Rock Port, Missouri - The First 100% Wind Powered City

[sparky]

Rock Port, Missouri is the first 100% wind powered city in the US. Loess Hill Wind Farm, with four 1.25 MW wind turbines is estimated to generate 16 gigawatt hours (16 million kilowatt hours) of electricity annually.

First Wind Powered City : CleanTechnica

[hament]

Now that's awesome, even though the government's aren't doing anything, the small communities, cities and states are at least stepping up to the plate!

[Besoeker]

Originally Posted by sparky

Rock Port, Missouri is the first 100% wind powered city in the US. Loess Hill Wind Farm, with four 1.25 MW wind turbines is estimated to generate 16 gigawatt hours (16 million kilowatt hours) of electricity annually.

It's good. But a tad misleading:
"The local electric company, Missouri Public Utility Alliance, will purchase excess electricity when available. They will then supply power when there is not enough wind energy available. Excess wind energy will not be stored but rather fed into the city’s high voltage line, making it an intermittent source of power."
They are also using a capacity factor of about 36.5% which may be optimistic. BWEA generally use 30%.

[LMagic007]

Rock Port MO looks to have pretty good wind resources

This map shows the highest wind resources in Missouri are found in the extreme northwestern part of the state. Class 3 areas are concentrated from St. Joseph north to the Iowa border.

Wind Powering America: Missouri Wind Map

http://www.eere.energy.gov/windandhy...mo_50m_800.jpg


Rockport MO - Google MAPS

Rock Port, MO, USA - Google Maps

Rockport appears to be just west of Maryville north of St Joseph which is north of Kansas City

I would not assume the article is misleading unless there is clearly demonstrated cause to form that view. Just because some wind sites are 30% by BWEA standards, some capacity factors might reasonably be expected to be lower and some higher. Rockport appears to be in a Class 3 wind area, so to expect higher than average winds might not necessarily be unreasonable.

[Besoeker]

Originally Posted by LMagic007

Rock Port MO looks to have pretty good wind resources

Good.
Another article.
Rock Port, Missouri To Be Fully Wind Powered

The facility produces up to 16 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually

The "up to" qualification is interesting.

[LMagic007]

Originally Posted by Besoeker

Good.
Another article.
Rock Port, Missouri To Be Fully Wind Powered

The "up to" qualification is interesting.

The "up to" qualification will always exist with renewables, or fossil fuels with uncertain supply channels, however annual average expectation with renewables can be reasonably predictable with a reasonably high degree of confidence. In any event it's grid connected and as they indicated they expect to produce more power than the town of Rockport consumes by 3 million kWh. I suspect they have done their homework.

[Besoeker]

Originally Posted by LMagic007

The "up to" qualification will always exist with renewables, or fossil fuels with uncertain supply channels, however annual average expectation with renewables can be reasonably predictable with a reasonably high degree of confidence.

"Up to" suggests a maximum rather than an average.

Originally Posted by LMagic007

In any event it's grid connected and as they indicated they expect to produce more power than the town of Rockport consumes by 3 million kWh. I suspect they have done their homework.

They expect that it will produce more energy.

[Wobs]

From one of the articles:
"Rock Port, Missouri is set to become the first city in America capable of meeting 100% of its electricity demand with wind power. The town will use power generated from Wind Capital Group's Loess Hills facility, located on agricultural lands within the city limits of Rock Port. The facility produces up to 16 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually, which exceeds the 13 million kWh Rock Port uses each year on average. "


It misleading, but then its journalism, so what do we expect.

It implies that the town runs 100% on wind energy, when this clearly cannot be the case, as it will need a substantial backup, and one would hop be hooked to a grid with surrounding towns and cities.

[LMagic007]

Originally Posted by Besoeker

"Up to" suggests a maximum rather than an average.


They expect that it will produce more energy.

Of course that's what they say. 3 million kWh more than they need. The term "up to" means between a low point and up to a high point. The high point being more than they need. They are grid connected for obvious reason which they acknowledge. At the end of the day, they are feeding energy into the grid. ( up to 16 gWh per year ) for a category 3 wind site. The average annual wind speed, is historically based, which they would have some ideas about and be able to predict with X degree of certainty, over the longer term, using well established principles of meteorology.

[LMagic007]

Originally Posted by Wobs

From one of the articles:
"Rock Port, Missouri is set to become the first city in America capable of meeting 100% of its electricity demand with wind power. The town will use power generated from Wind Capital Group's Loess Hills facility, located on agricultural lands within the city limits of Rock Port. The facility produces up to 16 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity annually, which exceeds the 13 million kWh Rock Port uses each year on average. "

It misleading, but then its journalism, so what do we expect.

It implies that the town runs 100% on wind energy, when this clearly cannot be the case, as it will need a substantial backup, and one would hop be hooked to a grid with surrounding towns and cities.

It's not misleading at all, because the article already states that they will be grid connected and buy energy when the wind is not sufficient and sell wind when they have excess supply. However their estimation is that they will on average annual expectation, be a net exporter of energy to the grid.

As part of this arrangement, MJMEUC will supply Rock Port’s power needs when the wind turbines are not generating at peak capacity.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/story?id=52177

The local electric company, Missouri Public Utility Alliance, will purchase excess electricity when available. They will then supply power when there is not enough wind energy available. Excess wind energy will not be stored but rather fed into the city’s high voltage line, making it an intermittent source of power.

http://cleantechnica.com/2008/05/05/first-wind-powered-city/

It's clear from the articles that in the Rockport estimation, the net annual carbon footprint of Rockport will be expected to be close to zero, because on average annual expectation and in net terms, they expect to export more wind energy to the grid, than they will consume energy from the grid. This is because on average expectation they expect to produce more energy than they expect to consume. Of course these are their estimations and it has been well established that wind is intermittent, but that is directly acknowledged in at least one of the articles and indirectly acknowledged in both.

The articles are very clear, honest and frank.