Environmental Energy
Research Collaboration

The Golden Wind Project

In July 2005, TDC with Energy Nevada is proposing the Golden Wind Project with Apollo Gold mining company in Nevada to put up windmills to offset a small part of their power requirements. The windmills proposed are conventional horizontal axis mills with inline transmission and generator, and will offset some of the power used by the mine. The TDC blade furling technology is unlikely to be used at this project, as it is still experimental and the mills proposed for this project are strictly commercial 1 MW mills.

This 2 Megawatt wind project may be expanded to provide firm power for export for the benefit of the mine, with the mine's pumps and other water handling equipment being adjusted in real time to firm up the exported power. When the output did not exceed mine needs, it would be used for electrical demand reduction.

Energy Nevada is a company that is involved with a full spectrum of energy efficiency, micro-hydro, and municipals renewable programs in Nevada. Davis Hydro has been working with Energy Nevada on The Carson City Micro-hydro project recovering energy lost in municipal water delivery.

The Apollo Gold Mine is located at a high wind site in Nevada and the power from the windmill can be used at the mine. Pictures are available of the site here. The site was chosen because there is moderately good wind data in the area with long term records. The site is well documented with several years wind data on-site, nearby DOT data, and two close airports. Currently, TDC is collecting wind data from a 20 meter tower near the top of Jasper Hill.