Wind Energy in the Mountains of New Hampshire as a Potential Energy Source for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

摘要

A feasibility study was conducted to determine whether the wind energy in the mountainous regions of New Hampshire could be used as a possible energy course for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The results indicate that there is adequate wind energy available at mountain sites to drive even the largest wind turbine generators (WT's) now planned, and that many potential sites exist in relatively close proximity to utility lines. Eight specific sites were identified on the basis of available wind speed data, the incidence of severe icing, environmental constraints, plus on-site interpretation of vegetative deformation by the wind (tree flagging). Based on the experiences of this study there appears to be a limited number of available WT sites which have sufficient geographic extent to support large clusters (i.e., farms) of WT's of approximately 20-100 MW rating. Technically, the local utility can 'wheel' power to the Naval Shipyard from mountain sites, but doing so would not be cost-effective for the Shipyard because of an abundance of on-site, low-cost cogenerated electricity. A simple near-term approach to wind power development in New Hampshire appears to be through the private exploitation of WT clusters of less than 5 MW capacity on private land.