Discussion on:

Terra-Gen Power closes funding for 'largest ever' wind farm

150 megawatts each? Nope. The GE SLE turbines are actually rated at 1.5 megawatts each. The combined capacity of the Alta project is 150 megawatts (100 turbines).

Thanks for the correction! It's been fixed.

What does it mean to say that it generates X watts? Is that in an hour? a day?

A watt is a unit of power, i.e. a measure of energy per unit time. A watt-hour is a unit of energy corresponding to an ongoing production or consumption of one watt over a time period of one hour.

The confusing statement in the story is:

"The State of California estimates that it requires 55,657 gigawatt-hours of new renewable energy generation to meet its clean air and water standards, according to a report published by California?s Independent System Operator (ISO) in March."

Here we have an energy requirement with no reference to a time period. Is this energy needed each year, each day or over a ten-year period? Without a reference time period it is impossible to translate this requirement into a corresponding generating capacity. What percentage of the requirement could be met by the Alta Wind Energy Center?

Until everyone gets smart and ties these projects (wind and solar) to another energy source like geothermal to cover the base load, they are only a partial solution. We can put massive amounts of power into the grid while these (wind and solar) are running only to find ourselves scrounging to power a light bulb the other 50% of the time. Until Washington gets a "Smart" energy policy that looks at the whole picture, we are still behind the curve to eliminate the fossil fuels. Terra-Gen also operates several Geothermal Facilities so they are trying, but in general, there is a lack of foresight when these projects are approved.

If my math is correct: giga equals a billion equals 1,000 million; so in the case
at hand, 3,000 megawatts are equal to 3 gigawatts. Then the big wind farm at
3,000 megawatts will be able to produce a little over one-half of one percent
of California 55,657 gigawatt requirement.

The dollar measure just using the $1.2 bil for 570 megawatts means a
minimum of a little over $2.0 bil for a single gigawatt. If 55,657 are needed, it
looks a tad expensive, to say nothing of the environmental impact of wind
farms, solar arrays, and other generation means.

Andy Klemm
andyklemm@att.net

The article SHOULD read "The State of California estimates that it requires 55,657 gigawatt-hours / YEAR of new renewable energy generation"

The 570 MW of CAPACITY that they are planning to install is a measure of the INSTANTANEOUS generating capacity of the farm.

Since there are 8,760 hours a year, the maximum power generation of the farm would be 8760 hours/yr * 570 MW = 4993 gigawatt*hours/yr

But, this is assuming that the wind blows at full speed every hour of the day for the entire year. To know the actual power generated by this farm, you would need to know the wind velocity characteristics for the site, in addition to the part load performance of the turbines being installed. A better estimate would be about 1/10 to 1/3 of the maximum value, or 500-1500 GWh/yr

Anon Engineer