TWB has joined forces with the craft beer mafia including, Consumers Beverages, Community Beer Works, WNY Beer Club, Flying Bison, Pearl Street, and Craft Beer Talk in emBEERing Buffalo for Buffalo Beer Week, June 19-25.In this awesome join…
TWB has joined forces with the craft beer mafia including, Consumers Beverages, Community Beer Works, WNY Beer Club, Flying Bison, Pearl Street, and Craft Beer Talk in emBEERing Buffalo for Buffalo Beer Week, June 19-25.In this awesome join…
Niagara Habitat Conservation Strategy Scope. Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper is currently developing a fish and wildlife habitat conservation strategy for the Niagara River watershed. The geographic scope of this two-year project is the tributary area of…
Niagara Habitat Conservation Strategy Scope. Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper is currently developing a fish and wildlife habitat conservation strategy for the Niagara River watershed. The geographic scope of this two-year project is the tributary area of…
IntroductionHorizon wind is now owned by the international electricity company and also wind turbine developer EDP (Energias de Portugal – see http://www.edp.pt/en/aedp/Pages/aedp.aspx). They are a hugely capitalized company that has decided to grow by…
WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-28) today announced that Western New York AmeriCorps will receive a $1,087,819 award to provide green-job training and educational opportunities for at-risk youths in Buffalo.
WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-28) today announced that Western New York AmeriCorps will receive a $1,087,819 award to provide green-job training and educational opportunities for at-risk youths in Buffalo.
Introduction
The NYISO 2011 “Goldbook” recently came out online – see
2011 NYISO Load and Capacity Data “Goldbook“ http://www.nyiso.com/public/webdocs/services/planning/planning_data_reference_documents/2011_GoldBook_Public_Final.pdf. This document lists all electricity generators in the state, where they are located, what their rated capacity was, what the energy source for that generated electricity was and how much electricity they sold onto the grid. The total quantity of Made in NY electricity was 139,357.3 GW-hr/yr, which is an average output of 15,908.4 MW (15.9 GW). This was 42.2% of the rated winter output and 39.4% of the rated summer output. Average imports of electricity (mostly from Quebec, Ontario, Ohio and Pennsylvania) were about 2.3 GW, or about 1/8th of the electricity consumed in NY State.
Discussion
Most of the electricity made in NY is “pollution sourced” – from nukes, coal, natural gas and oil, but a considerable portion – close to 20% – comes from renewable energy sources. Most of that is hydroelectricity based. If pumped hydroelectric storage is also included, NY has the capacity to instantaneously make 6430 MW, though in 2010, hydroelectric output averaged about 2851 MW, or 17.9% of the electricity made in NY. This averages about 44.3% of the rated output of our hydro capacity. When the pumped hydro (which was 1400 MW of capacity, but only utilized 6.5% of its capacity – maximum is about 50%, since pumping has to also take place) is ignored, an average of 2760 MW was produced by 5031 MW of capacity, with a net utilization of about 54%.
Of course, most of the hydro generation takes place at Niagara Falls (1375 MW plus 57.3 MW from the pumped hydro unit) and at Massena (756 MW), and this adds up to 77% of NY’s hydro generation. However, NY has a lot of small and medium capacity hydroelectric generation. There are 338 small and medium hydro units that made a total of 629 MW, averaging about 47.5% of the 1323 MW of listed capacity. Almost all of this small and medium hydro has been operating for decades, though some potential expansion may be possible. Contrary to popular belief, hydro output varies considerably on a yearly and seasonal basis – the biggest water flows obviously happen in the spring with snow melt season. NY State is not a desert, and the water and hills combination is great for hydroelectricity generation.
