VTechWorks staff will be away for the winter holidays starting Tuesday, December 24, 2024, through Wednesday, January 1, 2025, and will not be replying to requests during this time. Thank you for your patience, and happy holidays!

Browsing by Author "Pattison, Chris"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Co-location of Wind and Solar Power Plants and Their Integration onto the US Power Grid
    Pattison, Chris (Virginia Tech, 2015-06)
    A number of research and development groups and several renewable project operators have examined combining wind power production with on-site solar power production. Past research has been devoted to small, off-grid applications only. In the absence of actually building a utility-scale project, short time scale (5 minutes) estimates of combined power production are difficult to simulate due to the lack of hub-height wind data combined with on-site solar insolation data available in similar time scales. This presentation will present hub-height, high-fidelity, wind data from the Texas Tech University's 200-meter meteorological tower combined with a co-located solar pyranometer to estimate short-term (5-minute) power production data. Recent reduced costs associated with solar-PV may make this option more attractive in the future. This analysis addresses fixed-plate, single- and dual-axis PV arrays. This presentation also includes an plant-level and grid-level economic analysis of a wind-only, solar-only, and combined wind-solar power plant. Over the past few years, renewable energy has entered the electrical grid at an exponential rate. To reduce the uncertainties for the grid operator and wind power plants owner/operators, "firm" production has a direct impact on the power purchase agreements (PPA's). Since wind power is traditionally best at night and solar power is only during the day, by combining their synergies, uncertainty is reduced and higher PPA's are possible. This analysis will present economic estimates of the ability of plant operators to secure higher purchase prices for power by raising the "firm" production level and reducing risk.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Integrating Real-World Case Studies into Wind Energy Graduate Education
    Swift, Andrew H. P., Jr.; Pattison, Chris (Virginia Tech, 2015-06)
    Wind power continues to grow rapidly as a fuel source for the electric power industry in the US. Recent data for 2014 show that wind power in Texas alone delivered in excess of 10 percent of the annual electrical energy consumed in the state. With this growth has emerged the need for a professionally educated national workforce to support the industry and sustain future growth. With the original support of the Texas Workforce Commission in 2008, both undergraduate and graduate wind energy education programs have been established at Texas Tech University. A series of multidisciplinary courses have been developed by the six full-time faculty to support the degree and certificate programs. Total wind energy student course enrollments over approximately 20 wind energy courses offered each semester are averaging 400 to 500. The offerings are both face to face (in-class) and by distance delivery. Starting in Fall 2014 TTU partnered with DNV GL to offer real-world case studies as part of the graduate course offerings. Four case studies were offered in each of two graduate classes - Advanced Technical Wind Energy I and Advanced Managerial Wind Energy I. The case studies covered technical, environmental, and site management topics for a single turbine project, a multi-turbine power plant, an offshore installation, and wind turbine technology innovations. The case studies were delivered remotely allowing students to benefit from real-life examples and the interaction with members of the wind industry. This presentation will discuss an outline of the cases, best practices for integrating industry participation to maximize student benefit, and effective delivery methods - what worked well and what can be improved.