The $7.4-million Ross Island Wind Farm in Antarctica began feeding electricity at full power. The new wind farm can generate up to one megawatt of electricity and will cut diesel use at New Zealand’s Scott Base and the U.S.’ McMurdo Station by 120,000 gallons and reduce carbon dioxide output by 1,370 tons annually, according to New Zealand’s state-owned Meridian Energy, the project’s developers.
The wind farm’s three 333-kW Enercon E33 turbines will provide roughly 11 percent of the power for the two bases, smoothed by a 500kW PowerStore flywheel system which helps reduce the impact of fluctuating power on the area’s small electric grid.
Meridian began the project back in November of 2008 but didn’t finally wrap-up the construction phase of the wind farm until late December 2009.
While the new Ross Island Wind Farm is the largest in Antarctica, it is not the first. A 600-kW, two-turbine wind installment has been providing electricity for Australia’s Mawson Station since 2003.
– from cleantechnica.com