Wind explored as energy source
By Harold Lee
Nov. 17, 2003 9:00 p.m.
UCLA researchers are looking to wind power to meet the
increasing need for alternate and renewable energy sources.
An $80,000 California Energy Commission grant to research
wind-generated electricity has been awarded to electrical
engineering professor A.V. Balakrishnan and graduate student in
electrical engineering Ken Mok.
New interest in wind-generated power stems in part from Sept.
11, 2001, as foreign students must pursue research that is not
related to homeland security, Balakrishnan said.
“After 9/11, students who are not citizens have a very
rough time because they don’t have access (to research
facilities),” he said, adding that foreign students are not
restricted from pursuing wind-power research.
Research in wind-generated electricity is unusual for the
university, as engineering research is based heavily on
telecommunications, Balakrishnan said.
“There is nothing farther from telecommunications than
(our research),” he said.
Current wind turbines require strong winds to generate
electricity. However, Balakrishnan and Mok hope to harness energy
from slower winds.
In order to do this, turbines must have longer rotor blades,
which is problematic because longer blades may bend or twist,
Balakrishnan said.
“If (a turbine) vibrates, it cuts into the efficiency and
life (of a turbine),” he said.
To counteract such an effect, Balakrishnan and Mok hope to use
piezoelectric strips embedded in rotor blades, which would bend
rotor blades in resistance to heavy winds.
Piezoelectric strips are ceramic strips that change shape when a
small amount of electricity is applied to them. They were first
proposed to be used in airplanes to control vibration in wings, Mok
said.
Though wind has been used throughout history to achieve a
variety of goals, modern wind turbines were first introduced in the
early 1970s and failed after a few years, Mok said.
“In the early ’70s, the cost of energy was too high
because materials were not good enough,” Balakrishnan
said.
Though wind turbines have become much more sophisticated since
then, the price of wind-generated electricity is still higher than
typical prices, Balakrishnan said.
“The bottom line is, we want to produce energy as cheaply
as possible,” Mok said.
The use of piezoelectric strips may add as much as five years to
a turbine’s life, he said.
“The only cost (during operation) is maintenance and the
energy is free,” Mok said. “Even one extra year of
operation means extra profits.”
Piezoelectric strips are extra components that cost more, and
the feasibility of adding extra components is being studied, he
said.
“Ten years from now, you can expect (materials) to be
cheaper,” Mok said.
Within the past five years, there has been a renewed interest in
wind-generated energy, especially in the Midwest and Texas, said
Christine Real de Azua, spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy
Association, the trade organization for the United States wind
energy industry.
“Investments (in the wind energy industry) petered off in
the 1990s and not much happened until the end of the 90s,”
Real de Azua said.
“The potential is vast,” she said, noting a study
conducted by researchers at Stanford University that found more
potential for wind-generated energy in regions throughout the
United States than previously thought.
Balakrishnan and Mok are also applying for a $200,000 grant from
the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy
Laboratory to help further their research.
