs achieved though economies of scale and the ability to store energy for tens of hours, bulk energy storage projects allow for energy storage to be deployed at the megawatt scale on transmission and distribution networks. Core bulk storage applications include firm renewable energy projects, network level integration of distributed PV generation, and no or low-carbon supply of ancillary services.

Compressed air energy storage (CAES) is one of two primary types of bulk energy storage , the other being pumped hydro, and store energy as compressed air in under or above ground vessels. General Compression is a Boston, USA based technology development company that has developed a near-isothermal compressed air energy storage system. Traditionally CAES projects have used natural gas to add heat to the generation portion of the process, General Compression's technology captures heat generated as electricity is converted to compressed air and reintroduces that heat during the generation process eliminating the need to burn natural gas making the technology fuel & emissions free.

More information, please see http://cecs.anu.edu.au/seminars/more/SID/3429

Digital Camouflage for Wind Turbines

This is to suggest using digital camouflage to make wind turbines less visible from a distance, but at the same time more visible close up. Wind turbines are considered by many to be an ugly blot on the landscape. They are also a collision hazard for birds, light aircraft and helicopters. So I propose applying a pattern of contrasting light and dark patches to wind turbines, which close up would make them stand out, but from a distance would blend into the landscape.

Digital Camouflage is a form of military camouflage using square blocks of different colors. The squares are small enough so they cannot be distinguished at a distance.

Digital camouflage has been used on small  wind turbines. In "power to the people" (27 January 2009), Dominic Hyde describes how his company, Hyde Definition, applied a patter of two shades of gray, plus white to a domestic wind turbine in the UK. The US Bureau of Land Management experimented with digital camouflage on renewable power installations, but did not consider it for large wind turbines due to the need for them to be visible to aircraft and birds ("BLM experiments with camouflage to hide renewable power structures", Kimberly Hirai, High Country News, 31 October 2011).

Wind turbines are normally painted white, so black squares could be painted on them (or applied as decals) to give a gray color from a distance. Close up the checkerboard of black and white would resemble the high visibility patterns applied to antennas. This would not be true digital camouflage, as there would only be two colors used and there would be a uniform pattern used, but it would still make the structure less visible from a distance.

If it was necessary to make the structure even more visible close up, it could be painted bright safety yellow, with contrasting dark color selected for the overlying squares, so from a distance the result would still appear light gray.

The pixels on the turbine would need to be large enough to be visible close up, but indistinguishable from a distance. The Apple 5s mobile phone has a 326 ppi. display. Held at arms length (1m), the pixels on the display are hard to distinguish. This suggests that pixels on a tower would need to be about 75mm (1,000 times larger than the Apple's pixels), to be indistinguishable from 1 km away (1,000 times an arm's length).

This approach of a pattern which is high viability close up but camouflage at a distance may also have application in the military. There is a high risk of collision between camouflaged military aircraft, vehicles, ships and buildings. Having a form of camouflage which makes them more visible close up would have safety benefits.

Gunning Wind Farm

The ANU Energy Change Institute (which I am a member of), had a tour of the Gunning Wind Farm on 11 February 2013. The site is 15 km north-east of Gunning, near Canberra. The 31 wind turbines on the Cullerin Range, are monitored from a small building which also houses maintenance personnel. Operation of the turbines is from ACCIONA's control room in, Melbourne, which also controls other wind farms in Australia. SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) software allows personnel to monitor each turbine.

The wind farm is relatively quiet with the sound of the blades overhead barely audible over the sound of the wind. The only time the turbines became noticeable was went one was feathered so the tour party could look at the equipment inside the base of a tower. As the blades were rotated to stop them catching the wind the sound became much louder, but still much lower than traffic noise of a city. Opening the inspection door to the tower was a complex process, requiring the personnel to first call the control room for permission, wait for the mill to stop and then unlock and latch open a very heavy steel door.

The wind farm is an expected life of at least 25 years. The equipment is made overseas. One point discussed by the tour was local manufacture of the steel towers. These require special equipment for the thick curved sections. I suggested that the suppliers for the Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) may be able to manufacture these as submarines require heavy curved steel sections manufactured to fine tolerances.

ps: The next class for my ICT Sustainability course starts on Monday at ANU. One of my students previously researched if it would be feasible to use a wind farm to power a data centre.

Potential for Wind Energy in NSW

Greetings from the Gunning Shire Hall, where a delegation from the Australian National University's Energy Change Institute is inspecting the gunning wind farm. We started with traditional home baked country afternoon tea and a briefing on the NSW Renewable Energy Action Plan (REP) and Renewable energy precincts. The NSW government has a plan for capturing a share of national wind energy and other renewable investments. As well as the technical issues as to where there is suitably windy land for wind farms, there are issues of land planning and social equity. Gunning is on the edge of Canberra with the expectation of increased land value for housing. Wind farms could threaten that. In contrast areas and individual farmers, who miss out on a wind farm may feel aggrieved. REP run a Renewable Energy Day and community education activities. One point shown by research is that while there is a NIMBY effect ("Not in my backyard), with support for wind turbines dropping the closer of the resident to the proposed site, there is still strong support for wind energy in the community.

