More aerodynamically efficient wind turbines coming to Palm Springs area
Traveling between Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs you may have noticed 7 new strange looking wind turbines being built with a large cone around the blades. They sort of resemble an oscillating pedestal fans.
These wind turbines are the latest in wind power technology being built by the company Ogin Inc. The large metal cone around the blades is called a shroud.
“The shrouds are a unique revolutionary design and essentially what the shroud does is it allows the wind turbine to capture more wind energy, so on a similar turbine size basis, our turbine can produce more energy out of the same given wind that goes through the rotor sweep area,” said Charlie Karustis, a senior director with Ogin Inc.
At a public meeting in Desert Hot Springs members of the company explained what they are doing with the Smoke Tree Wind Repower Project and answering questions from curious residents.
“There is a lot of new different technology that is going to come out and change the wind industry, right now I don’t know how noisy [the turbines] are but I will find out today,” said Johan Steinlechner of Desert High Springs.
These new turbines are 150 feet tall and create 100 kilowatts of power. The turbines are designed to last 20 years. The company is applying for a permit from Riverside County to build 39 more of these turbines in the area after removing more than 100 older turbines from the site. Two large 3 megawatt turbines are also planned to be built on the 285 acre project.
“Taking down some of the old ones will be nice and putting up something new is good so we think it is going to be a plus to the visual from what we see out here in Desert Hot Springs,” said Scott Matas, mayor of Desert Hot Springs.
These new turbines are not designed to compete with the large 3 megawatt turbines, but instead be put in places where large turbines can’t be built, like close to airports. The shroud around the turbine also helps protect local wildlife especially birds.
“Certainly the shroud acts as a deterrent and since it’s a static structure the birds can see it and hopefully avoid it more often than not,” said Karustis.
Ogin Inc. also purchased a wind farm south of the 10 freeway closer to Palm Springs. There is nothing official in the works to put these shroud style of turbines there, but if the current wind farm is successful it’s likely you’ll see more or them in our desert in the coming years.
The electricity created from the turbines is being sold to Southern California Edison.
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