Off-Grid Commercial Scale Wind Storage Platform
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PROBLEM Farm irrigation and pumping systems in Hawaii run on fossil fuels with high and increasing costs.
PROJECT Gen-X Energy Development will work with a Big Island agricultural operation to build an off-grid water pumping system powered by a 100-kW wind turbine, battery and systems controls that will regulate a variable speed drive and 100 HP multistage, axial flow well pump.
AWARD $1,720,000 (HREDV 50%, private 50%)
LOCATION Hawi, Hawaii Island
PARTNERS
- Altairnano, Inc.
- Northern Power Systems, Inc.
- Site Constructors, Inc.
- Sustainable Power Systems, LLC
SUMMARY
Gen-X Energy Development will work with a Big Island agricultural operation to build an off-grid water pumping system powered by a 100-kW wind turbine, battery and systems controls that will regulate a variable speed drive and 100 HP multistage, axial flow well pump.
Agricultural operations in Hawaii require a complex series of irrigation systems; booster and well pumps consume substantial amounts of fossil fuel-based electrical energy. In many cases, pumping installations are powered at great cost by diesel generators, or require the construction of expensive transmission and distribution lines that often take years to permit and build. Even at sites that are accessible to grid infrastructure, installation of grid-connected renewable energy systems can be problematic, as many sites in Hawaii are subject to limits on grid capacity. Ample wind and solar power resources exist in many of these locations, but presently there is no off‐grid system available to allow wind turbines and/or solar arrays to power commercial-scale irrigation pumps. This project will provide a solution to this difficult challenge of using a variable but sustainable energy resource to reliably and cost-effectively support agricultural operations in remote areas.
Viable and robust cost-effective commercial‐scale wind and solar generation technologies exist, but these technologies must be coupled with systems controls and energy storage to provide a reliable and stable power source that can operate irrigation systems, booster and well pumps, for the agricultural community.
In this project, Maui-based, Gen-X Energy Development will integrate commercially proven robust technologies to deliver a reliable, efficient off-grid commercial-scale wind storage platform. The platform will be built by Site Constructors and will integrate solar panels with a 100-kW Northern Power Systems wind turbine to power a variable speed drive and 100-HP irrigation pump. Sustainable Power Systems will design the systems controls and electrical switchgear that will integrate an advanced inverter and a durable, compact, rapid charge lithium titanate-based limited energy storage system from battery supplier Altairnano, Inc with the 100-kW wind turbine generator to power a variable speed drive and the 100-HP multi-stage, axial flow well pump. This platform is expected to have a 20-year plus design life.
The platform can be configured to add or substitute other remote and variable energy resources, providing the ability to couple it to other types of opportunity loads such as desalination, refrigeration or even longer-term energy storage such as pumped hydro.
The integration of the off-grid platform coupled with a wind turbine, solar array, and irrigation pump will enable full-scale operation and important data gathering on the effectiveness and efficiency of this unique renewable energy technology. The project will be demonstrated at a remote agricultural setting in Hawi, Hawaii on land owned by an affiliate of Site Constructors, Inc.