From: howard.smith@spacebbs.com (Howard Smith) 
Newsgroups: sci.energy
Subject: Wind Energy Weekly #5 2/2
Date: 12 Jan 93 10:13:00 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: SPACE BBS - Menlo Park, CA - 10 Lines + 4gB - 415-323-4193
Reply-To: howard.smith@spacebbs.com (Howard Smith) 

>>> Continued from previous message
     U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service enforcement officer Cynthia
Struzik alarmed developers with her statement that the "acceptable
mortality level (is) zero" and the possibility of enforcement
action against developers is "under investigation."

     The National Renewable Energy Laboratory sent two
representatives to the workshop, including a biostatistician. They
expressed concern over the lack of sufficient research to date and
pledged support for the development of a baseline research
methodology geared to abating bird deaths at wind plants.

     The Commission's Dick Anderson suggested the formation of a
steering committee to follow through with the initiatives suggested
at the workshop.  Eighteen individuals volunteered, representing a
cross-section of workshop attendance.

     The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Peter Stangel
announced a program by U.S. Windpower that calls on four nationally
recognized ornithologists to direct research into the problem. That
research will include laboratory studies of raptor behavior and
field studies using rock doves.

     One representative of projects outside California, Sharon
Sarappo, a wildlife biologist from Northern States Power Co. in
Minnesota, indicated that in-house studies are underway to assess
the probable impact of a 100-MW wind power plant planned by that
midwestern utility.

     AWEA West Coast Representative Paul Gipe suggested that while
time and resources are in short supply, it may be possible to hold
an international symposium on the issue at AWEA's Windpower '93
conference in San Francisco.


EPRI DEVELOPS SITING METHOD
FOR COMPRESSED-AIR STORAGE

     The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) said it has
developed a method for rating and ranking potential sites for
compressed-air energy storage (CAES).

     In a recent issue of its EPRI Journal, Ben Mehta of EPRI's
Generation and Storage Division calls CAES "a modular, fast-
responding, environmentally attractive technology that can help
utilities make the best use of generation and transmission
resources."

     With CAES, a utility can store energy underground in the form
of compressed air.  Studies suggest that about three-fourths of the
U.S. contains geological formations underground -- of salt, hard
rock, porous rock, or combinations of the three -- that are
suitable for CAES.

     "Many utilities have completed CAES geology screening and
economic system planning analyses with positive results," Mehta
said, adding that "EPRI plans to assist a number of utilities in
building CAES plants."

     At present, the most economic use of CAES is to permit
utilities to operate baseload conventional power plants for longer
periods.  When demand is low, the power from the plants is stored.
When demand is high, it is released.  But as utilities turn to CAES
and other storage technologies, the technical difficulties involved
in adding an intermittent power source like wind energy to the
system should also be greatly reduced.

     EPRI's site evaluation approach uses the Geologic Information
System (GIS) to map geological data and also considers logistical
items such as the proximity of electrical transmission lines and
power plants to candidate sites.


RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS NEARS
COMPLETION OF SECOND WINDFARM

Britain's Renewable Energy Systems was expecting to complete
installation of 24 Vestas-DWT 400-kW turbines in a windfarm at Coal
Clough in Lancashire by midmonth.

The firm's first wind power plant, the second built in the United
Kingdom, consists of 15 Vestas-DWT turbines at Carland Cross in
Cornwall.

Renewable Energy Systems, a subsidiary of the Sir Robert McAlpine
Group of Companies, is developing the Coal Clough project in
partnership with two regional electric utilities, South Western
Electricity and the Manchester Wales Electricity Board (MANWEB).
The $20 million project in the Pennine hills is the first to be
completed in the English Midlands.  The site is near Burnley, a
city at the foot of the Pennines 40 miles east of Blackpool.

This brings to six the number of projects operating in the UK: 10
DWT 400-kW units at Delabole, Cornwall; 15 DWT 400-kW turbines at
Carland Cross; five Vestas 225-kW machines at Haverigg, Cumbria; 24
WEG 300-kW units at Cemmaes in Wales; and 24 Bonus 300-kW machines
at Anglesey, Wales; and the Coal Clough project.

<<<>>>

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