The usual anti-wind lobby, both in the UK and in the States jumped onto a part of the report which, in so many words, said that wind turbines do not create a net warming of the air and instead only re-distribute the air’s heat near the surface.   “Re-distribute the air’s heat near the surface”??? Surely that’s the same as global warming!! No No and thrice No.

The misleading reports were quickly attacked and the true picture given. The misleading reports had headlines such as “How the windfarms increase climate change”.  But as can be seen from the responses, the truth was outed.

The National Resources Defence Council’s Switchboard Blog entitled  ‘Do Wind Power Really Cause Climate Change?’: said:

The authoritative American Wind Energy Association (AWEA)’s  CEO Denise Bode yesterday released the following statement:

“This study says nothing about wind energy and global climate, and casts no doubt on all the other studies that find wind power is one of the best ways to address climate change. The study merely examined the effect of local air mixing at the site of a wind farm, which has nothing to do with climate because no heat or heat-trapping gases are being added to the atmosphere.

“All scientific studies including this one have found that any impact wind farms may have on local temperature readings is trivially small, and localized only to an area immediately around a wind farm project.

“We caution against people with an agenda who may try to misconstrue this study for their own purposes.”

AWEA’s Michael Goggin offered a more detailed “fact check” . Key points are:

Wind power plants do not contribute to climate change, and in fact they are one of the leading technologies preventing climate change by avoiding fossil fuel use and the emission of greenhouse gases. Much of the popular reporting on this topic has confused the issue of climate change, which is a major global phenomenon driven by greenhouse gases actually warming the earth by altering the earth’s energy balance, and a speculative, small, short-lived, localized impact on the weather that could possibly be caused by wind power plants slightlyaltering how air mixes around wind power plants. It is important to emphasize that wind power cannot contribute to climate change because any localized change in how air mixes is not a forcing of the climate or a change in the Earth’s energy balance. In contrast, greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere by producing and burning fossil fuels stay in the atmosphere and continue warming the planet every day in perpetuity.

All studies have found that any impact wind power plants may have on local weather is trivially small. A primary conclusion of the study that has generated the recent press articles was that wind power plants can cause a slight increase in nighttime temperatures and a slight decrease in daytime temperatures. All studies have found that any localized impact on the weather would be trivially small, less than a degree Celsius and localized only to an area immediately around a wind farm project. It is also important to point out that nearly all human activities can have an impact on localized weather phenomena, and the impacts of farming, building buildings, flying airplanes, and reforestation or deforestation are typically much larger than any localized impact found in this study.

Sadly the British press was not immune to getting it totally wrong- whether by ignorance or malice, I’m not sure-  In an opinion piece for the Daily Mail  columnist Richard Littlejohn of “You couldn’t Make it Up!” catch-phrase fame, opined:

“[A] new study has shown that in areas where windmills operate, average temperatures have risen by one degree Centigrade. So not only are they inefficient and ugly, they actually contribute to global warming. You couldn’t make it up.”

The “opinion piece” of course allows a so-called journalist to avoid the news and facts altogether and ramble on about their pet hobbyhorses ad nauseum. They should always come with a large banner health warning: “May contain numerous errors, inaccuracies and downright lies!”

I’ll give the final word to the Christian Science Monitor, who put it nicely:

‘Don’t believe the headlines. Wind farms do not cause global warming.’: “If it were true that the spinning blades of wind turbines increased the overall temperature of the planet, as opposed to simply redistributing thermal energy, we would have to rewrite some basic laws of physics, particularly the 2nd law of thermodynamics. This is an important distinction from the burning of fossil fuels, which produces gas that increases how much of the sun’s energy the Earth retains. In this respect, this process contributes to a globally warming climate because the source of energy (the sun) is apart from the system that is warmed (the Earth.)”

The Prime Minister stressed fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas – including shale gas – and carbon capture and storage were all going to have a role to play in the nation’s energy mix – as is nuclear. But he added: “I passionately believe the rapid growth of renewable energy is vital to our future.” In a move to reassure companies which have been hit by policy uncertainty – embodied by the cuts to solar subsidies for households – he promised: “When we have made a commitment to a project we will always honour it in full.”

The Prime Minister also  announced a new industry partnership to make the most of the North Sea’s renewable resources, such as offshore wind. And he announced £350m of new investment in UK renewables, representing 800 jobs, including a £300m biomass project by Helius Energy at the Port of Bristol.