Gunning Wind Farm Tour

The ANU Climate Change and ANU Change Institutes (which I am a member of), are hosting a tour of the Acciona Wind Farm at Gunning, NSW on 11 February 2013.

The Gunning Wind Farm in New South Wales consists of 31 wind turbines built on the Cullerin Range, approximately 15 kilometres north-east of Gunning in the Upper Lachlan Shire.

The turbines are located on the privately owned property Walwa, which is predominantly cleared pastoral land. The wind farm site continues to be used for grazing.

Project Snapshot

• Location: approximately 15 kilometres north-east of Gunning and 70 kilometres north-east of Canberra.
• Capacity: 46.5MW (31 wind turbine generators).
• Completion Date: May 2011.
• Energy Production: Gunning Wind Farm can power 23,250 homes annually.
• Job creation: 100 manufacturing and installation jobs were created during the construction phase. There are will be nine operations and maintenance staff overseeing the operation of the wind farm
• Project Value: A$147m.

The Gunning Wind Farm has an electrical substation, access tracks to each turbine, an operation and maintenance facility and 17.4km of underground cabling. A 14km 132kV transmission line was also constructed to connect the wind farm to the existing Yass-Goulburn transmission line.
Prior to development of the site ACCIONA Energy and independent consultants identified how best to utilise the wind farm site and identified constraints. Areas of study included flora and fauna, cultural heritage, sound, visual aspects and vehicle access.
The turbines at Gunning
The Gunning Wind Farm steel towers are 80m high with a base diameter of 4.5m and top diameter of 2.5m. Each tower base is anchored into position by approximately 250m³ of reinforced concrete. The nacelle and hub have a combined weight of approximately 65 tonnes, and together are 12.5m long and 4m high. The fibreglass blades are up to 40m long and weigh up to six tonnes each.
Transmission line
A new 132kV transmission line has been constructed to connect the wind farm to the existing 132kV Yass-Goulburn transmission line. Electricity is generated from turbines at 12kV and is then stepped up at a substation to 132kV to match the existing Yass-Goulburn voltage before connection can be made to the grid. ...

From: Gunning Wind Farm, ACCIONA, 2012

Solar Power Value Proposition

Greetings from the Australian National University where Dr Allen Barnett, University of New South Wales, is speaking on "VALUE OF PHOTOVOLTAIC SOLAR CELL EFFICIENCY TO ACHIEVE LOW COST SOLAR ELECTRICITY". His research shows that the cost of PV solar energy production is related to the efficiency of the solar cells. So the more efficient the cells, the lower the overall cost. He argues that the "Levelized Cost of Energy" (LCOE), as commonly used in government funded research is the wrong measure to use. LOCE is biased towards wind energy and biased against high efficiency solar panels. One axis tracking (so the panels are rotated during the day to follow the sun) is worthwhile in terms of cost.

One question I had, was if there was an exception to Dr Barnett's analysis where low efficiency PV panels are used as the roofing material. Dr Barnett replied that this analysis still applied and the current approach of high cost mounting for solar panels using tempered glass were not the correct approach. But even where low-cost techniques are used to apply a solar coating to roof material, efficiency still counts: the higher the efficiency, the greater the cost effectiveness. He is researching solar cells built on a steel plate, so that this could be used as a low-cost roof.

However, in my view, if it is the area available for the PV panels is not limited and the substrate material is free (because the roof of a building has to be covered with something anyway and is not being used for anything else), than "efficiency" in terms of light converted to electricity is less important. If using a less efficient coating lowers the cost per Watt, it does not matter how much area this uses, as long as it is cost-effective to install.

If using solar panels as building roofs is to be feasible, then what will be more important is not the efficiency of the solar coating, but the cost and compatibility of roofing and re-roofing buildings. As an example, research is needed into what the panels should look like. Some panels will need to be disguised as exiting roofing material, such as tiles and slate. Other cases the panels will need to be conspicuous to give an environmentally responsible look.

ABSTRACT:
The levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is used to compare different energy generation technologies or systems. The relatively high LCOE of photovoltaics (PV) can be an obstacle to adopting it as a significant electricity source for terrestrial applications. In a conventional PV system, the cost of the module contributes approximately half of the expense and the other costs are together summarized as balance of system (BOS). A large portion of the BOS is not related to the peak power of the system, but can be either proportional to or independent of the total installation area. Across different PV systems with the same installation area, this part of BOS ($/W) is directly dependent on the module efficiency. Therefore, the LCOE is affected by the module efficiency even if the module price ($/W) remains the same. In this paper, the LCOE across PV systems with equal installation areas but with modules of different efficiencies installed with fixed tilt, 1-axis tracking or 2-axis tracking are compared. It is concluded that at a given module price in $/W, more efficient PV modules lead to lower LCOE systems. Two examples of new high efficiency solar cell modules; thin crystalline silicon (20+%) and tandem solar cells on silicon (30+%) will be presented.
BIO:
Allen Barnett joined the School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2057 Australia as Professor of Advanced Photovoltaics in September 2011. At UNSW his research is focused on new high efficiency solar cell modules; thin crystalline silicon (20+%) and tandem solar cells on silicon (30+%). He joined the University of Delaware in 1976 as Director of the Institute of Energy Conversion and Professor of Electrical Engineering. He left UD in 1993 to devote full time to AstroPower, Inc, which became the largest independent solar cell manufacturer and the 4th largest in the World. He returned ot UD in 2003 and was Executive Director, Solar Power Program; Research Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Senior Policy Fellow, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware, Newark Delaware. Barnett has supervised 26 Ph.D. theses including 7 Ph.D.s and 3 M.S. degrees in 2011.

