Why wind turbines thrive in Antarctica and in colder places than Texas

At the United States’ main research station in Antarctica, annual temperatures are on average zero degrees Fahrenheit, but they generally fall much lower. There, near the United States’ McMurdo Station, some wind turbines can provide enough electricity to power 100 American homes and prevent the burning of more than 120,000 gallons of diesel oil a year.

This is not surprising. Wind turbines, expertly designed from the wings of an airplane, provide reliable and increasingly cheap energy that does not emit deadly air pollution and greenhouse gases that heat the planet. These elevated turbines were far from responsible for Texas’ disastrous energy collapse after a well-anticipated Arctic air wave in the region (it was largely a failure of gas plants and infrastructure along with a vulnerable and ill-equipped network) . Yet, totally irresponsible reports mistakenly blamed a “MASSIVE GREEN POWER FAILURE”, specifically over 13,000 Texas wind turbines, for the historic collapse.

The reality about wind turbines, however, is that they operate regularly in cold conditions and can be adapted to the weather to work in winter extremes. That’s why they work in places like Sweden, Antarctica and Iowa (more than 40 percent Iowa’s electricity comes from the wind). Sometimes, some turbines (particularly those that are not as bad as many in Texas) are temporarily closed during excessively cold conditions, in which other sources of energy, whether nuclear, solar, gas or hydroelectric, are meant to compensate.

And, like solar, nuclear and hydroelectric power, wind power is an important contributor to a larger energy system – a system that is gradually becoming more efficient, more reliable and cleaner. Of course, some turbines today are not resistant to the weather and the wind does not always blow, but this is well known. This is OK.

“This is normal. We think of solar and wind energy as part of our overall electricity supply,” said Grant Goodrich, executive director of the Great Lakes Energy Institute at Case Western Reserve University, which operates and researches wind turbines.

Working in the cold

Wind energy will continue to expand in the United States. That’s because in US money talks, and wind turbine prices have plummeted. Furthermore, wind energy does not come with the cost and risk of transporting fossil fuels through hundreds of kilometers of pipelines and the realistic potential for massive leaks and terrible explosions.

“The economy is there,” emphasized Gavin Dillingham, director of energy at the Houston Advanced Research Center, an energy research organization in Texas. Solar and wind are often cheaper than natural gas, added Dillingham, who is also the director of the US Department of Energy’s Southcentral and Upper West Combined Heat and Energy Technical Assistance Partnership, which works to improve efficiency. energy and resilience in the region.

By taking the extremes of the climate into account, engineering is there, and improving too. To operate in cold places like Canada, heating can be applied to some essential components of the turbines, such as the engine and the gears.

“Cold-weather wind turbines are not rocket science,” explained Vijay Modi, professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. However, air conditioning the turbines adds costs, perhaps less than 10 percent of the price of a new turbine, he said. And during freezing events, some wind energy is then diverted to heat the turbines.

“The turbine’s electricity output slightly decreases when the heating elements that prevent freezing are activated,” said Modi. “But this is a very small reduction in the production of the turbine, considering that, otherwise, you run the risk of not having any production.”

Image: Getty Images / Timothy Fadek / Corbis

A current area of ​​turbine innovation today, however, is not just how to deal with the cold, but what to do with the ice (which is caused by wet and cold weather). “Temperature is really not an important factor in operating the turbine,” said Goodrich. “The problem is the formation of ice on the blades.” The accumulation of ice on the blades can make them too heavy to rotate productively or safely.

The development of ice-resistant coatings for large turbine blades is an important and ongoing area of ​​research, explained Hui Hu, director of the Iowa State University Aircraft Physics Freeze and Defrost Technology. The coatings (made with chemicals designed to repel water droplets) are ideal because they do not require energy to heat the blades, Hu said. However, heating the blades can also be a viable option. In Sweden, the energy company Skellefteå Kraft started to heat a layer of carbon fiber on the blades and circulate hot air inside the blades.

See too: Why winter, yes winter, fires are burning in California

Wind turbines, of course, are not the only energy infrastructure that must be weathered for the potential for extreme temperatures. After winter extremes led to major disruptions in Texas and New Mexico in 2011, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recommended preparing the Texas electrical infrastructure – including gas plants, gas pipelines, wind turbines and transmission lines – for the winter, as by insulating tubes. This did not happened. As a result, cold weather (which Texas knew it was coming) has just collapsed large areas of the grid. Misery and death followed.

“The entire infrastructure was made up because the state did not take adequate measures to weather its infrastructure,” said Dillingham, of the Houston Advanced Research Center, noting that the shutdown of gas plants was the biggest factor in the failure of the Texas network.

In the next decade and beyond, wind energy will be enhanced by the capacity to store excess energy in the batteries. This will provide more reliable renewable energy when, for example, some turbines may be less productive. “We need to build [wind farms] with storage in mind, “said Goodrich. Battery storage costs plummeted by almost 70% between 2015 and 2018, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

As wind energy is expected to multiply across the country, Modi emphasizes that it is advisable to consider weathering more wind turbines. The wind is free, and our ability to skillfully harness the energy of drafts still impresses even mechanical engineers.

“The modern 21st century wind turbine is an ingenious technology,” said Modi.