Making Wind Power More Efficient

July 28, 2010
By Travis Williams

Wind energy has become a growing source of power for countries around the world, including the United States, which is currently first in the world in energy production. As with any technology, it is important to innovate in order to make improvements and increase the efficiency to a more affordable and powerful level.

Many wind power companies are currently focusing their efforts on how to make the distribution of the power more effective, while lowering the overall costs. One area to improve on is the battery that is connected to the wind power farm, storing and releasing energy to be used on the grid.

Hawaii has been researching this problem with their wind power, coming from their goal of having 70% of energy coming from renewable sources by 2030. The problem is that is it hard for generators on the island to give energy to companies in the area or receive energy when there is little wind and the turbines have slowed.

States within the US are investigating this issue and are finding that batteries may be the answer to generate income. A recent New York Times Article highlights this tactic:

In New York and California, companies are exploring electrical storage that is big enough to allow for �arbitrage,� or buying power at a low price, such as in the middle of the night, and selling it hours later at a higher price. In the Midwest, a utility is demonstrating storage technology that can go from charge to discharge and back several times a minute, or even within a second, bracing the grid against the vicissitudes of wind and sun and transmission failure. And in Texas, companies are looking at ways of stabilizing voltage through battery storage in places served by just one transmission line.

States are increasingly adopting renewable energy goals and these will not be met, energy experts tell us, without adequate storage of electricity. Storing electricity is important with such power sources as wind because of the variable power source and the fact that it is not a constant stream of energy.

The new technology coming out with battery storage has great potential as US energy analysts say that the battery systems round trip efficiency (amount of energy the batteries can give out per megawatt-hour stored in them) could be somewhere near 90%.

The funding for advances in wind power battery development is coming mostly from the Department of Energy, which has recently funded two projects in New York and California. The department is providing $30 million dollars to help a 150 MW wind farm in upstate New York and $25 million for a 300 MW project in Northern California.

New developments in battery storage for wind projects are the types of innovation we need to further the progress of renewable energy in the United States. Raising the efficiency of wind power will decrease the cost to the consumer and proliferate an already booming industry.