The poor utilization of pumped hydro storage – especially at Benheim-Gilboa (1160 MW capacity) is somewhat sad, and one of the reasons downstate prices tend to be higher that they should be. However, this is because the stored energy is needed to prevent a blackout that could happen if one of the two nukes at Indian Point (25 miles north of NY City on the Hudson River) has a sudden cut-off (and these do happen) in production. When those happen, the Gilboa facility kicks into gear, while arrangements are made to reroute 1100 MW to the NY City area (there is only 8 hours of storage at full output at this site). Meanwhile, at the Lewiston pumped hydro site, the 57.3 MW of average output is 23% of the site capacity, or about half of what could be produced from this unit. That means that Gilboa’s investment is tied up supporting those highly undesired nukes at Indian Point – this very expensive NY State owned site was only used 2.9% of its rated capacity. This is a great example of corporate welfare, as those nukes should be paying NY State back for its cost and operation, since it’s main use is in supporting those nukes. Gilboa could be used to stabilize a lot of wind energy output for NY State (about 2,000 to 10,000 MW of capacity, or close to 7 times what is now installed), but that can’t happen as long as those infernal nukes constantly at risk of an emergency shutdown place the grid stability at such risk.
The non-pollution sourced electricity for NY can be arranged into hydro, pumped hydro, wind, landfill gas and refuse (trash), though that latter category is somewhat controversial (but, no dollars are exported to buy the raw material). Landfill gas is, in many ways, also a form of trash burning. The numbers, in terms of average MW, are:
Hydro: ……………………………… 2759.4
Pumped Hydro ………………….. 91.4
Wind Turbines …………………… 289.1
Trash burners ……………………. 216.1
Landfill gas ………………………. 90.6
Wood/biomass ………………….. 36.0
Total …………………………………. 3482.6
This works out to be about 21.9% of NY’s generated electricity, or about 19% of the total electricity used.
The hydro generation is what distinguishes NY State from many midwest/Appalachian states (in contrast, more than 95% of Michigan’s electricity is now pollution sourced, and most of that is coal). But, wind turbines are now the number 2 source of renewable homegrown electricity. Unfortunately, there is little prospect for any increase in that as long as our pricing system is warped so significantly in favor of old, paid off generation sources in general and pollution based, rapid pay-back systems favoring natural gas in particular. And while NYSERDA, the state agency charged with expanding the renewable share of NY’s electricity mix, certainly tries hard, it cannot overcome the “Pollution Prejudice” that is a part of the present NYISO pricing system in conjunction with the depressed electricity prices that are a consequence of The Great Recession that presently plagues NY State.
The performance of NY’s wind farms is also not good, or at least not what was hoped for and/or promised. The present capacity (less the recently installed Hardscrabble and Geneva wind turbine projects) is 1276.3 MW; with an average output of 289.1 MW, this gives an average of only 22.65%. The best performing wind farm is the Munnsville one (28%), followed closely by the Steelwinds (27.55%) array, and the worst one is the Madison County one (inappropriate Vestas V66 turbines at 17.7%). Most of the wind turbines in NY are the GE 1.5sl units, Clipper C-96′s or Vestas V82′s, which are designed for moderate to fast wind speeds. In the U.S., the average utilization is near 35%, but this may be a consequence of the fast wind speed resources in the midwest and Texas. If the average output of the Munnsville units were replicated statewide, wind turbine output would average near 357 MW.
Given the similar wind resource and similar turbines (80 meter hub height, a power ratio of about 3.1 square meters per kw of capacity), three observations seem apparent. One is that there may not be enough space in between each turbine, and their is too much “wind stealing” in the wind farms. Another may be that the up-time of the turbines in NY is not as good as it is in the midwest, and that the owners are scrimping on maintenance, due to the poor economics of wind turbines in NY at present. Finally, these types of wind turbines are not well suited to NY winds – instead, we need what are called “Low Wind Speed Turbines” installed on taller towers. NY is neither flat nor a desert/semi-desert, and there are a lot of surface obstructions to the flow of wind – notably trees, hills and buildings. Such turbines are now commercially available, and have a power ratio of more than 4 square meters per kilowatt (m^2/kw) of capacity, and towers up to 120 meters are now available.
