Current Projects
Electric Transmission
Spinning Star Energy is currently working on electric transmission projects to support the renewable energy portfolio for Texas. We are actively engaged with land owners in support of our projects. Please follow up with your local field land acquisition agent if you have received a packet sighting an electric transmission line on your property.
Smart Wind Ranch™
Project Overview
Spinning Star is developing a 615 MW Spinning Star Energy Smart Wind Ranch™ in West Texas (the "Project" or "Smart Wind Ranch™"). The Project will consist of 300 wind turbines, rated at 2.05 MW, and three new transmission line segments totaling 355 miles to interconnect the Project to the Texas, Eastern and Western Interconnects. The Smart Wind Ranch™ will be the world's most advanced wind energy technology project, as well as the second largest wind energy project in the U.S. The Project will integrate innovative higher productivity wind turbine technology, a state-of-the-art electrical design capability and an energy storage system to flow renewable electricity to the highest priced grid / market on a real-time basis. On August 5, 2010, SPG, US-REG and A-Power entered into a landmark agreement with the United Steelworkers Union. Under this agreement, SPG and A-Power will source at least 50,000 tons of steel from unionized U.S. steel facilities for the Smart Wind Ranch™. In addition, A-Power and SPG will work with the USW to develop and implement an immediate and long-term strategy to develop U.S. manufacturing facilities and strong domestic supply chains for the highly advanced A-Power wind turbines. The USW will help ensure that the Smart Wind Ranch™ will benefit from timely and competitively priced U.S. steel products.
Key Benefits of the Project
•Innovative Wind Turbine Technology
The Project will employ an innovative wind turbine technology called the W93. The W93 turbine has a rated capacity of 2.05 MW and offers a more responsive power curve, a higher gross capacity factor and innovative drive train design that is expected to be more durable than existing commercial wind turbine technologies, thus significantly improving reliability and reducing the cost of the wind energy. The technology also incorporates advanced systems to control blade pitch and safety cut-outs.
•Smart Grid Dispatch
The concept of the Smart Wind Ranch™ refers to the capability of the Project to be dynamically switched to flow power to the highest priced grid / power market on a real-time basis. Typically, the power output from a wind generating facility is delivered into a single transmission system. The Smart Wind Ranch™, however, integrates real-time market price data feeds, state-of-the-art SCADA technology and standard electric transmission equipment in an innovative manner to access all three US Interconnections.
•Smart Energy Storage System
To further advance the efficiency and smart delivery of clean energy, the Project will deploy innovative GE Durathon energy storage technology wholly manufactured in the United States. Spinning Star expects to be one of the first and the largest customer for this tested but yet to be commercialized battery technology and will be the first U.S. wind energy project to incorporate this system on a large scale for which it was designed. This storage capability will provide (i) improved grid reliability by providing valuable energy balancing, (ii) house power to the Project during periods of low wind resource availability, (iii) distribution variations in time-of-day power prices, (iv) transmission congestion relief, (v) transmission and distribution upgrade deferrals, (vi) time-of-use energy cost management, (vii) demand charge management, and (vii) improved electric service reliability and electric service power quality. The Project seeks to deploy 60 MWh of battery storage in ten 6 MWh increments, with the initial increment to be funded as part of this loan guarantee application. A phased deployment is planned to take advantage of field test optimizations and expected reduced battery prices as GE ramps up production at its New York manufacturing facility, which is scheduled to start production in the third quarter of 2011.
•Maximized Renewable Energy Pricing
The combination of the smart grid dispatch and the smart energy storage system will enable the Smart Wind Ranch to garner the highest possible pricing for its wind energy generation, and will provide significant benefits to the overall energy supply chain. Initial analysis indicates that smart grid dispatch alone will enhance project revenue by about 30% relative to a fixed, dedicated dispatch of similar quantities of energy to ERCOT, SPP and WECC. The enhanced revenue potential leverages the stimulus impact of the Treasury cash grant and the DOE loan guarantee.
•Benefits to the Entire US Energy Supply Chain
The Smart Wind Ranch™, with the integration of GE Durathon energy storage, will produce a firm energy commodity that will be delivered to all three U.S. energy grids at the optimal time. Smart energy distribution to the three interconnects allows energy to be dispatched to the grid with the most need on a real-time basis, and this smart dispatch provides extensive economic and efficiency benefits for both the Smart Wind Ranch™ as well as other nearby energy producers because of the project's ability to connect to two other girds if one grid is experiencing congestion. Though the investment necessary to implement the Smart Wind Ranch is carried solely by the Project, extensive benefits run throughout the entire United States energy supply chain all the way to the final consumer including system regulation, balancing , renewable ramping mitigation, voltage support, transmission congestions relief, transmission and distribution upgrade deferral, time-of-use energy cost management, demand charge management, electric service reliability and electric service power quality.
•Significant Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions
The Project is estimated to avert 820,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, assuming displacement of natural gas generation in the Texas region.
•Domestic Job Creation
The Spinning Star Smart Wind Ranch™ has brought together wind energy technology experts from around the globe to support a major investment that will bring enormous immediate and long-term benefits to the U.S. economy with U.S. job creation.
