California has potential for 150 GW of wind capacity
SACRAMENTO, California, US, July 13, 2005 (Refocus Weekly)
California has the potential to double its installed wind capacity within five years, according to a staff report at the California Energy Commission.
“California has one of the most diverse electricity supply systems in the
nation with a large potential to generate electricity from renewable sources,
such as wind, biomass, geothermal, hydroelectric and solar,” says Dora Yen-Nakafuji
in the draft ‘California Wind Resources’ prepared for a workshop on renewable
energy potential in the state. “With the recently adopted Renewable Portfolio
Standard, the challenge facing the state will be how best to integrate and
manage renewable energy resources with traditional generation while ensuring a
reliable electrical system.”
“Although many of the power qualities with existing wind technology have been
addressed, issues related to increasing intermittent wind resources are
introducing new challenges,” it explains. “Though new technologies are on the
horizon, several barriers combine to limit the number of areas to generate power
form renewable resources such as wind. These barriers include transmission
capacity constraints, intermittency management issues, and occasionally
perceptions, which combine to limit available areas of renewable resources like
wind.”
“California continues to be a leader in installed wind capacity with just over
2,000 MW, and the potential exists to double this amount in the next five
years,” it concludes. “In the future, renewable resources will play an even
larger role in providing bulk electricity for the state.”
New turbines will be able to generate power in wind speeds of 5 m/s, at which
time California would have the potential for 31 GW of turbines at 30 m hub
height, which would cover 1.2% of the land area. At 50 m height, the potential
increases to 56 GW in low-speed areas and 10 GW in high-speed regions, with
annual generation of 213,214 GWh.
At a height of 100 m, the state could have 127 GW of turbines in low-speed
regions and 21 GW in high-speed, generating 479,362 GWh a year from turbines on
5.7% of the land area.
The dispatchability of wind will be improved by locating turbines closer to
strategic locations in the grid, and recent improvements in a number of aspects
of wind energy mean that California wind resources need to be routinely
assessed, the report notes.
California requires electricity providers to procure at least 1% of of their
electricity from green power, and to achieve a 20% renewable mix before 2010.
The white paper provides an estimate of the wind resources within the state
which are potentially available, noting that the gross estimates are
unconstrained by technical, economic or environmental requirements.
Existing utility-scale wind generation facilities are found in five major
resource areas, of which three (Altamont, Tehachapi and San Gorgonio) account
for 95% of all commercial wind power generation in the state and 11% of the
world’s wind-generated electricity. The 3.5 billion kWh of annual output from
wind provides electricity for 530,000 homes.
The capacity factors of California’s wind turbines range from 10% to 41%, and
recent improvements have increased that capacity factor by 8%. Domestic turbines
accounted for 67% of total installed capacity in 1985, compared with only 37% in
2001, and 35% of US-made turbines manufactured in the 1980s and 1990s remain in
operation in California.
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