The Prime Minister made the comments at an international clean energy summit in London that saw ministers gather from 23 countries around the globe. He was peaking specifically on the environment for the first time since pledging to lead “the greenest government ever”. He also said that the country needed cheaper energy because families were struggling with utility bills in the face of higher gas prices.

As one might expect, not everything in the garden is rosy. In Wales, where renewables have become a highly divisive issue amid concerns about their impact on scenery windfarm opponent Michael Williams said the technologies were viable only because they attracted massive subsidies.

But Llywelyn Rhys, deputy director of RenewableUK Cymru, which represents several hundred firms across the country, said green energy will get cheaper as the technology matures. Mr Rhys said he welcomed the Government’s support and sees the pay-outs to the sector as a premium for cleaner energy rather than a subsidy.

He said: “In the future, renewable energy will actually help to keep the price of our bills down because it will lessen our reliance on the need to import expensive gas from foreign parts. So by increasing the mix of energy and relying more on renewables, which after all means you don’t have to import the fuel or dig the ground, we’re not only doing good for the environment, but also the security of supply.”

Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, once called a windfarm “a blot on the landscape”.  However it’ll be interested to see if he changes his tune because he looks set to benefit from the erection of onshore windfarms in England and Wales.

His Father, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, is also not known for his tolerance of renewable energies- in November last year when referring to wind power technology  he said it was “absolutley useless, completely reliant on subsidies and an absolute disgrace” However in distinct contrast, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York,  gave a thumbs up for wind power: “The Duke sees renewables as an important opportunity for the UK,” confirmed his spokesman.

Under a change in funding arrangements for the royal household due to come into effect next year, the upkeep of his London home, Clarence House, and the costs of his official trips on private charter jets and the royal train will be funded through income from the crown estate, which leases out land for the largest onshore windfarm in the south of England at Romney Marsh. It is also planning several more in Wales and Lincolnshire that could together deliver £1m a year in revenues.

Romney Marsh Wind Farm

The Prince is understood to be strongly opposed to onshore wind turbines that rise higher than 100 metres because of their visual impact, and none have been erected on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, the £700m estate that provides him with a private income. He has lobbied government officials to subsidise other renewable energy sources and is reported to believe that if windfarms should be built at all, they should be far out at sea.

The apparent clash between the prince’s environmental principles and the crown estate’s desire to invest in onshore wind power will be triggered by the Soveriegn Grant Act which means that from 2013 the royal family will receive 15% of profits from the crown estate, instead of direct government grants, to cover travel costs and maintenance of the royal palaces including Buckingham Palace.

In the past few years, the crown estate has signed a 25-year lease with the renewable energy company RWE for turbines at Little Cheyne Court windfarm in Kent and has agreed lease options with Renewable Energy Systems, which wants to erect 15 turbines in Carmarthenshire, with RWE npower for four turbines in Powys, and with EON for 17 turbines on the Billingborough estate in Lincolnshire.

The windfarms could produce revenues to the operators of around £20m a year and fees to the crown estate of around £1m, according to estimates from Renewables UK the wind and marine energy industry group.

“It is hypocrisy,” said Leanne Wood, a candidate for the Plaid Cymru leadership who is campaigning for Welsh energy independence. “[The prince] stands to benefit from wind projects on land in Wales, but opposes them himself. If that is his position there shouldn’t be windfarms on crown estate land.”

“They speak against them and they don’t want the noise and ugliness near them but it seems they don’t mind reaping the profits if they are near us,” said Snowy Wilson, 66, a resident of Llanllwni Mountain, where the crown estate is considering erecting turbines.

A spokesman for the prince denied he was acting in any way hypocritically and stressed that the royal family played no part in the running of the crown estate.

“In the case of the Prince of Wales, the sovereign grant funding is mostly used to meet the costs of the official overseas tours which he and other members of the royal family undertake on behalf of the country, so the spending of that money is ultimately determined by the government,” the spokesman said. “The vast majority of the prince’s official costs are met out of his private income from the Duchy of Cornwall.”

Last year, the crown estate earned £3.5m from renewable energy on its marine estate, which comprises almost all of the seabed out to 12 nautical miles.

It has invested £100m in its offshore wind programme and its latest tranche of windfarm development alone could provide around 25% of the UK’s total electricity needs by 2020, it claims. Profits of at least £100m a year could result, according to industry estimates, which would mean an income to the royals from offshore wind power alone of £15m.

They boast a world-class team of atmospheric scientists with expertise in wind, solar, and hydro power generation.  They have offices servicing North America, Europe, India, Latin America and the Pacific Rim. They rank among the fastest-growing companies in the US.

