Cutting wind costs by another 75%

The LCOE (=cost per MW of output) for wind has fallen from $135/MWh to $50/MWh (~65%) since 2009.  It rose last year and the year before because of supply chain issues, but seems to have fallen again, though I won't have definitive data until Lazard re-does their estimates next year.

But what if we could cut costs again, by another 65%?

Conventional wind turbines are of two kinds:  those with vertical axes (Vertical Axis Wind Turbines, or VAWT) and horizontal axis wind turbines (obviously, HAWT)  The giant turbines of wind farms are HAWT, lots of small wind turbines are VAWT.  

The biggest reason for the steady fall in the LCOE of wind has been because turbines have got steadily bigger and bigger.  But we are surely approaching the size limits of HAWTs.

Windloom, a US wind energy start-up, has found a completely new way to create electricity from the wind.  And it claims that far from costing $50/MWh, its wind "turbines" (only they're not actually turbines) produce electricity at an LCOE of just $13/MWh, or 1.3 cents per kWh.   Compare this with the average US residential tariff of 23 cents/kWh.

How does their system work?   

There is an oval "track", supported by poles about 30 metres high, from which vanes (which they call "wings") are suspended, and as they move around this track, electricity is generated.  The entire device can fit on the back of a trailer.

Remember that this is a new technology, and there will be many wrinkles to iron out.   For example, will it only work in one wind direction?  At how low and how high a wind speed can it continue to operate?  What is the wear and tear on the elevated track and the "wings"?  Has maintenance been included in the estimated LCOE?

If it works, it will make wind once again (by far) the cheapest source of electricity.   What's more, this cheapness won't depend on size---even a quite small (2.5 MW) installation will be this cheap.  And because the Airlooms are small, they should be able to be distributed widely around the grid.  Each small town could have a few, allowing for microgrids, not just in developed countries but also in poor ones which don't have a national grid.   The size demonstrated is too large for a single house, but could work for factories, schools, hospitals, etc.   My town (population 27,000) would require 10 of these, ignoring existing roof-top solar, with a capital cost of under $10 million, or just $370 per inhabitant.   That is my electricity bill for one quarter! And unlike giant wind turbines, the Airlooms will be much less visible.

Renewables are already cheaper than fossil fuels in most places.   The Airloom wind "turbine" will make renewables irresistible, and will usher in an age of incredibly cheap energy.  Let's hope it's a goer!

The smartest renewable rooftop system

From Just Have a Think

 A rooftop combine wind and solar system with twice the efficiency of normal rooftop solar and 6 to 10 times the efficiency of small wind turbines.  Very interesting.

 

My comments:

• Because the solar panels are bifacial and all the equipment is painted white to reflect as much of the light back up to the underside of the panels, and because the cooling wind under the panels stops the panels heating up on sunny days, the efficiency of the solar is double the norm for rooftop solar.
• The "roof" of panels and the arrangement of wind turbines focusses the air flow, making these wind turbines exceptionally efficient.  Rooftop small wind turbines are not nearly as efficient as giant turbines, making home wind turbines uneconomic.
• The LCOE  over 25 years is 8 to 12 cents per kWh.  That's more expensive than the LCOEs of utility-scale wind and solar, but this system is competing with the retail cost of electricity, not the wholesale price.  The average retail price of electricity in Europe is over $0.25 cents per kWh (including taxes); in the US it was around 11 cents/kWh in 2021, before gas prices jumped in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and in Australia, the average retail price of electricity was (US) 19 cents/kWh.  
• The Eindhoven installation provides 85% of the building's energy requirements.  If the building were 2 or 3 stories shorter, it would be 100%.
• These distributed generation facilities should benefit the residents of the building, but ownership of the machinery belongs either to the landlord of the building or to the body corporate.  This complication will have to be resolved for this to work, given the retail/wholesale price difference.
• Wind and solar together go far towards producing a stable baseload electricity output.  Adding in 4 hours of storage would make it even better.  Charging the residents' EVs when there is surplus power available would make the building and its occupants more or less independent of the grid.
• A very clever system which would be worth installing on all buildings of 4 storeys or more with flat roofs.