Apr 28 2008
Mass Megawatts Wind Power Inc., has announced today the sale of a wind power plant to be used by the United States Army. The 50 kilowatt wind power project will be constructed at U.S. Army Intelligence Headquarters located in Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Construction will begin this spring as part of the Army's ongoing efforts to expand into renewable energy.
Future energy needs at the army base could be met with the installation of additional wind power plants that are capable of generating over ten megawatt/hours of electricity per year. There are over 50 army base installations in the United States alone.
The wind power plant also known as the Multiaxis Turbosystem (MAT) at Fort Huachuca will be constructed with the newly developed, adjustable augmenter that was recently announced by the company. The new augmenter technology reduces in a major way the cost for heavy and expensive components needed by an augmenter to increase the harnessed wind velocity by up to 70%, translating into an increase of over five times the power output.
The recently announced new augmenter reduces the electric generation cost below traditional wind turbine technologies, and is directly competitive with fossil fuel power plants such as coal and natural gas.
The MAT structure provides several key advantages over traditional turbine designs. This includes a reduction in capital, operational, and maintenance costs, along with, the ability to operate profitably in lower wind speed locations. In the United States alone, suitable wind power locations currently exist to potentially supply 20 percent of the nation's electricity.
The U.S. Army and Fort Huachuca is highly aggressive in their efforts to pursue the use of renewable energy and American energy independence. Both issues are vital to national and world security.
The project is being coordinated by Ameresco Select, Incorporated, a leader of green energy, located in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Ameresco Incorporated, a multi billion dollar Framingham, Massachusetts based energy facilitator for the U.S. Army with a contract at Fort Huachuca. Ameresco is a world leader of energy management helping the expansion of green power in this new expanding era of clean energy.
In the past five years, the wind industry achieved a growth rate of more than 25 percent for each year. In 2007, more than $9 billion of new wind power plants worldwide were constructed.