Wind Systems Engineering MIE 573

Problem set #1
Ershad Ahmed ( Mech Grad Student )

To find any solution, it is imperative that we understand the problem in the

first place. The ongoing battle between renewable sources of energy and non-
renewable sources of energy has been treated in many articles and journals
throughout the scientific and environmental communities. One such example of
renewable versus non-renewable source of energy – wind turbines versus coal
mining - will be focused upon in this paper. To take a stand between the two of
them, many aspects have to be considered, weighed and measured before one of
the two is found wanting.

The issue at hand is whether the Mountain Top Removal coal mining that
has started on the Coal River mountain in West Virginia should be stopped and
replaced by a wind farm so that the mountain and the surrounding topography is
not affected by the mining. Let us weigh the pros and cons of each situation.
Starting with the older electric energy supplier of the two - Coal is a black or
brownish-black sedimentary rock that is readily combustible. It is primary
composition is carbon along with varying quantities of other hydrocarbons and
elements, namely sulfur, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. It is an abundant, non-
renewable fossil fuel that has long been the cheapest and readily available source
of energy throughout many parts of the world. It is the most abundant source of
energy in the United States.

There has been a lot of debate and discussion over the years about the
prolonged use of coal as it one of the largest electricity generator worldwide and
also the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions, the primary cause of many
environmental imbalance issues. Coal also affects many lives in an adverse way
causing many health issues to anybody working in the coal producing mines or
directly in contact with it. At the time it was discovered, coal was so abundant that
it could be accessed with little to no damage to the environment, but as its
usefulness became apparent and our dependence on it grew, the lengths to which
our society was willing to go to obtain this precious ore became extreme.

There are various methods of coal mining. The first type of mining that was
developed was underground mining. Although this type of mining is the least
injurious to the environment, it is also the most dangerous and detrimental to
miners. The other type of mining is called surface mining. This mining can be done
in many ways, but the most injurious environmentally are Mountain Top Removal
(MTR) and Strip Mining. Mountain Top Removal is pretty much the same thing as
it sounds - removing the mountain tops with the help of explosives and eroding up
to 500 to 800 feet (240 m) of mountaintop in the process. Strip mining uses
contours to avoid erosion and water pollution, making it a little less harmful to the
surrounding areas, however the landscape of the mined land is severely altered.

Coal, as a source of energy, is by far the cheapest method of electric power

generation and thus it is also the most widely used. In today’s environment, coal
mines are very strictly regulated by the government and environmental agencies
and hence setting up new coal mines is tough. Taking all these factors into
consideration, Massey Energy have got the go-ahead from the required agencies
for coal mining. Let us bear in mind the fact that these agencies are top-notch and
if they have granted permission for the mining we can be assured that they have
weighed the pros and cons of the situation, have examined it in different vantage
points and reached their conclusion.

The economic impacts of the coal mining processes by various companies

are very vast. Industry advocates brag that the United States of America, where 27
percent of all known coal reserves is found to be present, is "the Saudi Arabia of
coal," with enough coal that can be burnt as fuel for the next 170-180 years at the
current rate of use. Coal mining industries are a high revenue source which help
the economy of the country, and as mentioned previously, the need for coal is
absolute. West Virginia has 4% of all coal reserves, and stopping coal mining in a
land filled with coal makes bad economics. The taxes alone from the coal industry
allow for 60% of the business tax in the state. Taking coal beyond the state, nearly
50% of the nations electrical power is generated using coal. The infrastructure of
many production companies is designed for coal and it is very difficult, expensive
and impractical to shift to new technologies in a short span of time.
 Fig. 1 Graphical representation of electricity generation in USA

Shifting toward the economics of coal as a fuel, we can clearly establish coal
as the leading power supplier in the nation and the world. Considering a coal-fired
power plant -

(1)Coal power project cost: $ 2500/kW(High end number) - $1500/kW(Low end

number)
(2)Typical life of a coal-fired plant - 50 years
(3)Thermal energy of coal - Approximately 6150 kilowatt-hours(kWh)/ton

(4)Average availability of coal-fired power plant: 88%

(5)Average cost of coal supplied to existing coal plants - $2.09 per million BTU.