Their Chied Executive is Craig Husa

He anticipates a greater need for renewable energy risk management in the growing markets of India, China, and Latin America in the coming year. In India, the company are already working closely with the Indian Regulatory Authority as well as wind owners and operators to shape and fulfill forecasting regulations, which will help manage the country’s large and growing wind capacity.  New wind power projects in China are increasingly scrutinized and there is a more sophisticated selection process for approval.

The company have Provided power forecasts for 43 GW of installed capacity and assessed over 800 wind and solar projects on six continents. Craig says that this gives 3Tier a unique insight into weather-related risk and resource variability. In these uncertain time insights are critical to the future of renewable energy, and will share their perspectives at numerous events in 2012, including the Bloomberg NEF Summit, Infocast’s Wind Finance and Investment Summit, and EWEA 2012, just to name a few.

Despite the ups and downs of 2011, Craig’s belief in renewable energy’s promising future is unwavering.  He says “Even in this time of financial and political crisis, there lies an opportunity to learn from the past and significantly improve upon the status quo. This is a challenge for the entire industry, and will be our focus at 3TIER for 2012 and beyond.”

3Tier have a particularly potent weapon in their arsenal to remove the veil from the vagaries of wind power and the finances required to harvest it; the world’s first real-time, interactive wind asset valuation tool. WVAL enables investors to value more than 3,400 wind projects around the world at the click of a button, using the most up-to-date tariff, turbine and wind resource data in the world. It was developed in association with Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

“WVAL brings groundbreaking transparency to the world of wind project valuation” said William Young, Chief of Staff at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London. “Combining BNEF’s financial, economic and market data with 3TIER’s long term wind resource information we have created a platform for our clients to evaluate wind projects quickly, efficiently, consistently and with confidence.”

To give an example, the Enel Salbatica I wind farm is located in southwest Romania, near the port city of Tulcea which is some 65km (40 miles) up the Danube from the Black Sea. The 30-megawatt facility generates power from 15 turbines made by Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica SA. It belongs to Enel Green Power and started generating electricity in January 2011.

To value the project, simply go to http://www.bnef.com/Wval, enter “ENEL” in the instant search filter, and click on Enel Salbatica I Wind Farm.

WVAL uses the latitude and longitude of the project to tap an hourly wind-speed time series data set derived from a comprehensive weather model provided by 3TIER. The WVAL model then calculates the expected annual power generation for the location based on the wind data and BNEF’s proprietary database of wind turbines and their performance characteristics.

Just  how well will 3Tier do in 2012? They certainly have the confidence and flair to do well- and to benefit all those who see renewable energy as of great importance to the planet in the next 20 years and beyond.

People living close to Thornton Moor, west of Bradford, are hoping to prevent the siting of a number of wind turbines on the moor. The moor is a couple of miles from the famous parsonage at Haworth where the Bronte sisters and their family lived, and which is now preserved as a museum.

Experts on the work of the Bronte sisters say that their work – including Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights – was heavily influenced by the moorland landscape of the area. The Bronte Way footpath also runs straight across Thornton Moor.

Banks Renewables, the developers, want to build four turbines near to the route of the footpath. Councillors are due to meet in a few days to decide whether to allow the first stage of the plan – a 200ft high wind monitoring mast. This is to measure the direction and strength of the wind, necessary to see whether the location is viable for effective renewable energy generation from the wind.

A spokesman for a pressure group- the Thornton Moor Windfarm Action Group said “It’s too close to a Site of Special Scientific Interest and it’s too close to other important sites. It’s also too close to many houses in the area. Quite simply, the site is totally inappropriate and we’re determined to fight it.”

Banks Renewables, said that the test mast would have minimal visual impact as it was so slender. They emphasised the importance of transferring to more sustainable energy sources, including wind power.

Sir Bernard Ingham, former press spokesman for Margaret Thatcher when she was Prime Minister, and an opponent of wind farms and supporter of nuclear energy who was brought up in Bronte country, said: “It is a disgrace. We have no energy policy, but we have a first-class policy to wreck every bit of countryside we can.”  That’s almost hysterical in tone, Sir Bernard!

Even some artist’s impressions of what the turbines will look like are not to scale and pure speculation as to siting

Banks Renewables, said that the proposed scheme would generate adequate electricity a year for up to 4,500 houses ‘Developing sustainable, low-carbon power is essential to all our futures,’ they said.

