Too Much Wind for Wind Power
Too Much Wind For Wind Power
Find out about a town in Alaska with too much wind for wind power!
news | windThe fishing community of
Unalaska is located at the South West tip of Alaska, USA, and has a population of 4,300. Town leaders have made the decision to stop considering
wind energy as a power source as it is too windy!
Those of you reading in suburban UK - particularly those expecting to halve their energy bills with a
roof mounted wind turbine such as the
Windsave 1000 - can only dream they had a bit more wind; but don't wish you live in super-windy Unalaska.
Wind speeds of up to 170mph have been recorded there and houses in the town are built to survive sustained winds of over 150mph with the roofs chained to the foundations. Even in the town centre the
wind speed averages 15-20mph throughout the year as shown by the chart below.
nb. you can find out the average wind speeds in your UK location by visiting our Real Time Wind Speed Map
In addition to extremely strong winds, the other problem is the sudden direction changes of these winds caused by the steep Aleutian mountains which dominate Unalaska. With such turbulence and gusting, the leaders of Unalaska felt that there is just not a wind turbine on the market which would survive long enough to make it financially viable.
Renewable Energy Alternatives for Unalaska
At present Unalaska generates its own power with 9 diesel powered generators totalling 7.5MW of capacity. At 14.5 kWh per gallon (US) of diesel, the generators use almost 2 million gallons of fuel each year.
Biodiesel is not a practical
renewable option since it would have to be shipped in from far away and would cost much more than mineral diesel.
With peak loads of around 3MW in the winter and just over 5MW in the summer it may be practical to create a small
wind farm containing many
VAWT (Vertical axis wind turbines) since these cope well with extreme winds, gusts, and turbulence.
Article Last Modified: 17:09, 17th Jan 2007
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