Great potential offshore. Not so much inland
Some of the data comes from Charlestown’s “MET” tower
in Ninigret Park
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| Wind data makes this scenic vista more and more unlikely |
By Will Collette
As Charlestown gears up for more litigation and legal costs over the unpopular Whalerock industrial
wind farm project proposed by developer Larry LeBlanc, it’s great timing to see
new data showing how practical that project really is.
The short answer: not so
much. And that conclusion is consistent with data drawn from several other
locations around southern New England, according to new findings released by oceanographers at the University of Rhode Island.
That’s good news for
Deepwater Wind and Cape Wind and their planned offshore wind farms, but bad
news for Larry LeBlanc.
The URI scientists found
that wind speeds measured over a 35-year period dropped off from an average of
9 knots to 7.7 knots at TF Green Airport and from 8.2 knots to 7 knots at New
Bedford Airport.
The researchers theorize
that climate change and urbanization may be factors in these long-term data
changes. "Southern New England has typically had a long period of frequent
winter storms, but with climate change, that pattern of winter weather is
shifting to the north, meaning we may be in that pattern less often," said
URI professor John Merrill. "If those mid-latitude storms aren't here as
often, average wind speeds will decrease."
They also note that
ground features such as unevenness, buildings and trees also affect wind speed.
For ground-based wind generators, height is the key factor to increasing
efficiency. "If the anemometer height is at about the same level but
everything else is growing up around it, like buildings and forests, that would
create surface roughness or drag that could decrease wind speeds," said graduate
assistant Kelly Knorr, an ensign in the U.S. Navy assigned to URI to earn a
graduate degree.
Charlestown’s own MET
tower wind data underscores that point. In Ninigret Park, it’s located even
closer to the water in a more favorable location than LeBlanc’s proposed site
north of Route One on the Charlestown moraine near King’s Factory Road. The
Ninigret Park data shows that even at 161 feet off the ground, the average wind
speed is only 9.31 knots, barely within the range of practicality for an
industrial wind turbine.
At 95 feet above ground,
average wind speed drops to only eight knots.
This new data would
certainly be available to any investors or lenders LeBlanc might approach for
funding for the Whalerock project, should he prevail in the courts.
Click here to see the numbers and charts from one year’s worth of data
collection at Ninigret Park.
The URI team says that
if the trends shown in their data continue, it may curb development of
land-based wind generation in southern New England across the board, while boosting
more offshore development.
"The Department of
Energy wants the U.S. to have 20 percent of its electricity generated from wind
power by 2030, but if this trend of declining wind speeds is widespread across
the country, then that could have a significant effect on the future of wind
energy here," said Knorr.
"Wind speeds at
inland sites are much lower near the ground because of the greater drag at the
surface, but there is much less drag the higher you go, so speeds can really
pick up," Knorr said. "Over the ocean, wind speeds start out stronger
at the surface because there's less drag, and it doesn't increase as quickly
the higher you go."
This report, combined
with Charlestown wind speed data from the MET tower in Ninigret Park, supports
my theory that LeBlanc isn’t really serious about actually building the
wind farm, but is using it as leverage to get the town to buy his land.