Building and operating a 5 MW windfarm

In April 1986, following 2500 hours of grid connected operation of a 25 kW prototype wind turbine near Ilfracombe in Devon, Wind Energy Group Ltd. contracted to supply twenty 25 metre, 250 kW rated derivatives of this prototype to a windfarm in Altamont Pass, California. A new corporation, US WEG Inc., was established which was effectively contracted to build a turn-key windfarm. In parallel, therefore, to the manufacture and test of the turbines in the UK, the sites and foundations were prepared in California together with access roads, control systems and connection to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company grid. The author describes the MS-2 wind turbines used, the site work at Altamont Pass, and discusses the windfarm performance between April and November 1986