(6)Price at 34.3% efficiency for a typical coal plant - 2.08 cents per kilowatt hour
for coal.
(7)Operation and maintenance - Approximately 0.75 cents/kWh.
(8)Total fuel and operating costs for a typical coal plant - 2.83 cents/kWh.

(9)Total electricity production during plant life: 385,000 kWh/kW installed

(10)Value of electricity produced: $16,188/kW installed

(11)Lifetime Cost of fuel = 385,000 x $0.006 = $2310/kW installed

(12)Net Value of total electricity produced during plant life: $363,650 million.
 Let us now wean away from the coal industry, its economics and its benefits
and take a look at the darker side of the picture.

1. The burning of fossil fuels like coal is the single largest contributing factor to
global warming. Global warming is the term used to describe the overall rise in
the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere due to the emission of greenhouse
gases by the burning of fossil fuels. Global warming on its own can cause the
following -

Melting of the polar ice caps and glaciers.

Increase in sea levels which will submerge many small and low lying
island nations and coastal states across the world.
Drastic peaks and shifts in the climate and natural disasters unseen for
millennia.
Extinction of many species

2. Surface mining of coal eliminates all the existing vegetation on the land,
destroys the nutrient rich top soil profile, destroys wildlife and their habitual
environment, degrades the quality of the air in the area and sometimes
permanently damages streams, rivers and other water bodies in the area.

3. The top of the mountain is literally removed and pushed aside to expose the
coal seams, so not just the mountain is destroyed, but the surrounding land,
which can stretch for miles, is completely altered (Caudill, 1962).

With all these issues plaguing the coal mining industry, it may seem that we
have to put an end to this practice. But what replaces coal? What type of energy
can be employed instead of coal that will not hamper the environment, endanger
human lives, lead to cataclysmic events that will change the world as we know it?
The answer supplied by critics of the mining industry, the environmentalists, the
scientific and engineering worlds is to harness renewable energy which is available
abundantly like solar energy, geothermal energy, wind energy and tidal energy.

This form of energy, also known as non-conventional or alternative energy is

the direction in which research has been progressing constantly from the past few
decades. In the current situation on Coal River mountain, it has been proposed by
at least two different studies that a wind farm can replace the coal mining. David
Orr, an environmental politics professor at Oberlin college wanted to find an
economically viable alternative to to MTR coal mining in West Virginia. After
commissioning a wind consulting firm, Windlogics, to find a potential mountain,
they decided upon Coal River mountain.

The Windlogics study showed that almost all ridges around Coal River
mountain showed excellent wind speeds. So it was concluded the every ridge along
the mountain could be used to develop wind power in the area. Employing a
computer mapping software, a model wind farm was constructed. The model
showed two hundred and twenty, two Megawatt wind turbines for a total
generating capacity of 440MW of clean, renewable energy derived from wind
power. Another updated model proposed the placement of a more practical 164-
turbine, 328MW wind farm along the mountain. A wind farm this size on Coal
River mountain would power approximately 1% of West Virginia with total and
clean electricity generation per year.

The benefits of the Wind farm include -

1. Enough energy generation to power over 70,000 homes (or about 1% of total
West VA’s electricity demand)
2. Up to 277 local job opportunities during the construction of the wind farm will
be created, and an estimated 48 total permanent jobs for local residents related
to the operation and maintenance of the turbines.
3. It will contribute about $1,740,000 annually in property taxes for Raleigh
County and nearly $900,000 annually in business taxes to the State of West
Virginia.
4. Potentially stimulate and promote the creation of a strong wind industry in
southern West Virginia and slowly move towards the future, clean energy and
away from coal dependence.
5. It will help reduce West Virginia’s Carbon Footprint, which is a significant
amount and prevent further environmental damage.

