October 21, 2004
Sherry Blanche/Observer
One of the seven turbines at the Wind Farm northwest of
Kimball.
Wind Farm production slightly up from first year
Kimball earns $77,404 for wheeling power
By Sherry Blanche
The Wind Farm in Kimball production picked up a little in
the second year of the farm's existence. Much of that was due to less
turbine downtime and very good wind availability.
The Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska (MEAN) owns the
seven turbines northwest of town that began producing power commercially in
October 2002. They measure production from October through September and
comparisons are listed below.
The first year? from October 2002 to September 2003, the
farm produced 29,263,232 kilowatt hours (kWh) compared with the second
year's production of 31,175,389 kWh. Total wind energy produced by the
state's 12 turbines in the calendar year 2003 was about 39,000,000 kWh.
Kimball earned about $4,000 more this year from the
'wheeling fee' that they are paid for transferring the power. This year's
fee from October to September tallied $77,404 compared to $73,351 the first
year.
Occasionally you will see the blades on one turbine
spinning in a different direction than the blades on another. That's because
wind currents even a half a mile apart can be quite different.
Figures given on the Nebraska Energy Office for wind
energy production in Kimball (http://www.nol.org/home/NEO/statshtml/89.htm)
shows a discrepancy from those given here. MEAN said there are several
variables including loss from the energy the farm consumes for it's own
operation, and transmission and distribution losses.
NEG Micon, the company that made the turbines used here,
provides the information to both the energy office and to MEAN. MEAN said
their adjusted numbers are the most reliable and more accurately reflect the
actual production of the farm.
November 21, 2002
Turn on the wind? Flipping the
ceremonial switch at the Wind Farm near Kimball last week is (from l.) Bob
Jacobsen, Bill Leung, Richard Duxbury and Kimball City Administrator Bruce
Smith. The wind-generation facility was dedicated last Wednesday with
officials from Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska (MEAN), which owns the
farm, TVIG that helped construct it and representatives from communities
that are members of MEAN. Smith was instrumental in getting the project
placed in Kimball. The seven wind turbines began generating power Oct. 1
and can produce enough to light about 4,000 homes. Each turbine, made by
NEG Micon in Denmark, cost about $2 million to construct.
September 18, 2002
Wind Farm has produced maximum energy capacity
By Sherry Blanche
According to John Krajewski, Manager of planning and
engineering for Municipal Energy Association of Nebraska (MEAN), the Kimball
wind farm has produced the maximum 10.5 megawatts of power for several hours
at a time since the turbines began operating Aug. 29.
To reach the maximum megawatt production, the wind needs
to reach about 30 miles per hour at the height of the hub, Krajewski said.
Total energy production since the first turbine began producing is 1,472 MWh
(Megawatt Hours).
Sunday from about 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. the turbines produced
almost 10 megawatts for four straight hours, he said, and that production
has ranged between 7 megawatt and 10 megawatt of power most of the time.
Information about average wind speed since beginning and
other figures have not been compiled yet, he said.
The wind farm, owned by MEAN, will go into commercial
operation beginning Oct. 1. Until then, the energy produced goes into the
Kimball distribution system and is either consumed locally by the city, or
goes out on the Western Area Power Association (WAPA) grid to other
customers if generation is beyond what the Kimball system can accept.
It is considered non-firm energy that offsets other
member requirements, but is still metered.
MEAN will take possession of the farm by the end of
September after more paperwork and tests are completed by Tennessee Valley
Infrastructure Group (TVIG), which constructed the wind turbines.
All seven wind turbines underwent a final 72-hour test
with the last test done Thursday. During the test, a turbine must be
available 96 percent of the time without mechanical or electrical problems.
If the wind isn't blowing, it doesn't count against the available time.
A dedication ceremony is being planned for Nov. 13 at
3:30 p.m., said Bob Selzer, Manager of Communications for MEAN. Nebraska
congressional delegation members and others who attended the groundbreaking
will be invited. Selzer said Sen. Ben Nelson has expressed interest in
coming and they hope Congressman Tom Osborne will attend.
MEAN board of directors will also be meeting that day in
Kimball. Selzer thought it was the first time the group has met here.
