Last week's frightening announcements from the The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports on global warming that our world must accelerate our conversion away from burning fossil fuels to avoid climate catastrophe reminds us of the old joke, "everyone complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it." Well, those of us advocating for accelerating the conversion of our economy to renewable and sustainable energy production are trying to slowdown and prevent climate change.
Part of the answer, my friends, may be blowing in the winds, part of the answer may be reported in this press release informing us that Altaeros Energies Poised to Break World Record with Alaska High Altitude Wind Turbine.'
Boston, MA – March 21, 2014 - Altaeros Energies, a wind energy company formed out of MIT, announced that its Alaska demonstration project is set to break the world record for the highest wind turbine ever deployed. The $1.3 million, eighteen-month project will deploy the Altaeros BAT at a height 1,000 feet above ground.
The BAT (Buoyant Airborne Turbine) project, partially financed by the Alaska Energy Authority’s Emerging Energy Technology Fund, will be the first long-term demonstration of an airborne wind turbine. The project is currently being permitted for a site south of Fairbanks.
One advantage of tethered balloon wind generation is they can be deployed for "flexible, low cost power solutions for remote communities,” stated Ben Glass, Altaeros Chief Executive Officer.
“The project will generate enough energy to power over a dozen homes. The BAT can be transported and setup without the need for large cranes, towers, or underground foundations that have hampered past wind projects.”
At a height of 1,000 feet, the BAT commercial-scale pilot project in Alaska will be over 275 feet taller than the current record holder for the highest wind turbine, the Vestas V164-8.0-MW. Vestas recently installed its first prototype at the Danish National Test Center for Large Wind Turbines in Østerild, with a hub height of 460 feet and blade tips that stretch over 720 feet high.
Altaeros has designed the BAT to generate consistent, low cost energy for the $17 billion remote power and microgrid market, which is currently served by expensive diesel generators. Target customers include remote and island communities; oil & gas, mining, agriculture, and telecommunication firms; disaster relief organizations; and military bases.
The BAT uses a helium-filled, inflatable shell to lift to high altitudes where winds are stronger and more consistent than those reached by traditional tower-mounted turbines. High strength tethers hold the BAT steady and send electricity down to the ground. The lifting technology is adapted from aerostats, industrial cousins of blimps, which have lifted heavy communications equipment into the air for decades. Aerostats are rated to survive hurricane-level winds and have safety features that ensure a slow descent to the ground. In 2013, Altaeros successfully tested a BAT prototype in 45 mph winds and at a height of 500 feet at its test site in Maine.
While I'm enthusiastic about this project they are going to have to test it a "hurricane-level" winds higher than 45 mph. Well, they did say "designed for." Maybe that's why they chose Alaska for their test site. Not a place known for particularly ferocious hurricanes. If we wanted to be snotty we could say "give us call once you've tested it in "Key West."
From Ryan Grenoble we learn more about the relative costs of this kind of wind generation. This Company Thinks Remote Green Energy Sources Are Looking Up -- Way, Way Up"
In remote parts of Alaska, for instance, where the BAT may be deployed, a significant amount of electricity currently comes from diesel generators at costs varying from 35 cents to $1 per kilowatt-hour. In contrast, Altaeros believes it can offer wind power at 18 cents per kilowatt-hour, the New York Times reports.
At that rate, power from the BAT would still be too expensive for most U.S. consumers, who pay an average of about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity across the board, but the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) argues Altaeros is not looking to serve people on large electric grids.
"Instead, its sweet spot is serving far-flung villages, military bases, mines, or disaster zones," writes IEEE, adding, "It can also lift communications equipment such as cellular transceivers or meteorological devices and other sensing equipment."
Two advantages of this design are its portability and quick local assembly. For example, I was in Africa during one storm crisis and a whole region lost power, due to damage to a power plant. Engineers for corporations scrambled to import generators from Europe on barges, planes and by any means necessary. This happens so often most corporations and wealthy people maintain their own generating capacity in this oil rich country, however, none of these small scaled diesel generators had any pollution controls so the air in the major cities was terrible. The idea that one could quickly assemble floating wind generators in places like this, as well as in remote areas will find many applications.
Regular readers of Kosowatt will remember my article during the peak of the Afghanistan war describing our general realizing that a majority of our casualties were sustained by drivers of fuel trucks in long supply chain through unprotected mountainous road leading the DOD to invest in much innovative solar energy projects such as roll up back back solar panels. Imagine how convenient it might be to float wind generating balloons in remote mountainous regions to supply electricity to remote basis.
Or, as we watch WHO and Doctor Without Border team scramble to set up health clinics and containment perimeters in remote parts of Guinea to contain "outbreaks" of Ebola in places that have no roads, no electricity, no running water, and no sewers. Aerostat mounted generators could be quickly floated right in to power a base camp.
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In the spirit of full disclosure I have no financial ties to any of the companies described in these articles. I have been questioned once here about the number of research studies I review from MIT where I worked or studied for over 20 years, I just happen to know a lot from this world, and still have connections there. I have had no financial ties there for over 14 years.
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