Author Topic: Mason County MI wind farm (Read 6823 times)

fabricator · « **on:** July 25, 2012, 07:19:02 PM »

I recently toured the new wind farm Consumers Energy is installing in Mason County MI, this is between Ludington and Pentwater, the Consumers pump storage facility is right there also.
When I say tour, it was self guided, most of these machines are on huge tracts large orchard farms and you can take the service roads right to the base of the turbine, no keep out signs, no fences, nothing.
The day we were up there it was a no work day because the wind was blowing too hard.
http://www.lakewindsenergypark.com/Content2.aspx?id=248

fabricator · « **Reply #1 on:** July 25, 2012, 07:22:38 PM »

Mastiffman · « **Reply #2 on:** July 25, 2012, 07:33:25 PM »

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!

Those are HUGE!!!!! ncie to see some in Michigan that big!

A few Days ago there was a Semi pulled off of the road going South on I-275 and it caused a backup of traffic becasue of people Gawking at as they past! It was all over the news stations... Thanks for Sharing!

fabricator · « **Reply #3 on:** July 25, 2012, 07:55:41 PM »

The blades come by boat from Europe to Burns Harbor on the south end of lake Michigan near to Gary Indiana, then they are trucked up US 31 to M45 and then to US131 up to the wind farm, they have to choose the routes so the trailers can make the turns.
The story I heard was the nacelles are being built here somewhere in the Pacific Northwest and shipped by rail to Ludington then trucked to the sites.

fabricator · « **Reply #4 on:** July 25, 2012, 08:04:22 PM »

The foundations were poured last year, they are putting up one or two per day depending on ho far the cranes have to travel.

JW · « **Reply #5 on:** July 25, 2012, 08:09:02 PM »

Ludington, isnt that where theres a large hydro electric plant. My Dad worked there as an operating engineer (drove an earthmover) when that was built, when I was born in 197- . There must be a strategic GRID location there for these huge turbines. I went to Ferris State in Big Rapids MI in 1990-92. Both my parents are from Grand Rapids.

JW

fabricator · « **Reply #6 on:** July 25, 2012, 08:17:19 PM »

Yep, that is the pump storage facility, at night they pump a huge man made reservoir full when electricity is cheap then they run it down through about six turbines during the day when the demand is high.
I probably saw you dads machine, they had a viewing area where you could watch when they were building the reservoir, we went up there and watched numerous times.

fabricator · « **Reply #7 on:** July 25, 2012, 08:20:17 PM »

And yeah there is a huge grid node at the pump storage facility, I was born in GR 52 years ago, I live 25 miles from there now.

fabricator · « **Reply #8 on:** July 25, 2012, 08:32:53 PM »

In the fourth picture down to the left of the hub you can see the berm of the reservoir, it's about four miles away from that spot, the berm is about 100' tall, on the inside it's deeper than the outside ground level but I'm not sure how much, i know it holds a LOT of water.

birdhouse · « **Reply #9 on:** July 25, 2012, 10:08:22 PM »

fab-

i just saw the same yard last week! i was on vaca with the fam. we stayed in pentwater.

i believe those are vestas 1.8Mw V-100's.

they have a 330' dia and turn at a whopping 14.5 rpms!

i have some pics too, i'll try and get them up!

adam

Mary B · « **Reply #10 on:** July 26, 2012, 12:42:06 AM »

Towers are made here in the midwest if I remember right. They used to build blades for Suzlon down in Pipestone MN but I guess that plant closed.

ChrisOlson · « **Reply #11 on:** July 26, 2012, 01:09:34 AM »

Typically, Vestas blades for North American turbines are built at their plant in Windsor, Colorado. Vestas towers for North American turbines are built at their plant in Pueblo, Colorado.

Vestas towers in Europe are now built by Titan Wind Energy (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. Vestas sold the tower facility in Varde, Denmark to Titan Wind in January 2012.

