Public Works: Jan 2012: Wind Turbine production below plan

(Ednote: Minutes: Public Works: January 2012) Wind turbine: Committee received an updated summary of the energy production of the turbine. Our average wind speed from September 2010 and December 2011 (11 mph) is 2.1 mph less than the energy site assessment (12.1 mph) so we are a bit short of our contracted kw hours to WPPI. 2011 was approximately $1,100. Basically we are simply not getting the volume of wind we have in the past. Braunschweig asked how the numbers related between assessed wind and actual wind in communities like Fort Atkinson and Wausau. Wausau is behind more than us and there is no information from Fort Atkinson. Bottom line is that weather is cyclical and we should recoup that lost wind. Additionally the levels of work that are coming from the wind turbine are reaching our warranty levels. As far as the overall contract goes this is just one factor and we still have many good factors in our overall favor such as ownership of the green energy credits and the fact that the price we get for each kw hour is, at this time, more than double what we pay. Additionally Sauer looked into ways to get this energy production information out to the public. One option is that Northern Power Systems provides an online kiosk called the ‘public view’ (or page) that would show energy production to public for $4500 for a 5 year license. Another option would be to simply take the spreadsheets of energy production provided by the city engineer and put it on the city’s website. That option would only cost the city the nominal work hours it would take an employee to do that. There were 2 other options that wouldn’t have as nice a site as Northern’s, just the raw data, but would cost the city $3500 to $4500 with potential overhead costs. Benefit to those would be potential one-time cost and ownership of site with the Sulzer consulting proposal.