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wind energy: what difference could it make at gustavus? |
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| LINKS: aviation digital data service our web resource for weather data. for readable data from mankato mn, enter "kmkt" in text box and choose "translated" option, then click "submit" wind power at gustavus past gustavus wind data, includes monthly wind speed graphs along with raw data. includes documentation and summary of past/present status of turbine purchase at gac. campus electricity usage hourly updated record of recent energy used and cost at gustavus. includes links to graphs of daily/recent usage
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In the past several years,
Gustavus has been considering the installation of a wind turbine on
campus. The process has been slow, as there are many factors to be
considered. There have been debates over the number and type of turbines
to be purchased, the use of the electricity produced (use/sell to St.
Peter), and even the installation location for the turbine(s). It is clear
from the data displayed below that these decisions needs to be made soon
so that turbine can be purchased. Not only will Gustavus save the
equivalent of about 15 students' tuitions each year, but we will be taking
a step in the world's effort to produce energy in a cleaner, more
sustainable manner. Wind speed and power generated data were collected for four different wind turbines (It is most likely that Gustavus will purchase a Clipper model). Given the power generated at a certain wind speed for each turbine, we can calculate the energy that would be generated each hour if a turbine were installed at Gustavus, based on current wind speed data on the Aviation Digital Data Service website. The cost of this energy can be calculated, as can the total money that would have been saved if a turbine had been installed at the time this website was set up (February 13st, 2008) Assume the cost of 1 kWh is $0.06 and alpha (velocity conversion constant) is .2063. At current wind speed in the Mankato area, over a period of one hour, the energy produced and cost saved is as follows:
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