Whirlwind tour of Michigan?s first commercial wind farm
by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor
Government officials from Pulawski Township and Alpena Community College traveled as guests of Wolverine Power Cooperative to Huron County last Saturday to the Harvest Wind Farm (HWF) owned by John Deere Wind Energy. Under a 20-year purchase agreement, Wolverine Power is purchasing the total electrical output of the 32 turbines, which was the largest wind farm in the state until a site in Ubly became operational with 47 towers.
Pulawski Township officers, trustees and their spouses took part in the all-day trip to get a better understanding of what potentially could be constructed at Adams Point, in the most northern section of the township, on land owned by Carmeuse Lime and Stone. Two ACC officials, including school president Dr. Olin Joynton, are interested in expanding their curriculum in renewable energy and would like to erect a wind turbine to possibly power the a new facility, the school, plus maybe sell some energy to a local power company. ACC is the number one electrical technician-training program in the state, said Joynton.
Ken Bradstreet, Wolverine?s director of government and community affairs, told Joynton there would be plenty of seats available on the bus and urged them to come along and take part in the tour that started at the M-65/U.S.-23 junction, with a stop in Alpena to pick up the extra passengers in front of the college, before stopping in Bay City for a 40-minute presentation by Chad Geiger, project lead, about the Adams Point site and the success of the HWF located on 3,200 acres between Elkton and Pigeon.
A WIND TESTING tower was set up at Adams Point a year-and-a-half ago, which is being targeted as a second wind site by Wolverine. ?We have some preliminary data from the wind tests,? said Bradstreet. ?We?ve hired a company out of Toronto to interpret the wind data and we?ve got some kind of unusual preliminary results.?
Geiger said one of the missions of Spartan Renewable Energy, one of the newest member companies, is to develop renewable energy resources, ?Looking at other opportunities in renewable energy and getting a better grasp of the technologies.? The Adams Point site was being pursued after initial discussions with Oglebay Norton?s former company president and CEO Mike Lundin, who suggested the location.
The surface of the tiny peninsula, that looks like the butt-end of a gun, had its surface mined in the 1920s and 1930s and has been more like a barren moonscape ever since. ?Mike said that it is really windy there,? said Bradstreet. ?If you look at a state wind map, where they look at the geography and they make a guesstimate of whether that is going to be a good area, it?s not particularly good. That isn?t based on actual tests.
?Everyone I talk to in Rogers City says this is the windiest place you?ll ever find. We hope that is true, but we need to put some statistics behind that,? said Geiger. In September 2007, a 200-foot meteorological tower was put up. ?Its purpose is to get a better understanding of what the wind in that area is like,? said Geiger. ?We need to get an understanding of how hard the wind is blowing, and how often. In any case, we?ve had the tower up for some time now.?
The initial report provided Wolverine with an initial assessment of wind conditions and recommendation for next steps. While optimistic about the report, for proprietary reasons, Wolverine will not share the quantitive results of the analysis. The assessment is being performed by DEWI, North America. DEWI, the German Wind Energy Institute (DEUTSCHES Windenergie-Institut), is one of the leading international consultants in the field of wind energy.
GEIGER SAID the testing tower has four anemometers, two at 60 meters, and one at 50m and 40m that are used to monitor wind speed. There are two wind vanes at 60m and 50m measuring wind direction. There?s also a gauge to keep track of the ground level temperature.
?It took a day to put up,? said Geiger. ?We had to be careful that it wasn?t too windy on the day we put the wind testing tower up.? Geiger said there have been 60,000 increments of data collected, every 10 seconds. Every three days the information is uploaded to Geiger?s computer in Cadillac. ?If it proves to be a viable to location for a wind farm, and everything works out, we could bring some investment there and have some new jobs there,? said Geiger.
Bradstreet said there is enough land for about 10 to 15 windmills at Adams Points. ?Once the wind is analyzed, they?ll have a better idea of how they need to be spaced. Then you have to do some math about how many acres are available and how many you can fit in that configuration, but we are probably looking at 10 to 15. The second phase of analysis will be conducted through next winter.
?We are optimistic, based on what we?ve seen so far, but there is still more work that needs to be done,? said Bradstreet. ?A wind turbine causes turbulence, like a boats wake, so you can?t stack them because they will be affecting each other. The ones behind will get less quality wind.?
Bradstreet said once all the data is collected, the company can determine if the site is economically feasible. It would be more advantageous with the proposed power plant, because of the new transmission lines that would be installed. ?It has to fit,? said Bradstreet. ?We are not going to build wind for the sake of building wind.?
PRIOR TO the group traveling to the HWF, Geiger gave a history of the $94 million project. John Deere and Wolverine finalized a purchase agreement on Valentine?s Day 2007, with construction starting four months later. Access road construction was the first step. Each road and turbine together takes up 1-? acres from row crop production. The land can be farmed up to the edge of the access road and around the turbine base.
The base for the turbine tower requires 350 yards of concrete, which translates into 35 truckloads. The turbine bases are 60 feet in diameter, while the pedestal at the center of the turbine base is 16 feet in diameter.
Turbines were shipped by rail from Vancouver, Canada, to the project site. They were manufactured in Denmark and initially shipped to Houston, Texas. The turbines were unloaded from rail cars and placed in temporary storage at the Wallace Stone Quarry near Pigeon.
A large, red Manitowoc crane, of which there is only one certified operator in the state, arrived at the project site on 18 semi-truck trailers. The Manitowoc was needed to install the last two sections of the turbines, the nacelles, the hubs and the blades. Between eight and 10 hours were needed to move the Manitowoc from one turbine location to the next.
?This thing moves like the space shuttle,? said Geiger. ?Basically, they move the crane at night because distribution lines would have to be taken down at night. It was amazing to see the operation of the installation crew.?
The 32 wind turbines were put together in 34 days and started churning out power in January 2008. THE GROUP was taken to the parking lot of Elkton-Pigeon-Bay Port High School, where there is a wind mill on the property and a smaller one spinning at the superintendent’s home.
In the distance, barely visible through the fog left behind by a massive rainstorm, a few of the tall, white towers were becoming visible. As the fog slowly cleared, others started to appear in the distance. While there seemed to be no wind, they all were spinning. A minimum wind speed of 8 miles per hour is needed to operate the turbines. The tour continued north through the back roads of flat farming land. Oliver Township clerk Bob Krohn took the party to an access road that would take them to the gate of the closest tower.
The whoosh
The company set an all-time wind energy record for Michigan in 2008, purchasing al 122,254-megawatt hours of electricity generated by the HWF. Geiger said some of the challenges, as states require utilities to meet new renewable portfolio standards, the equipment needed to put them up will be in high demand.