Since April, farmers in North Kohala, Hawaii, have been benefitting from an innovative off-grid irrigation system powered by a wind turbine. The system is capable of pumping more than 30 million gallons of water annually; and is being used to irrigate 400 acres of land and support 14 participating farms and agricultural businesses.
Like many others in remote, island locations, the North Kohala farmers had been searching for an alternative to the dirty, expensive diesel fuel that had traditionally used to generate electricity. The new microgrid—known as SkyGrid Energy and developed by Maui-based Gen-X Energy— is part of a growing trend of turning to affordable, clean, renewable wind energy as the solution.
The project was partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through the Hawaii Renewable Energy Development Venture.
View from the top of the turbine (photo courtesy of Generation-X Energy).
The Power Platform
The turbine chosen for the project—an NPS 100 from Zurich-based Northern Power Systems—has been specifically designed to support microgrids, with sophisticated voltage controls and no inrush current (maximum, instantaneous input current drawn by an electrical device when it is turned on), thereby relieving stress to the system. In addition to the NPS 100 wind turbine, the system also includes a battery bank and solar panels.
SkyGrid Energy is a PLC (programmable logic control)-based microgrid that can seamlessly integrate distributed energy. The components are housed in a 20-foot sea container, which serves as a mobile, scalable onsite power delivery system for applications such as water pumps, desalinization plants, refrigeration units or other types of electrical loads.
“Besides providing innovation for a better world and helping increase our independence from fossil fuels, the new microgrid is also helping provide a reliable and cost-effective solution for Hawaii’s agriculture industry,” commented Fred Brown, co-founder of Gen-X Energy. “This Northern Power turbine is critical to this microgrid’s success.”
Gen-X Energy plans to replicate and deploy this microgrid solution throughout Hawaii and other island communities. At the Distributed Wind Expo 2013 in Rochester, N.Y., on June 11, Alan Axworthy, director of Application Engineering, will present a case study of the SkyGrid Energy microgrid.
Edited by Alisen Downey