How many windmills in livermore ca

The agency has purchased 20 years of power from the Summit Winds project, which it has dubbed the Scott Haggerty Wind Energy Center after the former Alameda County supervisor. All of the old turbines were removed from the Summit Winds site between and , according to county records, and many other turbines had been replaced with newer ones over the last decade. In last 40 years, the wind turbine technology and solar power technology have gone through several generations of improvements and cost reduction to make them cost effective, reliable and practical.

However, one serious obstacle is the weather. The electric power generated from a wind turbine farm may not be reliable because there is no wind in certain time period. Similarly, the electric power generated from a solar farm may not be reliable because it may be at night with no sun or it may be a raining day or a snowing day with no sun.

Fortunately, cost effective solution for this issue is available now as described below. New forms of lower cost electricity storage are making the electric power grid more renewable, more reliable, cleaner and at lower cost. Two strong driving forces for this downward cost trend come from the transitions in the automotive industry away from dirty internal combustion engine vehicles into clean electric vehicles and in electric power markets away from dirty fossil fuels into clean and renewable energy sources, such as wind power and solar power.

With lower cost storage batteries, electric utility companies across the U. Electricity has always been the toughest commodity to manage, because unlike water, grain, fuel or steel, historically electric power has been largely very difficult and expensive to store for later use.

But that is changing fast, and even though the dramatic growth of batteries on the grid will be invisible to most Americans, it has the potential to transform how we produce and consume power, creating more flexible and resilient electricity systems with less waste, lower costs and fewer pollution emissions. Thanks to the dizzying cost declines, utilities are now building new wind and solar farms accompanied by new battery storage for less than they would pay to build new fossil-fuel electricity generation plants—and in some cases less than they would pay to run existing fossil-fuel plants.

Southwest Power Pool in USA now routinely handles 50 percent and even 60 percent of electric power generation from wind while keeping the lights on without interruption. Sample references for such rapid trend of cost reduction in energy storage batteries can be seen here and here. For longer term future, in addition to the rapid reduction in the cost of lithium-ion battery, other new energy storage technologies may become mature and available that may further lower the cost of energy storage.

Your email address will not be published. Monopole turbines at Altamont Pass, The Town of Altamont Before Altamont Pass was realized as a prime location for wind turbines, a few homesteaders in the late s tried to set down roots on the windy hillsides.

Altamont Pass, Migratory Route Turned Wind Farm It turns out Altamont Pass is a major migratory route and offers prime hunting grounds for golden eagles, American kestrels, and red-tailed hawks. Newer monopole turbines tower above the old lattice base turbines from the s. Pictured in Altamont Pass with green hills in Melissa Lowitz.

Published June 23, Updated August 18, Maria Gallucci. Published February 25, BioResource Consultants. Published August Overview of Wind Energy in California. Reaping the Wind. Peter Asmus. Island Press; Andrew Curry. NextEra has hired Smallwood as a consultant, and he is helping place the turbines to minimize bird deaths. Discussions with other wind developers in the area are ongoing.

The older turbines were built with a lattice structure that created many perching areas for raptors to hunt from, putting them in proximity to the blades. The sleek new turbines are majestic giants towering over the aging relics they are replacing. On a recent morning, a construction crew used a foot-tall crane to lift a ,pound unit that contains the gear box and generator to the top of the tower.

Each of the three blades on a turbine is feet long, nearly the width of a football field. In high winds, the tips of the blades spin at mph. Besides replacing turbines, NextEra will remove 6. The project also is creating union construction jobs: About people have been hired.

Wind energy advocates say the collaboration between NextEra and environmental groups to reduce bird mortality marks an important milestone. Contact Dana Hull at