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60' WIND TURBINE AT REMC HEADQUARTERS
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With a grant received from Hoosier Energy REC, a 60' wind
turbine was recently installed at the REMC headquarters in
Osgood, IN. The wind turbine was purchased from Morton
Energy and they completed construction and installation on
September 30th. As consumer interest in green energy
continues to increase, Hoosier Energy and member systems
like Southeastern Indiana REMC made the decision to install
renewable residential energy sources like wind turbines
and solar panels at the different cooperative locations so
members could get information about the cost and benefits.
According to Heath Norrick, Hoosier Energy's Renewable
Energy Manager, "People read about green energy in every
newspaper, every magazine and see it on the nightly news.
Everywhere you went and everything you heard just had this
"green" feel to it, so people naturally started asking questions.
It was once a week, then once a day, then once every hour,
" he says of the calls his department received. With these
residential-sized renewable energy projects providing real-world
data, Hoosier Energy and its members are able to offer
customers detailed information on costs, savings, and power
generation of small wind and solar projects. |
Southeastern Indiana REMC Turbine Data
Click to view previous months data
Click to view installation process of turbine
Wind Currents In The State Of Indiana
Wind resource. Wind speed varies from year to year, season to season, with the time of day, and with the height above ground. For a grid connected wind system, an average annual wind speed of 10 mph is usually considered the cutoff. Most experts recommend average annual wind speeds between Class 2 (11.5 mph at hub height) and Class 4 (13.4 mph at hub height). Class 3 sites have average wind speeds of 12.5 mph at hub height. Hub height is the distance from the ground to the center of the turbine
rotor.
A small increase in average wind speed results in a large increase in power produced. A site with an average wind speed of 15 mph contains nearly 54% more energy than a site with an average wind speed of 13 mph. The ideal wind resource has relatively stable high speeds. If your trees and vegetation are permanently deformed because of constant wind exposure— known as “flagging”—you may have a good wind resource to generate electricity.
There are several Web sites with wind source maps. One is the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) Wind Energy Resource Atlas of the United States http://rredc.nrel.gov/wind/pubs/atlas . You can also access state wind maps at
http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhydro/windpoweringamerica/wind_maps.asp
NREL also provides a United States Annual Wind Resource Potential map, where you can find a location by zip code
http:// mapserve2.nrel.gov/website/wind_resource1/viewer.htm
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