Wind turbines to generate power for new UNT football stadium

DENTON (UNT), Texas , The University of North Texas has received a $2 million grant from the State Energy Conservation Office to install three wind turbines that will feed the electrical grid that provides power to UNT’s new football stadium and other buildings on the west side of Interstate 35E.

The stadium, which will open in September, is the first collegiate stadium designed to incorporate onsite renewable energy. The turbines are expected to be installed by the end of the year.

“The effort by the staff of the UNT System and the university to meet the requirements of the Department of Energy and the State Energy Conservation Office to win the grant for these new turbines underscores our commitment to creating a carbon-neutral campus,” said V. Lane Rawlins, president of UNT. “Our university has a 50-year legacy of environmental research and sustainability and we’re proud to be the first university in Texas to install wind turbines on campus. “

It is estimated that the three wind turbines will offset the energy consumption of Mean Green Village, the area of campus surrounding the new stadium, by about 6 percent and eliminate 323 metric tons of carbon dioxide being emitted annually. The turbines will be visible from I-35E and I-35W providing visual evidence of UNT’s commitment to sustainability.

A web-based monitoring system will provide details on energy production, carbon reduction statistics and empirical data that can be used for both educational and research purposes at UNT. Designed for low wind conditions, the community-scale 100kW wind turbines are well suited for the North Texas region, which has a wind speed average of approximately 12 mph.

Unlike the very large turbines generally found at wind farms, community-scale turbines are considerably smaller and ideal for municipalities, schools, neighborhoods, and universities. The approximate noise level of the turbines is 55 decibels at 40 meters (131 feet), which is equivalent to that of a normal conversation between two people.

“The construction of wind turbines at UNT will be an invaluable asset to the university and surrounding communities,” said Richard Escalante, vice chancellor for administrative services. “The reduction in carbon emissions from the use of fossil fuels will be a collective benefit for the entire North Texas region. Sustainable initiatives, such as the use of renewable energy technologies, ensure that future generations of the UNT and Denton communities are equipped with the necessary tools to continue economic expansion while simultaneously protecting the environment and human health.”

The wind turbines will be located southwest of the new stadium, and aligned approximately parallel to Bonnie Brae Street. The turbines will be on the east side of Bonnie Brae.

Design and construction of the turbines is expected to begin immediately. At its November meeting, the UNT System Board of Regents selected HKS DesignGreen for the design of the turbines and supporting structure. The construction manager will be selected shortly, according to Raynard Kearbey, UNT System associate vice chancellor for system facilities, whose team is overseeing design and construction of the stadium and wind turbines.

“These wind turbines will give UNT a trifecta of benefits,” noted Chris Mundell, sustainable design manager with HKS DesignGreen. “They will be an innovative educational tool for UNT students and faculty. The turbines also will be a symbol of sustainability for all the stadium’s spectators. Lastly, they help offset energy consumption of the new stadium, making it one of the most energy efficient in the country.”

The new stadium, which will replace 57-year-old Fouts Field, is designed by award-winning architects HKS Sports & Entertainment Group (www.hksinc.com), the firm that designed the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. The UNT System will be seeking LEED Gold or Platinum certification. If the project is awarded LEED Platinum, it will be the first of its type to achieve this rating in the country.

Researchers at the Ames Laboratory and the University of Colorado find that wind turbines help channel beneficial breezes over nearby plants

wind energy

Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, a scientific society, in San Francisco today, a researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and his co-researcher from the University of Colorado announced the preliminary findings of a months-long research program aimed at studying how wind turbines on farmlands interact with surrounding crops.

“We’ve finished the first phase of our research, and we’re confident that wind turbines do produce measureable effects on the microclimate near crops,” said Ames Laboratory associate and agricultural meteorology expert Gene Takle. According to Takle, who is also a professor of agricultural meteorology and director of the Climate Science Program at Iowa State University, the slow-moving turbine blades that have become a familiar sight along Midwestern highways, channel air downwards, in effect bathing the crops below via the increased airflow they create.

