Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers Wind Resource References: NREL (Tony Jimenez, Neil Kelley)

Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers June 19 – 20, 2007Wind Energy2 Where Does Wind Come From? The differential heating of earth’s atmosphere causes wind.

Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers June 19 – 20, 2007Wind Energy3 The Jet Stream The jet stream is responsible for the transport of heat and momentum in the mid latitudes

Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers June 19 – 20, 2007Wind Energy4 Measuring the wind Wind speed is typically measured using anemometers. How might you measure the speed of the wind from a fan without an anemometer?

Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers June 19 – 20, 2007Wind Energy5 Characterizing the Wind Resource How might you characterize the wind? –average wind speed –variation in wind speed –most frequent wind direction (“prevailing wind direction”) –frequency of other wind directions

Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers June 19 – 20, 2007Wind Energy6 Probability Distributions Create a table like the one below: Range (“bin”)NumberPercent 0 – 2 2 – 4 4 – 6 6 – 8 8 – 10

Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers June 19 – 20, 2007Wind Energy7 Probability Distributions - 2 Consider this list of numbers. –1, 3.5, 7, 6.5, 1.5, 9, 1, 0.5, 8.5, 9.5 –What is the average? Fill in the second column of your table with the number of numbers in the list that fall within each of your bins. Fill in the third column of your table with the percent of the numbers in each range. Create a plot showing the percent in each range. Mark the average on your plot.

Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers June 19 – 20, 2007Wind Energy8 Wind Speed Distribution

Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers June 19 – 20, 2007Wind Energy9 Turbine Power Curve Power is usually limited to a certain maximum for real turbines (to ensure safe operation)

Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers June 19 – 20, 2007Wind Energy10 Power Power available in the wind –  = air density – v = wind speed – A = cross sectional area swept by rotor

Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers June 19 – 20, 2007Wind Energy11 Power Density Power Density = Wind Class W/m 2 at 50 m Wind speed at 50 m m/s m/s m/s m/s m/s m/s 7 > 800 > 9.3 m/s

Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers June 19 – 20, 2007Wind Energy12 United States Wind Resource

Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers June 19 – 20, 2007Wind Energy13 Colorado Wind Resource

Colorado School of Mines Adventure Engineering Physical Science Workshop for Teachers June 19 – 20, 2007Wind Energy14 Activity Use the Wind Living Lab to evaluate the wind resource at a location of your choosing. Create a wind speed probability distribution (like the one on slide 6) showing the proportion of time the wind spends at each wind speed value. Which turbine produces more energy for your wind speed distribution?