Vestas has hit on hard times with poor performance in the offshore market and huge cost overruns on developing the V112 and Gridstreamer turbines. They have been over-capacity in Scandinavia and have closed four plants in Denmark and one in Sweden since 2010. Their northern European headquarters are still in MalmÃ¶, Sweden right across the Ã–resund bridge from Denmark. We toured the place when we were there this past Christmas season.
--
Chris

keithturtle · « **Reply #12 on:** July 26, 2012, 01:40:20 AM »

Sandy Butterfield and Boulder WindPower think they have the solution to some of the problems plaguing Vestas with their off-shore applications.

http://www.boulderwindpower.com/

A Piggot AFD on steroids. One thing often overlooked is that nasty supersonic howl of tip velocity; bad news inland where folks can hear it, but out there in the water? It's no issue if the distances are great enough.

Direct drive saves mucho Kg and structural weight everywhere.

Background article pg 18 here

http://www.solartoday-digital.org/solartoday/20120708#pg18

Is this something new under the sun? Hugh has got to be laughing

Turtle

midwoud1 · « **Reply #13 on:** July 26, 2012, 06:56:13 AM »

The new trend on highpower windturbines is without gearboxes .
Because of extra weight and maintenance .
Now coming up directdrive Darwind ( China production low cost huh)
This is an offshore machine 6 Mw . They are testing it here.
Land turbine without gearbox : Enercon 1 to 7,5 Mw , I see them more and more popular.
They have disc generators like we have ,only a bit bigger.

- Frans -

ChrisOlson · « **Reply #14 on:** July 26, 2012, 08:15:34 AM »

Actually, Vestas problems have nothing whatsoever to do with geared vs direct drive turbines. They remain the largest manufacturer of wind turbines on earth.

Their problem in the offshore market stems from huge cost overruns on R&D, and banking on the offshore market. The slumping world economy has halted a lot of projects, leaving them with only 7.4 GW in orders this year. If the PTC doesn't stay in the US, they will close the plants in Colorado and 1,600 more jobs will be gone.

It's all about money. And people and companies and countries don't have it to spend on wind turbines.

http://www.windpowermonthly.com/news/1116707/Vestas-turmoil---stories/
--
Chris

fabricator · « **Reply #15 on:** July 26, 2012, 09:06:02 AM »

Quote from: birdhouse on July 25, 2012, 10:08:22 PM

fab-

i just saw the same yard last week! i was on vaca with the fam. we stayed in pentwater.

i believe those are vestas 1.8Mw V-100's.

they have a 330' dia and turn at a whopping 14.5 rpms!

i have some pics too, i'll try and get them up!

adam

That staging yard is actually being leased from an outfit that mines potash, they drill a hole and pump water down like 6500 feet, then they pump it out through another hole and extract that potash, brine/salt water is a byproduct so they also produce a LOT of salt, they also use some of the byproduct to use as dust control on gravel roads.
DOW owned the facility for like 50 years, they sold it recently I think Cargill or ADM owns it now.

Perry1 · « **Reply #16 on:** July 26, 2012, 10:10:27 AM »

Hey Fab,
I didn't realize you were in MI. We build our turbines in Saginaw. Kind of a nice feeling finding an old shuttered plant and reopening it and creating some jobs. Our first two prototypes are installed up near Cadillac. They are 2.3 MW turbines, direct drive permanent magnet. No gearbox. If your ever over that way give me an email.

Perry

fabricator · « **Reply #17 on:** July 26, 2012, 07:06:17 PM »

Quote from: Perry1 on July 26, 2012, 10:10:27 AM

Hey Fab,
I didn't realize you were in MI. We build our turbines in Saginaw. Kind of a nice feeling finding an old shuttered plant and reopening it and creating some jobs. Our first two prototypes are installed up near Cadillac. They are 2.3 MW turbines, direct drive permanent magnet. No gearbox. If your ever over that way give me an email.

Perry

Holy $#it! You built those things? I've been past those several times, my dad has a house he inherited on marble street about half a block from lake Mitchel.

Bruce S · « **Reply #18 on:** July 27, 2012, 10:43:47 AM »

Fab;
Is that a Darrieus little mill I see on top?

fabricator · « **Reply #19 on:** July 27, 2012, 10:52:39 AM »

I don't know, you'd have to ask Perry about that he builds em.

Perry1 · « **Reply #20 on:** July 28, 2012, 03:58:03 AM »

Quote from: Bruce S on July 27, 2012, 10:43:47 AM

Fab;
Is that a Darrieus little mill I see on top?

If you are talking about the picture I posted no it is not. It's the met mast and lightning rods.

Perry

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Author Topic: Mason County MI wind farm (Read 6823 times)