The objections appear to be based on the effects the turbines may have on visitors to the area, adversely affect tourism, and that the Bronte’s wouldn’t have liked it if they were around today. The chair of the Action Group claimed she was not a “nimby” (not in my back yard) claiming that people were used to wind farms, but that the turbines would be very large and nearer to houses than hitherto.

The facts are that the moorland is owned by Yorkshire Water, and the company want to build four wind turbines, each 100 metres high, if the test mast information is favourable. Visitors to the Bronte museum have said about wind turbines “They shouldn’t be in places of historic interest,” and “I realise there’s a need for renewable energy, but not in locations like this.”

While one may have sympathy for locals’ views, one wonders where they suggest that we might site wind turbines in order to meet our international obligations to reduce carbon poisoning and move more towards renewable energy.  The English countryside has changed over the centuries and decades and will continue to change.  These may be hard choices to make, but the erection of the turbines, if it proves feasible, will not destroy buildings, and one might speculate till the cows come home about whether the Brontes would have approved.  Let’s hope the Council make the right decision and prove that nimbyism is not to flourish in Yorkshire!

One of the problems of most conventional wind turbines is that they have only a limited set of automatic reactions to changes in wind speed.  That’s powering down when the wind speed is too low or too high and adjusting the blade angles and/or the electromagnetic torque of the generator. These relatively simple adjustments are designed to harvest the maximum allowable power once winds have attained a certain speed; the rated speed. These changes help keep the power efficiency high in low winds and protect the turbine from damage in high winds. However even these relatively simple adjustments  rely on complex and expensive models of the turbine’s behaviour.

That may be set to change as a group of Chinese researchers decided to experiment with a different approach. They developed a biologically inspired control system, described in the American Institute of Physics’ Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, that used memory of past control experiences and their outcomes to generate new actions. In simulations, the controller showed initially poor results, but quickly learned how to improve, matching the performance of a more traditional control system overall.  So what’s the advantage then? The memory-based system is attractive because of its simplicity, and the researchers concluded that “the human-memory-based method holds great promise for enhancing the efficiency of wind power conversion.”

There’s not a great deal of additional information about where this is likely to take wind turbine production, but anything that lowers the cost of production and maintenance must be a good thing.

More information: “A Bio-inspired Approach to Enhancing Wind Power Conversion” is published in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, provided by American Institute of Physics.

Just for reference, we all remember from school the (rather quaint) Beaufort scale of wind speed. The following chart gives Beaufort scale type descriptions but with wind speeds in Mph

0 – 1   Smoke rises vertically.

2 – 3   Direction of wind shown by smoke drift, but not by wind vanes.

4 – 7   Wind felt on face; leaves rustle; ordinary wind vane moved by wind.

8 – 12 Leaves and twigs in constant motion; wind extends a light flag.

13 – 18          Raises dust, loose paper; small branches are moved.

19 – 24          Small trees in leaf begin to sway; crested wavelets form on inland waters.

25 – 31          Large branches in motion; whistling heard in power lines; umbrella use is difficult.

But that’s not a great deal of help if you are a landowner wondering whether that unused field may be worth offering to a wind farm developer for the placement of one or more wind turbines or even if you are playing with the idea of installing one on your land for your own use.  Records of past wind speeds are going to be the best indicator of future wind speeds . But are there any accurate records? Today there may be a good wind, but yesterday? last week? last month,  last yea?, and over the last 10 years?

Go hug a nearby tree! There may be historical data right in front of your eyes… using  the Griggs Putnam Index of Deformity & Judging Wind Speeds On Site From Your Trees/Hedges.

This tree is telling you something....

You may never have heard of the term ” Griggs-Putnam Index of Deformity ” – in simple terms, it relates to the shape of the trees or hedges on the land, that have been shaped by the wind over many years.

Also known as” Historical Wind Speed Indicator(s)”, and it’s a better localized judge of a proposed turbine site, that any wind map or on-line wind measuring tool. Looking at wind swept trees or low level black thorn hedges (more common in Northern Ireland), tells us several things in relation to the proposed turbine site. Namely- Wind Direction and Wind Speed. Heavily swept trees and hedges demonstrate the fact that the wind  has been good for the last 20 years or more on this site.

Click on and consult the Giggs-Putnam chart below which sets out the categories of wind speed against representations of the tree/plant deformity:

Griggs-Putnam model (click to expand)

There are expressions

T relating to the degree ansd types of deformity: flagging, brushing, throwing and carpeting. The first tree shows no deformity – it is symmetrical. As the average wind speed increases the tree is subject to greater deformity, from slight flagging through to complete flagging. As the average wind speed increases even further, trees are   unable to grow vertically and can only survive close to the ground. Brushing occurs when small tree limbs are bent   downward so the tree has a brushy appearance. Flagging is when large limbs bend downward and limbs which are upwind are shorter than limbs which are downwind.  Throwing happens when the actual trunk of   the tree curves downwind.  Carpeting occurs when the wind is so strong that the tree trunk cannot rise up but instead grows along the ground.