Barnett received his M.S. and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, and his Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). He received the IEEE William R. Cherry Award for outstanding contributions to the advancement of photovoltaic science and technology and the Karl W. BAer Solar Energy Medal of Merit. He is on committees for the two largest photovoltaic conferences. He has more than 280 publications, 28 U.S. patents, and 7 R&D 100 Awards for new industrial products. He actively consults for government agencies, institutional investors, and private companies. He was named one of aThe 50 Most Influential Delawareans (State of Delaware) of the Past 50 Yearsa in 2012.

How to Get Venture Capital

Greetings from the launch of Innovation ACT at "spacedock" (aka John Curtin School of Medical Research) the Australian National University in Canberra. This is a program to teach innovation to students at the ANU and University of Canberra. The guest speaker this week is Nick McNaughton from venture capital company Blue Cove Ventures. Nick gave a hard headed overview of the process of approaching angels, high net worth individuals and venture capital companies to get funds for a new innovation. He explained that very few of what look like good ideas become viable products.

Nick used WindLab Systems as an example. This was spun out of CSIRO and initially set up at Epicorp in Canberra. The company initially provided consultancy services and wind maps for companies looking to set up wind farms. Th company then changed direction and instead identified and invested in locations for wind farms itself.

There will be a free innovation camp held 15 May 2010 for participants in Innovation ACT.

Renewable Energy for Australia

The document "A Bright Future: 25% Renewable Energy for Australia by 2020" was released by a coalition of environment groups on 23 April 2007. As the title says, it proposes a renewable energy target for Australia. The report has received a lot of press criticism for not costing the proposals. But it is much better thought out than proposals from the federal government for incandescent light bulbs to be banned, or by state governments to put in desalination plants.

The report is sponsored by the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace, and Climate Action Network Australia. Unfortunately it is provided as an environmentally unfriendly 28 page, 525 KB PDF document. Here is the Executive Summary:

Climate change threatens the human, economic, and environmental future of Australia. Temperatures are set to rise by up to 6°C by 2100 unless we act now. Even a 1°C rise would see drought increase by up to 70 per cent in NSW, and regular bleaching of over half of the Great Barrier Reef. The actions we take, or fail to take, in the next fi ve years will decide whether we cross the threshold of dangerous climate change.

Any plan for deep cuts in greenhouse emissions entails a major roll-out of renewable energy technologies. Countries around the world have introduced ambitious renewable energy targets to reduce emissions and ensure that they get a slice of the rapidly growing renewable energy market. Australia is missing this opportunity.

A 25 per cent by 2020 legislated renewable energy target would see Australia join the global clean energy revolution. Combined with medium energy efficiency measures, the target would conservatively deliver:

• 16,600 new jobs, n $33 billion in new investment,
• 15,000 MW new renewable capacity,
  
• 69 million tonnes reduction in electricity sector greenhouse emissions (almost as much as the total emissions from road transport), and
• enough renewable electricity to power every home in Australia.
  

More than 17,000 Australians are already employed in renewable energy or energy efficiency, despite the lack of government support for these industries. A 25 per cent target would increase the number of clean energy jobs to over 33,000.

Australia has plentiful renewable energy resources, and a quarter of our electricity could easily be supplied by a mixture of hydropower, bioenergy, wind, and solar. This would prepare us for a further transition to clean energy after 2020.

With a 25 per cent renewable energy target, our electricity prices would still remain among the cheapest in the world. A 25 per cent target, coupled with medium energy efficiency measures, would add around $64 to the average household annual electricity bill, or $1.25 per week. In contrast, current projections for business as usual electricity use could see average household electricity bills increase by $234 per year.

In order to make sure that we realise these benefits, Australia needs:

• A national legislated target for 25 per cent of electricity to come from renewable energy by 2020.
  
• A national target for zero electricity growth by 2010, followed by annual average reductions reaching at least 1.5 per cent by 2020, and supporting measures to achieve it.
• Urgent amendment of National Electricity Market regulation so network expansion costs can only be passed on to consumers if companies demonstrate that demand management or energy efficiency are not alternatives.
• A fixed price for solar PV electricity going into the electricity grid (called a ‘feed-in tariff’), sufficient to ensure householder investment.
  

In addition to the renewable energy and energy efficiency targets, other actions will be required to reduce electricity sector emissions to 30% below 1990 levels. Introducing a price on carbon, improving the efficiency of fossil fuel power stations, significantly increasing co-generation, and fuel switching will all be necessary.

From: The Executive Summary of "A Bright Future: 25% Renewable Energy for Australia by 2020", by Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, and Climate Action Network Australia, 23 April 2007.