U of M 'Flips the Switch' on Wind Turbine During Commissioning Ceremony (Video & Photos)

The blades of the Umore Park wind turbine took just a few moments on Tuesday to turn into a blur of motion. The process stood in sharp contrast to the two-year task of developing and building the energy producing project.

“We have been working with the university on various elements for the past three to four years,” Mayor Bill Droste said, “…but to see a wind turbine out here, especially when you look at the importance of sustainable wind energy, it’s just very exciting.”

The University of Minnesota held a special commissioning ceremony at the wind turbine’s grounds at UMore Park Tuesday from 2:30 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. The public was invited to attend the event and walk the grounds on a self-guided tour. At approximately 3 p.m. the switch was flipped ‘on’ remotely from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where it will be closely monitored.

According to Jeffrey Marr, associate director of Engineering and Facilities at the University of Minnesota, it cost $5.5 million for the entire construction of the turbine, including the cost of instrumentation and the cost of the turbine itself. Another $2.5 million was spent to fund research projects; in total it cost $8 million, which the university received in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

“It cost more than a typical turbine because it includes a very advanced research laboratory,” Marr said.

He added that another $3 million would continue funneling in from the university and its industry partners. Some of the companies involved with the wind turbine are 3M, Clipper Windpower, United Technologies Corp., Lockheed Martin, WindLogics and Eaton Corp.

“Those relationships are very important [for the future of the turbine],” Marr said. “The research is really going to help at a national level … it goes beyond the state.”

So far, Minnesota is the fourth state in the country for installing wind; Texas, California and Iowa are the top three.

Stats on UMore Park’s Wind Turbine

The 2.5-megawatt wind turbine stands about 415 feet tall from the ground to the very tip of the blade. It includes three blades that are placed on the tower as one unit. According to Marr, each blade is about 150 feet or the size of a 747, and made of fiberglass and balsa wood.

“The blades weigh about 200,000 pounds for all three blades; it’s very light for its size,” Fotis Sotiropoulos, project director and director of the university’s St. Anthony Fall Laboratory-College of Science, said.

The blades will spin at a minimum of 9 mph and increase to as much as 56 mph, at which point it will automatically stop running. 

The wind turbine’s life expectancy is about 20 years, “which is why you don’t have them running in extreme [weather] conditions,” Sotiropoulos said.

A meteorological tower stands at 426 feet tall south of the turbine to measure weather conditions and wind speed.

Unique qualities of this Wind Turbine

“There are 300 sensors in the turbine measuring [various items] all the time,” Marr said.

The information is constantly running from the turbine to the headquarters at UMore Park; Clipper Windpower in Cedar Rapids, Iowa constantly monitors the wind turbine.

“One distinguishing feature that makes our site unique is that we have extreme hot and extreme cold conditions,” Marr said.

“[In addition], we are a Class 3 Wind site … winds we have are not super high and they’re not super low,” Sotiropoulos said.

Sotiropoulos added that the wind turbine was designed with special fluids in it that could adapt to the various weather conditions.

Also, the turbine will be connected to the local grid (through Excel Energy) and will supply electricity to local residents. Marr said they figured when it's at its peak for energy-use, it should be able to provide power to about 600 homes.

"[However], it is not a reliable sense of power for Excel ... and there are no plans [to add] any more turbines at UMore Park in the future,” Sotiropoulos said.

Brief Timeline of the Wind Turbine

Sotiropoulos began working on a proposal for a wind energy grant from the DOE in the summer of 2009. The grant was accepted in the fall of 2009 and the U was one of three university consortia to be awarded the grant. Not long after in the beginning of 2010, plans and designs began. Ryan Companies began field site construction in June 2011 and actually started constructing the wind turbine at the end of August 2011 through September 2011.

Marr said, “The turbine will be used at this location for up to 15 years.”

He added that the commissioning process/regular maintenance would involve continuous efforts from Clipper Windpower, Excel Energy and the U.

The project is expected to help further the national goal to increase wind power by 20 percent by 2030, according to Sotiropoulos.

What it Will Measure/Significance of the Turbine

Research will continue at labs and on super computers at the University of Minnesota. According to the university, there are key components to the wind energy research. The testing will include, “Capturing more energy from the wind, improving wind farm design, minimizing the turbine’s impact on the radar, reducing noise, preventing ice build-up on the blades, monitoring the turbine’s performance and improving the turbine blade structure.”