Sprol

In May, my wife and I drove north to York, Nebraska for a granddaughter’s graduation. The wind in York was nearly constant at about 35 miles per hour, gusting to 40, or more. The motel entryway door was tied down, so the wind wouldn’t tear it off its hinges and carry it away over the Nebraska plains. We talked to our granddaughter and her fiance, Jeff, who has lived there all his life, they both agreed that it is windy there most of the time!

The land that we saw in Nebraska was flat. The farm houses had clusters of trees around them for windbreaks, and a lot of the fields had a border of trees as a wind break. As a desert-raised Arizonan, I was fascinated by the irrigation pipe systems on wheels that they use to water large fields. Jeff’s father, a farmer, has one of these irrigation pipe systems, which draws water from a nearby well.

I asked about the water table — it’s a big concern. They depend on rain mostly to water their crops and only irrigate when necessary, but the water table has fallen, and there may come a time when their irrigation systems won’t work. Nebraska needs some other industries. But they have a significant natural resource that could boost their economy and be a benefit to the whole country. Wind.

After investigating, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there are already several windpower generators in Nebraska, just not very many. The Nebraska Energy Office lists several wind power generation projects, one of which is the MEAN Wind Project at Kimball. Kimball’s site shows pictures of seven wind turbines and of horses contentedly drinking with two wind turbines in the background. The project was created to provide reliable, economical, environmentally friendly energy to participating utilities and their customers. Currently it provides energy to communities in Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming.

According to the American Wind Energy Association, Nebraska is ranked sixth in the nation in potential energy from wind power. In 2004 Nebraska had 12 operational wind turbines in Nebraska whose average annual output could power about 2,880 homes.

However, a 36-turbine wind farm near Ainsworth began commercial operation in October 2005, their average annual output can power 19,000 homes. From 2880 to 21,880 is a significant increase, but there still is a long way to go.

According to Encarta, in the year 2000 sixty four percent of Nebraska’s electricity came from thermal power plants burning fossil fuels, while another 32% was generated by nuclear power plants. Nebraska’s small amount of hydroelectric power came from Bureau of Reclamation’s dams on the Missouri River and hydroelectric plants in Colorado and Wyoming.

The nice thing about wind power is that after the initial installation cost, it is virtually free, with no expensive oil or coal to pay for, no smelly refineries, and with minimal pollution. You can turn windpower into electricity and sell it locally or on the national power grid. I noticed that there are some people are concerned about wind power possibly hurting some birds, personally I am more concerned about fossil fuel and nuclear power’s waste products hurting birds, fish, animals, and people.

But wind power does have an inherent problem. Wind speed is not constant and, as we said earlier, wind power output varies as the cube (third power) of the wind speed, a 26% increase in wind speed will result in twice as much output power. My wife, a super shopper, loves to find bargains. Getting double output for 26% additional input is a bargain she would love.

On the down side, a drop of 26 per cent in wind speed will cut output power to 40% — check the math yourself if you don’t believe it. So it makes sense to put the windmills where the wind is highest. In order to do this, the Nebraska Wind Energy Monitoring Program, a consortium of power companies, the state government, and concerned citizens groups, is measuring and recording the wind at several points around the state. Using this information to locate and configure future wind power plants could lead to a clean power industry for Nebraska.

When talking about wind power benefits, they use “average” a lot. That’s because there are times when windpower is almost zero, and other times when it is huge. Currently, by selling windpower on the national power grid, the grid itself can supply the power needed during low wind times. In order to be able to supply peak demands, the national power grid must have a large and readily available surplus capacity.

When wind power does become a significant contributor, there will be times when the grid doesn’t need all the windpower, so unless stored the wind power will be wasted. Also, as wind power provides more power on the national power grid, there may be times when the grid will have difficulty meeting the demands of the wind power customers during no-wind conditions. So an economical way to store excess wind-power energy is key for it to become a major provider of our nation’s power.

Following are several possible wind power storage techniques. If you think these ideas are far out, remember that in the 19th century, a German scientist proved mathematically that heavier than air flight was impossible.

Chemical Batteries

The most obvious solution is to use excess windpower to generate electric current to charge batteries. But, the most economical batteries do not work well at cold temperatures and gradually lose their charge over time. Your car battery gets recharged frequently. If you let your car sit for a few months without turning it on, the battery runs down. To store a lot of power efficiently over time would require large batteries, which will probably be pretty expensive. However, since the new hybrid cars are now a reality, the race is on to find economical, safe, and efficient batteries. If they do, batteries may turn out to be the winning solution.

Hydrogen

Another solution to wind power’s energy storage problem is to use the excess windpower to generate hydrogen gas. The hydrogen gas can be stored for later use to generate electricity. Hydrogen can be generated directly from water using wind power, but there is a much less fancy way to store wind energy using water along with another universal resource.

Water and Gravity

Excess windpower can be used to pump water to a higher location where the water can then be used to run hydroelectric generators when needed. Windpower could be used to enhance the capacity of existing hydroelectric plants or a marriage of wind power and hydropower could make both of them more efficient. This power storage technique does not require any high-tech breakthroughs and could be used to get more power out of existing hydroelectric plants, such as along the Platte river, where hydropower plants generate more than half of Nebraska’s hydroelectric power according to a 1997 report.

However, it turns out that the Platte River is one of several endangered rivers due to water scarcity according to American Rivers. A lawsuit between Nebraska and Wyoming over the Platte River was settled in 2001, but as the water becomes more and more scarce, there may be more litigation.

Water squabbles can be very serious. I remember as a boy in school in Arizona reading that in 1921 the Governor of Arizona called up the National Guard to fight California over Colorado river water. The quarrel was settled peacefully, but people go to war over water.

Everyone would like to get more benefit from the water they do have. Reusing the water that we have by using wind power to pump it uphill or upstream may be a partial solution to the growing water shortage problem. If one postulates a large water tank on a tower, with a catch basin or tank at the bottom, the falling water could be used to power a hydroelectric generator and then, using wind power, pumped back uphill into the storage tank for reuse. This idea uses purely conventional technology, and I think it could work. Some experiments will be required.

Wind Is Free

Windmills are inherently pollution free and relatively risk free. If a wind power generator has a problem or the operator makes a mistake, it is not likely to hurt anyone, or if it does, it is not likely to hurt more than a few people. There are no dangerous emissions from wind power. More and more, wind power will be part of the future of Nebraska.