Farmer Tech: Springtime Is Here : Channeling The Wind

By Kate Gammon , published on April 20, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Picture 17 of 18
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Unused agricultural land has become prime property for farms of wind turbines, but so far it has been difficult to store up that wind power for use during peak demand times in the future. But all this is changing at the Iowa Stored Energy Park, where a number of local utilities are building a system that will steer surplus electricity generated by a nearby wind farm to a big air compressor, which will be held deep below the ground for future use. The U.S. Department of Energy is backing the project, but more than a hundred municipal utilities in surrounding states are shelling out $200 million to construct the 268-megawatt system. As it stands, Iowa's compressed air energy storage installation will be the first of its kind when it's completed in 2011, but there's already work being done in Texas to build a similar unit.
Sponsored links
Comments
sublifer 04/20/2009 10:39 PM
Hide
-1+

Nifty stuff. Its nice to see how modern tech is making its way into the different fields such as agriculture. (no pun intended)

Anonymous 04/21/2009 10:06 PM
Hide
-0+

14 : watermill is just a de-humidifier.. nothing special been around for YEARS... got one in my basement i use every spring to help dry up after rain & flood season. Can create probably a gallon of water...

hustler539 04/21/2009 11:02 PM
Hide
-0+

LOL at the donkey wagon....The Plant sensor, however, seems like a good idea for beginner gardeners.

average joe 04/21/2009 11:13 PM
Hide
-0+

I didn't understand the Donkey Wagon at all. Why can't you just use the solar panels to charge the cell phone. It's a wagon with a solar panel. Is it lighter than other wagons or anything? It looks like it has nice tires.

ProDigit80 04/22/2009 5:08 PM
Hide
-0+

openair: Better use a white bedsheet!

ProDigit80 04/22/2009 5:18 PM
Hide
-0+

Electricity storage: What if the tank explodes? About 30MWatts of compressed air can cause devastating destruction!

hellwig 04/30/2009 10:38 PM
Hide
-0+

ProDigit80 :
Electricity storage: What if the tank explodes? About 30MWatts of compressed air can cause devastating destruction!


They aren't using a tank, they're using an underground aqueduct (or some other natural structure). Since it will be a few hundred (or thousand) feet below the surface, they'd have to build up some extreme pressure to do more than blow a vent hole (maybe Iowa will soon have its own Old Faithful?). I also don't think its going to be a high-pressure system, probably only a few PSI at best.

hellwig 04/30/2009 10:39 PM
Hide
-0+

Anonymous :
14 : watermill is just a de-humidifier.. nothing special been around for YEARS... got one in my basement i use every spring to help dry up after rain & flood season. Can create probably a gallon of water...


Agreed. I was raised in the SW desert, so when I visited the east coast the concept of de-humidifying something was completely foerign to me, but yeah, they've been around forever.

Anonymous 05/18/2009 1:01 PM
Hide
-0+

I am currently working on making a virtuel hortibot simulator, using MS Robotic Developer Studio :) Check it out if you like

www.youtube.com/CornIsKing

Comments are closed on this page.
Sponsored links