Wind turbine results unimpressive
To the editor:
My thoughts about President Zillman’s recent report on the wind turbine at UMPI.
(1) Name: President Zillman’s windmill is the Zillmill.
(2) Utility. If the 600Kw turbine ran at full rating 24 hours/day for a full year, the output would be 5,256 Kwh. President Zillman reports actual output of 680,000 Kwh. That’s 12.9 percent on-line performance. Commercial generation utilities run at 90 percent. Put it another way: I like to have toast for breakfast. If I depended solely on the Zillmill for electric power, I’d eat a lot of cold cereal.
(3) Accounting. President Zillman gets an incomplete here. He reports savings of about $100,000 in power bills. There is nothing about the costs of the Zillmill.
Two items come to mind. First is the capital investment in the wind turbine, tower, connections, etc. — perhaps a 20-year straight amortization would be appropriate. Second is the personnel and material costs of operating the facility.
(4) Opinion. Wind power can make some reduction in CO2 emission, but never be more than a small component of the full-time reliable electrical power system I have known all my life.
Presque Isle