Installing wind farms or trying to completely stop the mining in a state that
relies on mining from more than a century as its main source of income is not
practical. Looking for newer technologies, finding more avenues and embracing
non-renewable sources of technology is an absolute necessity, but a wind farm
cannot be installed just to prevent the mining. Let us take a look at the economic
aspects surrounding the wind farm installation and whether or not it can be a
sustainable source of income for the people living around Coal River mountain and
also if it is a better option economically than coal mining.
Wind turbine project installed cost: $2,000/kW
Typical mechanical life of a wind turbine: 20-30 years
Hours per year: 8,760
Average availability of wind power: 24%
Market value of 1 kWh of electricity at production site: $0.07
Value of total electricity produced during wind turbine life:
20 x 8,760 x 0.24 x $0.07 = $2,943/kW installed or
30 x 8,760 x 0.24 x $0.07 = $4414/kW installed

Thus, it can be concluded that the wind turbine electric power generation is
more expensive than coal energy even over the long run but it cannot be said that it
is the better option over the wind farm. The wind farm might work out to be
cheaper in the long run as some experts and critics claim that the coal on Coal
River mountain will run out in the next 17 years.

Although Mountain Top Removal mining leaves visible and permanent

scars on the environment and the world’s topography, it must be noted that
jumping to the conclusion that the coal mining industry is doing more harm then
good in Appalachia (and elsewhere) is detrimental to the state, its people and
overall to the economy. Mining provides economic benefits that the state and
nation simply cannot do without. The detrimental facts of wind farms also have to
be taken into consideration as the roads have to be widened by cutting trees to
transport all the material and blades, installing the wind farm itself is an arduous
task which is more than 40% of the cost. The wind farm might injure or kill
hundreds of birds and bats upsetting the ecological cycle in the area.

The Appalachian region alone consists of 13 states where there are

approximately 22 million people. 16,916 of those people work in the surface
mining industry, 5,228 alone jobs being in West Virginia. This number depicts only
the surface coal mines, but there are several more thousand that are employed in
underground mines also. Arch Coal, a leading coal mining company, states that for
every one mining job, at least ten indirect jobs are created. It is important that these
numbers must be taken into consideration when debating the current methods of
mining and replacement with other sources of energy. The wind farm, as
mentioned above provides employment only to a fraction of the people still
working in the coal mines. If coal mining safety is improved and environmental
factors taken into consideration, it can still give out a very high percentage of clean
energy for many years to come by which time an alternative source of energy
which can rival coal energy might be a reality.

Appalachia not being a strong economy, cannot afford to lose around sixteen
thousand jobs and gain only a very small percentage of the jobs back. Hampering
mining operations constantly with new and stricter regulations, making it harder
for land leasing and other mining issues is not the right approach. The states must
understand that the companies that are there to make profit will be driven to other
places where the regulations are less controlled. Regulations and control is a must
for enforcement of laws, but finding a reasonable balance is very essential. This
can be done only by taking into consultation the companies and the environmental
and other agencies so that common ground in mutual benefit and environmental
degradation control can be achieved.

Another economic benefit is the creation of new industries from the flat land
provided by the coal mining. Appalachia is a mountainous region, and it is hard
for new industries to set up shop as it is tough to find enough flat land to build their
factories or other business or storage related buildings. By removing the mountain
tops, the mining companies are providing this flat land for new industries to lease
and develop at no expense of the new companies. This symbiotic relationship will
create new jobs, and will in turn help boost the state's and nation's economy in new
ways. It is not possible to put back what nature created, but it is important to make
the most out of what can be done. The economic benefits provided by MTR coal
mining can only be summed up in one line: a necessary evil. Though it alters the
landscape, affects the environment, and affects the people in and around the area in
an adverse manner its impact on local, state and national economies is
unquestionable.

Thus, concluding the comparison, although not in the best interests, the
safest step that the people in and around Coal River mountain can take is to
continue with the coal mining. They can adopt an approach to the problem such
that their stance changes to safe and environmentally responsible mining rather
than to completely overthrow the mining itself and replacing it with a power
generation that may not be in their best interests in the short term as well as in the
long run.
REFERENCES

1. Jack Peckham "Clean Coal Power Resources IGCC/GTL project in early stages,
seeking key answers". Diesel Fuel News. FindArticles.com.
2. http://www.nytimes.com
3. http://en.wikipedia.org
4. J o u r n e y U p C o a l R i v e r b y A u r o r a L i g h t s
5. AMERICAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION®
6. New Record: World’s Largest Wind Turbine (7+ Megawatts) by JUSTIN on
FEBRUARY 3, 2008 in NEWS,RENEWABLE POWER
7. What Is the Life of a Wind Turbine? By Paul Cartmell