Any future wind turbines installed in NY will have to focus on increasing the net output of those turbines, which are only getting about 66% to 75% of the money flow from sales of electricity that they should be getting. And odds are, taller turbines will be needed to tap the faster and less turbulent winds that exist at 100 meter and 120 meter hub heights versus 80 meter hub heights. The winds present at the 40 to 80 meter heights are probably more degraded by surface roughness, so so an unacceptably large fraction of the blade rotation circle is not providing sufficiently energetic winds to produce electricity.
Of course, none of this is too relevant with today’s ultra-low electricity pricing, which provides close to or less than zero motivation to install new wind turbines. In general, taller towers cost money (about $500,000 for an extra 20 meters of height using steel tower sections), which adds to the price of the wind turbines. Part of the reason that the Hardscrabble wind farm was so expensive ($200 million for a 76 MW project) was the use of 100 meter towers (adding at least $17 million to the project cost). Hopefully it is worth the extra effort, as the 45 meter long blades used at the Hardscrabble array will always be at least 55 meters above the ground, and more than 80 meters above the ground for about 63% of the time. In contrast, a GE 1.5sl can be as close to the ground as 42.5 meters, and is above 80 meters only 50% of the time.
Of note: no solar PV array in NY was designed to feed significant output onto the grid, so, in effect, all PV based electricity was “on site” made and used. Anyway, it is very hard to see how 40% of NY’s electricity will be sourced renewably by 2015 or 2020. It looks like the present situation will be about all that is installed for several years, until electricity prices rise significantly, so the “15 x 15″ or “25 x 15″ or “40 x 15″ plans will ever come close to being filled. Bummer. Time for some sensible pricing policies for renewable electricity…..
DB
Our first passion at TWB is, and always will be, beer. Our second passion at TWB is moustaches.To commence the start of the World Beard and Moustache Championships and The American Craft Brew Week (no coincidence that they are held at the sa…
Our first passion at TWB is, and always will be, beer. Our second passion at TWB is moustaches.To commence the start of the World Beard and Moustache Championships and The American Craft Brew Week (no coincidence that they are held at the sa…
IntroductionAngela Merkel is the Prime Minister of Germany, and also a quantum chemist by trade. One of the tools of the trade in that field is probabilities – for example, what is the probability of going from one quantum state to another (used to des…
“From the right to know and the duty to inquire flows the obligation to act,” stated keynote speaker Sandras Steingraber. Our second annual dinner gave us the opportunity to thank members who have been doing just that, acting to improve the health and well being of their community and environment.
Last Thursday, 130 people attended our [...]
The Partnership for the Public Good, a Canal Side Community Alliance member, very recently started their own radio show on WUFO. The programs are intended to take a deeper look at some of the regions hottest issues regarding culture and … Continue reading →
It was with great dismay that I read “Faster High-Speed Rail: Albany should heed CSX’s legitimate concerns,” published on April 26.
First, let me be clear that I agree wholeheartedly with the editorial board’s declaration: “there’s no doubt that high-…
We had a great time chillin with the guys from Craft Beer Talk today! Ethan’s kicking some ass with Community Beer Works, Chris is doing his thing with Consumers and Nick is keeping it real, real Buffalo.Cheers to delicious barrel themed beers an…
It was with great dismay that I read “Faster High-Speed Rail: Albany should heed CSX’s legitimate concerns,” published on April 26.
First, let me be clear that I agree wholeheartedly with the editorial board’s declaration: “there’s no doubt that high-…
We had a great time chillin with the guys from Craft Beer Talk today! Ethan’s kicking some ass with Community Beer Works, Chris is doing his thing with Consumers and Nick is keeping it real, real Buffalo.Cheers to delicious barrel themed beers an…
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today reminded anglers to be aware of spawning lake sturgeon in tributaries of the Great Lakes, Finger Lakes and Oneida Lake. Last season DEC staff received numerous reports of lake stur…
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today reminded anglers to be aware of spawning lake sturgeon in tributaries of the Great Lakes, Finger Lakes and Oneida Lake. Last season DEC staff received numerous reports of lake stur…