His colleague in the research is Julie Lundquist, assistant professor, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, at the University of Colorado at Boulder, joint appointee at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Fellow of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute. Lundquist’s team uses a specialized laser known as a lidar to measure winds and turbulence from near the Earth’s surface to well above the top tip of a turbine blade.

“Our laser instrument could detect a beautiful plume of increased turbulence that persisted even a quarter-mile downwind of a turbine,” Lundquist said.

Both Takle and Lundquist stressed that their early findings have yet to definitively establish whether or not wind turbines are in fact beneficial to the health and yield potential of soybeans and corn planted nearby. However, their finding that the turbines increase airflow over surrounding crops, suggests this is a realistic possibility.

“The turbulence resulting from wind turbines may speed up natural exchange processes between crop plants and the lower atmosphere,” Takle said.

For instance, crops warm up when the sun shines on them, and some of that heat is given off to the atmosphere. Extra air turbulence likely speeds up this heat exchange, so crops stay slightly cooler during hot days. On cold nights, turbulence stirs the lower atmosphere and keeps nighttime temperatures around the crops warmer.

“In this case, we anticipate turbines’ effects are good in the spring and fall because they would keep the crop a little warmer and help prevent a frost,” said Takle. “Wind turbines could possibly ward off early fall frosts and extend the growing season.”

Other benefits of wind turbines could result from their effects on crop moisture levels. Extra turbulence may help dry the dew that settles on plants beginning in late afternoon, minimizing the amount of time fungi and toxins can grow on plant leaves. Additionally, drier crops at harvest help farmers reduce the cost of artificially drying corn or soybeans.

Another potential benefit to crops is that increased airflows could enable corn and soybean plants to more readily extract atmospheric CO2, a needed “fuel” for crops. The extra turbulence might also pump extra CO2 from the soil. Both results could facilitate the crops ability to perform photosynthesis.

Takle’s wind turbine predictions are based on years of research on so-called agricultural shelter belts, which are the rows of trees in a field, designed to slow high-speed natural winds.

“In a simplistic sense, a wind turbine is nothing more than a tall tree with a well-pruned stem. For a starting point for this research, we adapted a computational fluid model that we use to understand trees,” said Takle. “But we plan to develop a new model specific to wind turbines as we gather more data.”

The team’s initial measurements consisted of visual observations of wind turbulence upwind and downwind of the turbines. The team also used wind-measuring instruments called anemometers to determine the intensity of the turbulence. The bulk of the wind-turbulence measurements and the crop-moisture, temperature and CO2 measurements took place in the spring of 2010.

“We anticipate the impact of wind turbines to be subtle. But in certain years and under certain circumstances the effects could be significant,” said Takle. “When you think about a summer with a string of 105-degree days, extra wind turbulence from wind turbines might be helpful. If turbines can bring the temperature down below 100 degrees that could be a big help for crops.”

The Ames Laboratory’s royalty income seed funding program supported the initial work. Additional funding came from the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The U.S. National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment contributed the surface flux instruments used to measure the wind turbines’ effects and the personnel to operate them.

Ames Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science research facility operated by Iowa State University. Ames Laboratory creates innovative materials, technologies and energy solutions. We use our expertise, unique capabilities and interdisciplinary collaborations to solve global challenges.

The world’s largest offshore windfarm, partially built by a Norfolk firm, was officially opened off the UK coast yesterday.

The Thanet offshore windfarm, off the south east coast of England, has 100 turbines which will produce enough green energy a year to power the equivalent of more than 200,000 homes.

The project was completed by energy company Vattenfall and the turbines were installed with the help of Great Yarmouth-based engineering firm CLS Offshore, an EDP Business Awards finalist.

The total capacity of the UK’s onshore and offshore wind turbines now exceeds 5 gigawatts, enough to power all the homes in Scotland.

CLS installed part of the turbines, helping slash installation times from 24 hours to five-and-a-half hours while delivering a perfect safety record.

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There’s power in the wind!

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