Renewable Energy's Future May Depend on Joint Efforts

Sep 22 - The Daily Oklahoman

Oklahoma's renewable energy industry has boomed in recent years, but industry leaders are looking to ever-improving technology to make wind farms and other projects even more cost effective.

In a two-year timeframe, Oklahoma jumped from having no significant renewable energy to No. 5 in the country in terms of wind-generated electricity production. All four of the state's large utilities buy power from local windfarms and all have said they will consider more projects in the future.

While most industry experts say the state is still far from reaching its capacity for renewable energy, other groups are working to improve technology and make such growth even more cost effective.

"New technology is something we are watching closely because there are new developments being made each and every day that could very well have application in Oklahoma," said Brian Alford, Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. spokesman. "Technology continues to develop where we're seeing costs come down and we're also seeing new technologies emerge."

Wind power presents challenges While the state's utilities increasingly hope to convert Oklahoma's famously strong wind into electricity, they face the challenge that wind gusts typically are strongest in the mornings and evenings, which happen to be the time when electricity demand is low.

Wind energy is most cost effective when it can supplement or replace more expensive natural gas-fired electricity. On some windy spring and fall days, however, wind energy sometimes replaces much less expensive coal-generated electricity -- a move that makes much less sense economically.

Wind power also is limited because it cannot be relied upon when electricity demand is at its peak.

To address such problems, industry leaders are working on ways to couple wind farms with other renewable technologies.

One often discussed -- yet rarely implemented -- idea is to use excess off-peak wind energy to pump water up a

reservoir, where it can

flow over a hydroelectric

dam during peak times.

While none of the Oklahoma utilities have used hybrid technology to take advantage of high volumes of off-peak wind power, Public Service Co. of Oklahoma's parent company, American Electric Power, has experimented with water pump storage.

"I think the interesting thing is that the development and improvements in alternative energy that have taken place just over the last decade or so have made great strides in those efforts," PSO spokesman Stan Whiteford said.

Another possibility is to use the excess power to pump air into an underground cavern or some other storage facility, where it then can be released through another wind turbine.

An environmental foundation in Maine has developed technology that some say could be adapted to help make Oklahoma wind farms more efficient.

Turning to hydrogen The Chewonki Foundation this summer installed a backup power system that uses wind and solar energy to separate hydrogen from water through the process of hydrolysis. On-site hydrogen storage tanks can hold enough fuel for four days of power using a hydrogen fuel cell.

The foundation expects to have numerous chances to test the new $250,000 demonstration project as ice storms generally knock power offline in the area several times each winter.

"We are in an early adoption phase, so projects like this are still first of their kind," said Brendan Kober, project assistant at the Chewonki Foundation. "This is a demonstration project and is designed for educational purposes as much as it is to be functional. It helps with getting people comfortable with the technology."

Technological advances still are needed for much of the renewable energy industry, but many applications make sense even with current technology, Kober said.

"There are technologies out there, both on the hydrogen production end and on the use end, in terms of fuel cells, but they are still quite expensive at this point," he said. "You couldn't put a fuel cell in every home in Oklahoma City, but it certainly makes a lot of sense to have a small region producing some of its power from fuel cells."

One of the biggest limitations with the technology is that the processing of hydrogen and running a fuel cell are relatively inefficient. With current technology, for every 1,000 watts of power put into the electrolizer, about 250 to 300 watts of electricity are available from the fuel cell.

"On this scale, it doesn't make sense to use as primary power," Kober said. "But it's great for backup during an ice storm, and it's an option if Oklahoma can't use all the power generated at a wind farm."

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