In New Zealand, wind power generates a small but rapidly growing proportion of the country’s electricity, as the country makes increasing use of its outstanding wind resources. Currently, wind supplies around 4% of New Zealand’s electricity needs, but the predictions are that this will reach 20%  by 2030.

The Windflow 500 (photo above and below) is New Zealand’s only locally designed and manufactured wind turbine sited at Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Wind Turbine

New Zealand had an installed wind generation capacity of over 600 MW.  Wind Farms now provides enough  electricityto meet the needs of 180,000households, or approximately 4% of the country’s electricity demand.

The country has  excellent wind power resources due to its position astride the stream known as the Roaring Forties,resulting in nearly continuous strong westerly winds over many locations, unimpeded by other nearby landmasses at similar latitude.  However occasional high weather systems can settle across both islands which result in no wind at all. One recent study found that using just  1% of total available land for wind farms would produce approximately 100,000 gigawatt hours per year.This would be roughly two times the current annual electricity consumption of New Zealand.

As with many countries, wind farms and turbines generate a wide range of opinions from outright opposition to widespread acceptance. Opposition is due to the usual complaints about noise, aesthetics and ecological factors. A Palmerston North landscape designer launched a petition in 2008 calling for a moratorium on wind farm developments until stricter national policies are in place, including minimum distances from housing, maximum saturation levels, and protection for certain environmentally important (or just iconic) areas.

There is a major wind farm at Te Uku near Raglan, New Zealand. It has a capacity of 64MW using 28 wind turbines. Construction was completed in March 2011,at a cost of $200 million. The farm covers an area of approximately 200 hectares (2.0 km2

Resource consent was granted in May 2008 and appeals were resolved by November 2008. Construction of the wind farm began in 2010. The wind farm was officially opened by the Prime Minister in February 2011 and became fully operational on 10 March 2011.

Te Uku Wind Farm

Two huge wind farm approvals totaling 1,400 MW (1.4 GW) should bring New Zealand closer to its target of 90% renewable electricity by 2025. The nation of four million people already gets more than three quarters of its electricity from clean energy already: Geothermal and hydropower have long supplied the majority of New Zealand’s power, but hydro is at a natural limit.

That means growing wind from its current 615 MW to around 3,000MW.  These two approvals are a significant step forward, supplying nearly half of that at a total of 1,400 MW. The two large utility-scale wind farms are rated at 860 MW and 540 MW.

A Siemens West-Wind 1 Turbine Farm in New Zealand

The Siemens Energy wind turbines will provide a combined capacity of 200 megawatts of power for two power plants. Installation is expected to start in spring of this year.

Kay Weber

“The market entry in Thailand proves that our business gains momentum in Asia,” said Kay Weber, CEO for the Siemens Wind Power Business Unit APAC. Weber added that the company expects more orders from the country. “The entry of Siemens on the Thai wind power market shows that our technologies are also much liked in Asia.” “We are confident that we will receive further orders from this region.”

The 90 wind turbines with a total rated capacity of 200 MW will be sited at two wind farms Korat I and Korat II in the province of Nakorn Rachasrima in northeastern Thailand. The customers, K.R.Two Company and First Korat Wind, are both subsidiaries of the Thai company Wind Energy Holding Co. Ltd. The orders include delivery, construction and inauguration of the type SWT-2.3-101 turbines. The rotor blades and nacelles will be manufactured in China. Construction of the two projects will begin in the spring, and the turbines are to go into operation at the end of 2012.

With a rotor diameter of 101 meters, the new powerful wind turbine SWT-2.3-101 is ideally suited to sites with low to medium wind speeds. It will provide more power at lower wind speeds, significantly increasing the return on investment of wind farms where there is less than optimum wind speed.

Thailand only has a wind-energy capacity of 5MW. The country has a target of 800MW installed wind capacity by 2022. To reach this goal — and realise its ambition to become south-east Asia’s wind power hub — the country has come up with an incentive regime designed to attract international investors. The government supports wind power by supplementing the normal electricity tariff with 4.5 Baht/kWh ($0.15/kWh) for farms under 50MW and 3.5 Baht/kWh for larger projects.