WMOD00522

• Title: Projected Impacts of a Very Large Windpower Complex
• Date: 9/26/1978
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

The characteristics important for further analysis of the complex are the peak
power output of the array of windfarms, its a,verage output, and fluctuations
in output from season to season and from year to year. Figure 3 shows an
estimate of the annual march of
average energy harvest expressed
cumulatively beginning at the season
of minimum wind-energy storage. In
combination with an estimate of the
annual march of cumulative energy
deman.d, it will permit an estimate to
be made of the energy storage capacity
that might be required to take full
advan.tage of windpower in an average
year and match it to the demand
curve,

Lake Ontario, with an area of
19,500 km:2, and Lake Eri4~, only 30 km
away and almost 100 m higher, together
comprise possible lower and upper res-
ervoirs unique in North America and
perhaps in the world in their potential
for pumped-hydroelectric energy storage.
Pumping down Lake Ontario by 1 m and
transferring the water to Lake Erie would result in storage of L6xl016 J of
energy recoverable by reversing the flow through the pump-generators, and
wouldraise Lake Erie by 0.75 m, This calculation assumes that the plant would
be at least as efficient as the present largest pumped-storage hydroelectric
plant in the United States, that at Ludington, Michigan, which has a head of
110 m and an energy recovery efficiency of 0,72.

1.0

a
o
...
~ 0.8
:0
g
U
U
..: 0.6

...
..
a
c
: 0.4
o
..
o
r:
~ 0.2
..
...

o

I
9 10 11 12

12

4

8

5

6

2

3

Calendar Month (first day)

Fig. 3. Estimated cumulative annual wind
energy harvest from windfarms

f
,.

3. Characteristics of Pumped
Storage in the Projected Complex

,
t
t
I
,
t
f

. 1'..~
"
!

The maximum acceptable change in lake level established the upper
limit of energy. This is an environmental impact and is considered in
the following section. For specifying the system to be analysed in this
presentation, a permissible lake level change of 0.5 m and maximum energy
storage of 8 x 1015 'J have been assumed,

The assumptions about generation of electric power are shown in
Table 1. It is visualized that the primary service area would be the
Boston-Washington and Chicago-Pittsburgh megalopolises and the adjacent
areas. The estimated average load 1.5 x lOll watts and peak load 'of
2.5 x lOll . watts were arrived at by extendi~g to 2030 the load projected
by the Energy Information Administration 9 for the year 2000. The conven-
tional capacity is assumed to be what remains from that serving the same
market area in the year 2000, allowing for decomissioning of worn-out plants.
The capacity credit of 15 percent inferred for windfarms is less than the
19 to 26 percent projected in an ERDA study 10 and, considering the wide
geographical dispersal of the projected ~vindfarms, appears conservativ,e.