Page 347 - Fluid Power Engineering

Planning and Execution of W ind Projects 307

related to: (a) Pricing of energy, (b) sharing of renewable energy credits
and other potential incentives, (c) capacity and delivery of energy, (d)
incentives, penalties, and exceptions related to planned versus actual
date of commissioning, and (e) allocation of risk related to intercon-
nection, siting, and permitting. This activity should be started as soon
as detailed wind assessment is complete.
Land Lease Agreement
Long-term land lease agreement is a legal contract between the project
and the landowners. Often, land leases are signed not just for the prop-
erty that contains the wind farm, but also for adjacent lands that are
in the prevailing direction of wind. This protects the wind farm from
other wind development that may infringe upon the wind resource.

Community Involvement
This ongoing activity must be performed from the outset by the project
developer to build support for the project in the local community. An
effective public outreach program must provide a venue to listen and
address the concerns of neighbors. The most dominant concerns are
likely to be environmental, viewshed, noise level, and property value.

Project Engineering and Procurement
Project engineering of a wind energy project includes a variety of
tasks, some that are performed by the developer and others that are
the domain of a contractor.

Turbine Selection
Evaluation of turbines for the project at hand should start soon after
1 year of met-tower data. Most turbine manufacturers will not pro-
vide a quote until they have examined 1 year of onsite wind data. For
projects on a tighter schedule, turbine selection may be commenced
with 6 months of wind data and MCP analysis, at which point the tur-
bine class can be determined with some certainty. A contract with the
turbine manufacturer is usually not signed until the financing entity
is chosen and the financing entity has approved the pricing, the terms,
and conditions for delivery, supervision, warranty, and others. In ad-
dition, a significant down payment, in the range of 30%, is required
at the time of contract signing with the turbine manufacturer.
Turbine selection allows subsequent engineering to begin. Inputs
required for engineering are: Turbine-rated capacity, blade size, tower
size, generator type, weight and dimensions of components, power
curve, noise data, and variety of other inputs.

Project Layout and Civil Engineering of Infrastructure
Project layout is a task that begins with sizing of a wind project and
layout of turbines using software like WindPRO or WindFarmer. This
is a first-pass layout of turbines that meets all the known constraints: