A new study by Wind Harvest, a company that is building a novel type of short, utility-scale turbine, has found that mid-level wind (turbulent wind that blows between 5 and 30 meters) has been dramatically underestimated as an energy source in California’s goal to reach “net-zero” carbon emissions by 2045. The report estimates, if utilized to its fullest potential, mid-level wind in California’s five Wind Resource Areas could provide enough energy to achieve 33% of California’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality.

In the report, Wind Harvest documents how it spent years trying to understand why such a valuable, underused renewable energy resource has been neglected by state policymakers and private investors alike. This report details both why mid-level wind has been underestimated and what its impact really looks like statewide.

According to meteorologists who worked on the state’s original wind studies, when the California Energy Commission (CEC) conducted large-scale assessments of wind viability in the state in the late 1970s and early 1980s, they found mid-level wind to be a viable resource worthy of investment. Hundreds of FloWind vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) were built to take advantage of the mid-level wind that blows underneath the much taller, traditional “horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWTs). However, sometime after the “wind shear” data that was stored on computer discs was lost.

When the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) decided to produce wind resource maps showing wind speeds at 30m above ground, they used wind shear “exponents” from national averages and not the much lower wind shears found in California’s passes and ridgelines where its wind farms are located. The result was an unfortunate set of mapping errors. Because of this, the knowledge of the high average annual wind speeds nearer the ground in the state’s wind resource areas was subsequently underestimated and mostly forgotten.

Wind Harvest’s CEO Kevin Wolf said of the report: “We began researching this topic with the goal of understanding why there was a market inconsistency between the CEC and US DOE’s unwillingness to invest in mid-level wind turbines like ours that can utilize this vast untapped resource we knew existed. Our co-founder Bob Thomas managed the CEC’s wind energy program in the early 1980s when the first near-ground (10m) wind speed data was collected. His vision of creating vertical-axis wind turbines capable of harvesting this resource has been foundational to our work. We hope that these new wind maps and data will compel stakeholders and policymakers to act swiftly and update their plans for the future of renewable energy in the state with this rediscovered information.”

Alongside this report, Wind Harvest has been periodically releasing regional Wind Resource Area reports showing the potential for adding short VAWTs under and around the existing turbines.

The report points out that installing VAWTs (such as Wind Harvest’s Wind Harvesters) in existing wind farms would significantly increase their energy production and would be easier to permit and build because the infrastructure already exists. The concept, akin to in-fill housing, is to place tens of thousands of VAWTs beneath the much taller HAWTs to capture the mid-level winds the taller turbines cannot capture.

These regional reports have shown that their turbines have the potential to quadruple the energy output in the San Gorgonio Pass, quintuple the energy output in the Solano Wind Resource Area, and nearly triple the energy output in the Tehachapi Wind Resource Area. In just the state’s five largest wind resource areas, building out the mid-level wind resource could supply enough energy to power 4.5 million Californians’ homes per year.

According to its website, Wind Harvest is completing the last steps of the wind turbine commercialization process. When third-party certification has been completed, the company can begin selling Wind Harvester VAWTs to commercial and utility customers. They predict their turbines will vary in capacity from 50 kilowatts (“kW”) to 250kW. Their blade tips can be as low as 60 feet above the ground. All are designed for the turbulent and gusting mid-level wind that traditional turbines are unable to use.

Wind Harvest | https://www.windharvest.com