Huxley Hill Wind Farm Explained

Huxley Hill Wind Farm
Location Map Caption:Location of Huxley Hill Wind Farm in Tasmania
Coordinates:-39.9413°N 143.874°W
Country:Australia
Location:King Island, Tasmania
Status:O
Commissioned:1998
Owner:Hydro Tasmania
Ps Units Operational:3 X 250 kW
2 X 850 
Ps Units Manu Model:Nordex N26
Vestas
Wind Farm Type:onshore
Ps Electrical Capacity:2.5 MW

Huxley Hill Wind Farm (also known as the King Island Wind Farm) is a wind power station at King Island, Tasmania, Australia, of around 1600 residents, owned by Hydro Tasmania, which supplements the four diesel generators with a combined capacity of 6 MW at Currie Power Station. King Island also has a 100 kW solar capacity provided with monocrystaline solar panels on dual-axis arrays.

The wind farm started generating in 1998, initially with three 250 kW Nordex N26 wind turbines at a cost of $2.5 M ($3,300/kW),[1] then in 2003 with two 850 kW Vestas Turbines, to provide a total wind generating capacity of 2.5 MW of electricity. Wind generation provides around 35% of the annual generation.[2]

As a declared Community Service Obligation, the Tasmanian Government provides around $7 million per annum in funding support for the electricity supply equivalent to around $2,500 per resident per annum.[3]

Flow battery storage

During the 2003 expansion a vanadium redox flow battery was installed at a cost of $4M (or $20,000 per kW),[4] containing 55,000 litres of vanadium based electrolyte—one of the first such installations on a wind farm. This allowed up to 800 kWh of surplus electricity to be stored. The battery has an output power of 200 kW, making up around 3% of total capacity, and could be used to smooth the substantial variability in wind output over minutes to hours. When used in conjunction with a variable resistive load, a higher wind penetration is possible, permitting the substantial second to second variability to be controlled with the resistor, reducing the need to spill excess wind through throttling of the turbines. A short-term peak output of 400 kW can be supplied. As a result, there has been a substantial reduction in the use of diesel fuel, however the full diesel capacity must be maintained, including the need to maintain spinning reserve for system security.[5] However, the system proved to be not robust enough and failed after a relatively short life. It has been replaced with a 1.6 MWh "advanced lead acid technology" battery.[6]

See also

Notes and References

  1. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/1b8c61ae322dcbebca256c320024166b!OpenDocument ABS - Feature Article - King Island wind farm
  2. http://www.hydro.com.au/system/files/documents/PS_Factsheets/Currie_Power_Station-Fact-Sheets.pdf Hydro Tasmania - Currie Power Station
  3. http://www.hydro.com.au/energy/bass-strait-islands Hydro Tasmania - Powering the Bass Strait islands
  4. Web site: There is rapidly increasing understanding of the need to reduce use of fossil fuels . ssis.arts.unsw.edu.au . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20071023060304/http://ssis.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/REcant.html . 2007-10-23.
  5. Web site: King Island - Towards a sustainable energy future – presentation . 23 June 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120326014329/http://esvc000085.wic012u.server-web.com/tas/King%20Island%20%20-%20Towards%20a%20sustainable%20energy%20future%20-%20Ryan%20Willems%20-%20Hydro%20Tasmania.pdf . 26 March 2012 . dead .
  6. http://www.kingislandrenewableenergy.com.au/project-information/energy-storage-system King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project