Sherry Blanche/ OBSERVER
August 1, 2002 - The 110,300-pound
rotor for a wind turbine is lifted onto the tower 230-foot tower Monday. It
was the first tower to be completed at the seven-turbine wind farm northwest
of Kimball. The blades are 113-feet long and the diameter of the rotor is
236 feet. Eight men, divided into two groups, grabbed two tethered blades to
swing it around while a small crane held one of the blades. A 180' boom
crawler crane was hooked into the hub to lift the rotor. It took about seven
hours Monday to add the top two sections of the tower, generator and rotor.
Sherry Blanche/ OBSERVER
August 1, 2002 - Two men on top of the generator (nacelle)
of the 230-feet wind turbine tower help secure the rotor to the tower. The
assembled blade and hub weighs 110,300 pounds and the generator weighs
92,200 pounds. The maximum blade height will be 348 feet and blade tip speed
will be 145 miles per hour when operating. The towers are made of conical
steel. With ideal and constant wind, each turbine could produce up to 1.5
megawatts of power. The seven turbines will cost about $15 million total.
Sherry Blanche/ OBSERVER
July 15, 2002, Surf's up?
One of the wind turbine blades looks like a giant surfboard on the
semi-trailer bed. Three of the blades arrived at the wind farm near
Kimball on Tuesday. Most of the wind turbine pieces will be delivered and
several tower bases will be erected next week. A small "eye"
near the tip of the blade acts like a lightning rod to absorb any strikes.
Sherry Blanche/ OBSERVER
A 14,991-pound
wind turbine blade is unloaded from a semi-trailer Tuesday, July 15, at the wind
farm northwest of Kimball. Seven wind turbines will initially be
constructed and the farm could include up to 20. Each turbine has three
blades. The blades are 113-feet long and made primarily of fiberglass. The
wind turbine towers, hub and blades are manufactured in North Dakota and
the generator is made in Denmark. Most of the turbine pieces will be
delivered by next week with more than 50 truckloads total. Each blade and
generator requires its own semi-trailer. Municipal Energy Agency of
Nebraska will own the farm.
Wind turbine blades arrive
By Sherry Blanche
The nearly 15,000-pound blades for the wind turbines
began arriving Tuesday, July 15, 2002, at the wind farm northwest of Kimball.
Three semi-trailer truckloads were expected Tuesday
with each one carrying one blade. Jeremy Crane, project manager with
Tennessee Valley Infrastructure Group (TVIG), said they had hoped to have
all of the turbine pieces delivered by the end of next week, but an
Atlantic Ocean storm will delay getting parts from Denmark by several
days.
And delays are expensive because the cranes rent for
$3,500 per day, according to Crane.
The turbine towers, blades and hubs are made in North
Dakota and the nacelle, which houses the generator, is made in Denmark by
NEG Micon.
Each blade, made of fiberglass with a honeycomb
structure, weighs 14,991 pounds and is (35 meters) 113 feet long. The
semi-trailers they were carried on expand from about 50 feet to 90 feet
long, with the wind turbine blade still extending well beyond the end of
the flatbed.
A special crawler crane with a jib was assembled last
week that will be used to erect the turbine towers and rotor. The crane
will be lifting pieces that weigh about 44,000 pounds (22 tons, according
to Crane. It was rigged to lift a maximum weight of 300 tons and can be
rigged to handle 500 tons.
The generator pieces would be shipped to Houston, Tex.
and then are sent individually on semi-trailer trucks.
He said they should be getting the tower bases Monday
and will begin putting them into place. The rotor hubs should also arrive
Monday and the nacelles should start arriving Wednesday, Crane said.
Municipal Energy Association of Nebraska (MEAN) will
own the Wind Farm. The City of Kimball will not only gain the novelty of
having the first wind farm in Nebraska, but will also earn up to $80,000
from wheeling charges from the initial seven-turbine farm. The city plans
to buy about 10 percent of the "green" energy and will give its
customers the option to buy some of it at a slightly higher rate than
traditional electricity.
208 rods,
each weighing about 150 pounds, are lowered into the foundation that will
hold a wind turbine soon. A wind farm northwest of Kimball will initially
consist of seven turbines, each generating about 1.5 megawatts of power.
It will be operational this fall.
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