A new wind turbine installed on Alabama Power’s Corporate Headquarters in Birmingham is helping the company better understand rooftop wind energy potential.

The 4-kilowatt turbine includes an inverter to put the energy it creates back into the building. Alabama Power and Southern Company’s Research and Technology Management team will test this relatively uncommon wind energy application in partnership with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

Alabama Power and Southern Company also partner with EPRI to research distributed solar potential through solar panels installed on power poles and company facilities across the state.
Data from both projects could be made available to universities interested in case-studies and research.

Alabama Power’s first turbine installed in 2010 was a collaboration with the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Engineering to test prototype blade technology. Three years later, the new turbine is capable of generating more energy and withstanding higher winds than its predecessor, which was destroyed by high winds during April 2011 storms.

In December, Alabama Power began receiving energy from the 202-megawatt Chisholm View Wind Project in Oklahoma and will begin receiving energy from the 202-megawatt Buffalo Dunes Wind Project in Kansas early next year. Alabama Power also has energy purchase agreements for more than 22 megawatts at two biomass facilities in Alabama after more than a decade of switchgrass and biomass research.

Turbine quick facts:

• Make-model: Zephyr-Airdolphin
• 5.9-foot rotor diameter
• 5.5-mph cut-in speed
• 700-watt rated power at 25-mph wind
• 4-kilowatt maximum instantaneous power at 45-mph wind
• Turbine rated up to 145-mph winds