"It's not going to save everything, but its going to be a piece of the puzzle," says Santee Cooper Vice President of Conservation and Renewable Energy Mark Tye.
From solar to landfill methane gas, santee cooper has explored many types of alternative energy. Most recently, they've focused on wind power.
"But nobody has actually collected to verify whether the wind is there or not," say Tye
That's exactly what Santee Cooper along with Coastal Carolina University, NC state, and the South Carolina Energy Office are trying to determine from buoy data. Data, scientists hoped to initially analyze in March, but because of rough seas, buoys weren't placed offshore until mid July. Since then, scientists have analyzed wind speed and current information from six buoys: three offshore of Myrtle Beach and three near Georgetown.
The research from the buoys will determine if the average wind speed near the coast is about 8 mph. that's what the speed would need to be for the turbine to kick on. If the wind speed reaches thirty mph that when the turbine would reach it's full potential."
"We've got to have enough wind to where those turbines are producing their rated output about forty percent of time," says Mark Tye.
After getting about 6 months worth of data, researchers will determine what is the best location to put an anemometer tower to measure wind speed.
"And then we'll leave it out there for at least twelve months for that one location to determine whether or not wind truly exists," says Tye.
If it does exist, the next step is to determine whether a wind farm is cost effective.The total cost of this project isn't cheap, it is estimated to cost somewhere between three hundred and fifty to five hundred million dollars.
"Ultimately it will be whatever we think is in the best interest of the customers. Because you're right, they're the one's who are going to be paying for it," says Tye.
Scientists are still in the early stages of the project. Mark Tye estimates it would be at least three to five years before construction of the potential wind farm.
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