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From the press release: Amazon today announced “Amazon Wind Farm Texas,” a new 253-megawatt (MW) wind farm in Scurry County, Texas, that will gener

From the press release: Amazon today announced “Amazon Wind Farm Texas,” a new 253-megawatt (MW) wind farm in Scurry County, Texas, that will generate 1,000,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of wind energy annually Seems optimistic. Rule of thumb is that onshore wind generates 30% of its plate rating. That's 660GHw, not 1000, for a 253MW plant. Still a nice, impressive number, just seems over-cooked.

brianwawok 10y ago
It perhaps Texas better than average? 30% seems too round to really be across all areas of the country.
- regularfry 10y ago
  Yeah, that's not altogether unlikely. Kinda hoping someone more locally-versed will chime in.
  - throwaway7645 10y ago
    Not sure of the exact figures, but whether or not the wind farm is in a constrained area or not generally determines if they can generate full out or if they will be capped at a lower level to keep from overloading the transmission grid.
  - windchick 10y ago
    We are seeing capacity factors well over 45% in Panhandle now. ERCOT rated the various windy areas of the state back in 2006. Scurry Co. was 10th or 14th if I remember correctly. Not as high cap fac as Amarillo and other areas north of Lubbock. But CREZ Panhandle is already constrained due to the nature of putting lines in the middle of nowhere with no load and no inertia. Scurry Co is on the other side of the constraint, so good move on Amazon's part. Great location with respect to wind resource and transmission access and deliverability.
- greeneggs 10y ago
  For 2015 the average across the country was 32.5% for wind. [1] Texas appears to be several percentage points above the average, and newer plants often are better than old plants (if they have similar sites). Here is state data from 2011-2012 [2], with a handy map [3]. It looks like Scurry County might be in a good part of Texas. In principle, the data for 2015 is available here [4], although one would have to process it. [1] https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_6_07_b https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cf... [2] http://www.windaction.org/posts/37255-u-s-average-annual-capacity-factors-by-project-and-state http://www.windaction.org/posts/37255-u-s-average-annual-cap... [3] http://s3.amazonaws.com/windaction/attachments/1962/US-WINDmap(1).jpg http://s3.amazonaws.com/windaction/attachments/1962/US-WINDm... [4] http://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia923/ http://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia923/
spsgtn 10y ago
Some areas of TX have a capacity factor of 50% !
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  Underrated comment. Texas can't build transmission lines fast enough to export their wind power, and some utilities are giving power away for free at night because of it.
  - t3f 10y ago
    Living in Texas, while almost every provider has a free nights plan now most won't give you very aggressive daytime rates that make them worth it compared to other averaging plans (Unless you have on premis solar). Air-conditioning during the day still drives the bulk of residential consumption. I'm waiting on energy storage like zinc-bromide to mature and drop in price or something better to come along.
    - sargun 10y ago
      There is a datacenter in AZ that takes advantage of low cost night power. They have giant underground tanks full of a proprietary solution that they cool down at night, and then during the day the use it to keep the DC cool. My guess is it's just antifreeze and water, mineral oil, or something similarly boring. It turns out this is pretty cost effective.
      - TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
        It should be almost trivial for a refrigeration mechanic to build a home scale system like what you have described to take advantage of free / cheap night time electricity. It's just a heat pump with the cooling side heat exchanger immersed in glycol & water,storwge tank and a pump. Maybe some insulation. Add a heat a set of heat exchanges fir a secondary loop in to the house.
        10y ago
mikeyouse 10y ago
New (taller) turbines do significantly better than 30% capacity factors. The weighted average for 2014 vintage projects was above 40% with individual projects exceeding 50%. https://dqbasmyouzti2.cloudfront.net/content/images/articles/LBNL_Wind_4.png https://dqbasmyouzti2.cloudfront.net/content/images/articles... We've made a ton of progress in siting and engineering of wind turbines.

brianwawok 10y ago

It perhaps Texas better than average? 30% seems too round to really be across all areas of the country.

regularfry 10y ago
Yeah, that's not altogether unlikely. Kinda hoping someone more locally-versed will chime in.
- throwaway7645 10y ago
  Not sure of the exact figures, but whether or not the wind farm is in a constrained area or not generally determines if they can generate full out or if they will be capped at a lower level to keep from overloading the transmission grid.
- windchick 10y ago
  We are seeing capacity factors well over 45% in Panhandle now. ERCOT rated the various windy areas of the state back in 2006. Scurry Co. was 10th or 14th if I remember correctly. Not as high cap fac as Amarillo and other areas north of Lubbock. But CREZ Panhandle is already constrained due to the nature of putting lines in the middle of nowhere with no load and no inertia. Scurry Co is on the other side of the constraint, so good move on Amazon's part. Great location with respect to wind resource and transmission access and deliverability.
greeneggs 10y ago
For 2015 the average across the country was 32.5% for wind. [1] Texas appears to be several percentage points above the average, and newer plants often are better than old plants (if they have similar sites). Here is state data from 2011-2012 [2], with a handy map [3]. It looks like Scurry County might be in a good part of Texas. In principle, the data for 2015 is available here [4], although one would have to process it. [1] https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_6_07_b https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cf... [2] http://www.windaction.org/posts/37255-u-s-average-annual-capacity-factors-by-project-and-state http://www.windaction.org/posts/37255-u-s-average-annual-cap... [3] http://s3.amazonaws.com/windaction/attachments/1962/US-WINDmap(1).jpg http://s3.amazonaws.com/windaction/attachments/1962/US-WINDm... [4] http://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia923/ http://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia923/

spsgtn 10y ago

Some areas of TX have a capacity factor of 50% !

toomuchtodo 10y ago
Underrated comment. Texas can't build transmission lines fast enough to export their wind power, and some utilities are giving power away for free at night because of it.
- t3f 10y ago
  Living in Texas, while almost every provider has a free nights plan now most won't give you very aggressive daytime rates that make them worth it compared to other averaging plans (Unless you have on premis solar). Air-conditioning during the day still drives the bulk of residential consumption. I'm waiting on energy storage like zinc-bromide to mature and drop in price or something better to come along.
  - sargun 10y ago
    There is a datacenter in AZ that takes advantage of low cost night power. They have giant underground tanks full of a proprietary solution that they cool down at night, and then during the day the use it to keep the DC cool. My guess is it's just antifreeze and water, mineral oil, or something similarly boring. It turns out this is pretty cost effective.
    - TheSpiceIsLife 10y ago
      It should be almost trivial for a refrigeration mechanic to build a home scale system like what you have described to take advantage of free / cheap night time electricity. It's just a heat pump with the cooling side heat exchanger immersed in glycol & water,storwge tank and a pump. Maybe some insulation. Add a heat a set of heat exchanges fir a secondary loop in to the house.
      - 10y ago

mikeyouse 10y ago

New (taller) turbines do significantly better than 30% capacity factors. The weighted average for 2014 vintage projects was above 40% with individual projects exceeding 50%. https://dqbasmyouzti2.cloudfront.net/content/images/articles/LBNL_Wind_4.png https://dqbasmyouzti2.cloudfront.net/content/images/articles... We've made a ton of progress in siting and engineering of wind turbines.