Wind Power in Florida: “Energy” is Florida’s Low Hanging Fruit – A First Step to Sustainability

Renewable Energy Creates High-Tech Local Jobs

Nature, Florida’s friend in terms of wind energy, solar power, and ocean power, can cool our homes, power our businesses, and sustain us for the long term IF we will only invest in the capital equipment necessary to harness renewable energy instead of wasting the investment on fuel. The research and development, manufacturing of wind turbine and solar components, construction of pilot energy generation sites, and planning of this new infrastructure will all create jobs.

Florida based technology companies building and maintaining the sophisticated machinery to capture the energy in nature creates Florida jobs and also provides key investments in technology. These high technology jobs are critical to Florida’s future strong economy and competitiveness in the world economy. Inerjy is a perfect example of job creation and innovative technology development in Florida.

“High Energy” Florida Lags the Nation in Renewable Power

While Florida has some of the right political will, it lags the rest of the country in renewable energy production. Florida ranks #43 nationally on renewable energy production per capita. For more justificaion for wind power, read Why Wind Power Meets ALL the 6 Degrees of Energy Excellence.

Wind Power is the Biggest Source of New Power Generation

• Next to hydro, wind is the number two developed renewable energy resource in the US. It is also the fastest growing with over 8500MW of capacity installed in 2008.
• More wind power capacity was installed in 2008 than any other generation source, including natural gas and coal.
• 52 billion kWh of electricity were produced in the US in 2008 by wind power, accounting for almost 1.5% of the country’s entire consumption. The wind industry is ahead of its goal to supply 20% of the nation’s electricity by 2030.

Wind Power is Inflation Proof

Wind power is growing so quickly in part because of the low risk of huge swings in production costs. Traditional power generation technologies relying on fuels or feedstocks have massive fluctuations in operational costs.

• Natural gas cost for instance has varied over 50% from its high in the last year.
• The running average price of the fuel has tripled in the last decade.

Wind is free and there is reliable long-term data on its speed and availability. The initial investment in a wind turbine is the only real cost of the power, other than minor operation and maintenance costs. These amortization dollars never change, even with inflation or market dynamics.

Wind Technology Quickly Evolving to Remove Risks

The use of wind for power dates back centuries; Romans used wind to pump water. However the contemporary use of wind for electricity production only began in the 1970’s, and we are only recently accelerating the technological breakthroughs to significantly lower the risk of wind power generation on a large commercial scale. Europe led the world in developing wind power technology and production capacity until the recent thrust in the US. Even now, most of the turbines installed in the US today are either built in Europe or built by European companies in US plants.

Inerjy and its EcoVert line of wind turbines offer a distinct advantage over other technologies – they are silent and offer unique capabilities to withstand hurricane force winds. This technology allows for distributed energy solutions to be located very near the demand without adverse audio impact. The hurricane sustainability is critical to successful operation in Florida and allows us to counter the often-heard argument against wind.

Most utility-scale turbines installed in the US are characterized by three propeller-style blades attached to a housing atop a monopole tower. This housing, or nacelle, contains a large gearbox coupled to a generator pumping the electricity through a transformer into the grid. Newer technologies omitting the gearbox are widely deployed in Europe but have yet to be marketed to the US. An even newer generation of turbines with a vertical rotation axis is under development, said to offer further improvements on the technology.

Myth: Hurricanes are Florida’s only Source of Wind

There is a misconception that wind power in Florida isn’t practical because the wind resource isn’t strong enough. It is true Florida doesn’t have the average wind speeds of Iowa, Minnesota, or Montana where many of the huge wind farms are being constructed. While it may be easier to find funding for these large scale wind energy developments in the “windy” states, Florida’s sustained winds offer a unique energy resource that should not be overlooked.

These developments are also largely driven by monetary incentives, not just wind speeds. Both a federal tax credit incentive on the amount of energy (kWh) produced and individual state RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) laws provide a target for renewable energy production with consequences for non compliance. Florida is studying its own Renewable Portfolio Standard and we expect this to be passed in the near future. At least 29 states have such legislation, and US congress is currently debating a bill to introduce a federal RES with the same intent.

According to the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Florida’s entire coastline has an annual average ‘Class 2’ wind resource or at least 12.5 mph at 50m above ground.

All communities within a few miles of the coastline have access to these winds. A five year study commissioned by FPL at the company’s St. Lucie county nuclear power plant site proved a 13.8 mph average annual wind speed, a resource strong enough to warrant development. The study also cites that this resource is superior to that of at least 22 wind farms built in the US6.

Strong Financial Case for Wind Power in Florida

Financial analysis is where wind power starts to really shine, especially given the steadily increasing cost of Florida’s current energy sources. Consider FPL’s proposed “wind farm” energy production site: 6 wind turbines x 2.3MW capacity each at an installed cost of about $28M. The project’s anticipated output based on their wind study would be approximately 21,600 MWh of power annually. Adding in an industry typical 1% annual operations and maintenance cost, $280k, and amortizing the total investment over the minimum 20 year machine life span gives a $1.7M annual flattened cost. Dividing this by the annual production yields a 7.7¢ per kWh electricity cost, not accounting for profit. Consider:

• the current 12¢ per kWh electricity cost retail rate today
• strong likelihood rates will climb to more than 20¢ per kWh in the next 20 years

Wind power is a bargain! Application of federal incentives for wind power improves this cost even further. In ROI terms like the solar calculation was made, this project would pay for itself in just 12 years versus 40 years for the solar.

Technology Cost is a Key Consideration

New vertical-axis turbine designs, such as the EcoVert line, can overcome the challenges traditional utility-size wind turbines have in the Florida environmental conditions. High blade velocities of these older propeller-style machines create noise issues and occasional bird strikes. Another issue with this technology is the added tower stress of their heavy, bulky gearbox and generators mounted high on the tower behind the propeller. This complication plus their method of ‘locking’ the rotating upper section of the machine in extreme high winds makes them high risk in major hurricanes. Studies have also shown newer vertical-axis designs are much more efficient in sub-urban environments like we have along our coast and with improved engineering, the potential to survive CAT-4 Hurricanes.

Getting Started

Florida has no choice but to become sustainable. While oil prices are again on the rise, wind power offers opportunities to invest in our future by locking in energy costs. Waiting for energy prices to spike before taking action increases cost and reduces effectiveness.

We acknowledge what the experts say, that there is not one technology alone to serve our future energy needs, but rather it will take a blend of technologies to achieve sustainability. However there IS one technology that’s ready now: scalable and economically viable to serve Florida. From China to India to Europe and the rest of the US, wind is working. Why shouldn’t Florida put wind to work too?

Download the full whitepaper on Wind Power in Florida.