Visual Impact Evaluation of Wind Farms: a Case Study of Choshi City, Japan

Visual impact is considered as one of the main impacts of wind farms, and a leading cause of public opposition. In Japan, attention has been paid to wind farms’ visual impact in high scenic value areas such as National Parks, but no attention paid to local levels. There is also lack of integrated visual impact evaluation method at both city and community levels. To solve these problems, this study focused on local areas and proposed a GIS-based integrated methodology for visual impact evaluation of wind farms at both city and community levels. At the city level, we carried out an evaluation by quantifying change of wind turbine visible area (Zone of Visual Influence) of wind farms using GIS Viewshed Analysis. At the community level, we evaluated the visual impact of wind farms using the Spanish Method, combined with a questionnaire survey. Although wind energy is developing at a quick pace in some Asia countries, visual impact related research has been lacking. In Japan, Wind energy may become a popular energy source for local use in the coming few decades and play a vital role in the post-earthquake reconstruction. For this reason, we verified the above methodology with Choshi City in Japan as the case study, thus providing empirical evidence of applying the Spanish Method in an Asian country. This methodology facilitates understanding of the visibility conditions of wind farms’ infrastructure to planners, investors, and policy makers, hoping to contribute to expansion of knowledge on visual impact evaluation of wind power facilities that might become important in the future cities. Keywords: Visual impact evaluation, GIS, viewshed analysis, wind farm, Japan

A review of numerical modelling of multi-scale wind turbines and their environment

Global demand for energy continues to increase rapidly, due to economic and population growth, especially for increasing market economies. These lead to challenges and worries about energy security that can increase as more users need more energy resources. Also, higher consumption of fossil fuels leads to more greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming. Moreover, there are still more people without access to electricity. Several studies have reported that one of the rapidly developing source of power is wind energy and with declining costs due to technology and manufacturing advancements and concerns over energy security and environmental issues, the trend is predicted to continue. As a result, tools and methods to simulate and optimize wind energy technologies must also continue to advance. This paper reviews the most recently published works in Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations of micro to small wind turbines, building integrated with wind turbines, and wind turbines installed in wind farms. In addition, the existing limitations and complications included with the wind energy system modelling were examined and issues that needs further work are highlighted. This study investigated the current development of CFD modelling of wind energy systems. Studies on aerodynamic interaction among the atmospheric boundary layer or wind farm terrain and the turbine rotor and their wakes were investigated. Furthermore, CFD combined with other tools such as blade element momentum were examined

Remote Design of an Outdoor Kitchen

WPI students must complete a junior-year research project, typically at an international site. Some students are unable to engage in a residential project due to responsibilities close to campus. Turn Back Time (TBT) is a farm and nature-based organization, 10 miles from WPI. TBT is building a residential yurt village to support these students. This project aims to design and build an outdoor kitchen to support the village, as well as the personal, educational, and professional growth of WPI students

Feasibility Study of the Arenal Volcano Wind Project

Empresa de Servicios Publicos de Heredia (ESPH) in Costa Rica wants to develop a wind farm to complement hydropower generation. We explored the feasibility of building a wind farm at a site in Guanacaste for ESPH by determining potential energy output, feasible turbine placement, construction feasibility, financial feasibility and the social and environmental impacts. We proposed a design with a twelve-megawatt wind farm with a payback period of five years as the most cost-effective and efficient

Optimal integration of wind energy with a renewable based microgrid for industrial applications.

Wind energy in urban environments is a rapidly developing technology influenced by the terrain specifications, local wind characteristics and urban environments such as buildings architecture. The urban terrain is more complex than for open spaces and has a critical influence on wind flow at the studied site. This approach proposes an integration of the surrounding buildings in the studied site and then simulating the wind flow, considering both simple and advanced turbulence models to quantify and simulate the wind flow fields in an urban environment and evaluate the potential wind energy. These simulations are conducted with an accessible computational fluid dynamic tool (Windsim) implementing available commercial wind turbines and performed on a case study at Agder county in the southern part of Norway for an industrial facility specialized in food production. Several simulations were considered and repeated to achieve a convergence after adding the buildings to the domain, which mainly simulates the wind flow patterns, power density, and annual energy production. These simulations will be compared with previous results, which adapted different manipulation techniques applied on the same site where the elevation and roughness data were manipulated to mimic the actual conditions in the studied urban site. The current approach (adding the buildings) showed a reduction in the average wind speed and annual energy production for certain levels with increased turbulence intensity surrounding the buildings. Moreover, a feasibility study is conducted to analyze the techno-economic of the facility's hybrid system, including the planned installation of a wind energy system using commercial software (HOMER). The simulation results indicated that HOMER is conservative in estimating the annual energy production of both wind and solar power systems. Nevertheless, the analysis showed that integrating a wind turbine of 600 kW would significantly reduce the dependence on the grid and transform the facility into a prosumer with more than 1.6 GWh traded with the grid annually. However, the proposed system's net present cost would be 1.43 M USD based on installation, maintenance, and trading with the grid, without including self-consumption, which counts for approximately 1.5 GWh annually. Moreover, the proposed system has a low levelized cost of energy of 0.039$ per kWh, which is slightly above the levelized cost of wind energy but 2 to 4 times less than the installed solar panels

The design of a honey processing plant and mead brewery for Menno apiary

This treatise was born out of an ecological concern for the decline in the bee population witnessed by beekeepers since the late 1990’s. This sudden decline in the bee population has a direct impact on one third of the food we consume which leads to a decrease in food production and an unbalanced ecosystem. The distinct biomes in the Eastern Cape of farming and nature reserves, provides a foundation for an investigation into an architectural intervention of a remedial nature to help the bees breed and restore the natural pollination services. A qualitative research approach has been conducted to focus on the relationship between man and nature and how man-made structures can successfully integrate into the natural process of bee breeding and honey production. This provided a platform to develop an architectural intervention that responded to the ecological issues of the dying bee population. This Paper unpacks the issues which contribute to the bee population in decline and the different types of systems and stages that are required in beekeeping and its by-products. The findings lead to the process of developing an appropriate brief and arriving at a design response which will allow sustainable ways of achieving radical increases in resource efficiency. As a result, the breeding process will provide natural product as well as educate the public and farmers of the region, about the bees. A site specific and factory archetype of architecture will be investigated to facilitate the transformation of site into a bee friendly environment, which will contribute to the rehabilitation of the pollination process in the Eastern Cape

Ecolux Communities

Seven years, 103 days, 40 minutes and 17 seconds... On September 17, 2020, Artists Gan Golan and Andrew Boyd displayed a clock in Manhattan Square. This clock, however, displayed exactly how long we have until an irreversible climate disaster occurs, not regular time. Unless greenhouse gases are significantly reduced, the time we have before something like this occurs is limited. It is very easy to see the repercussions of our actions already happening. Many areas of the planet have already seen the 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit average above pre-industrial levels. The consequences of this, are also showing. Storms are increasingly getting worse, droughts are getting longer and heatwaves are getting more extreme. The planet is getting sick and we are feeling the effects, but we can also help heal it. The path to a healthier and more sustainable way of living can be paved by architects of today. Currently, buildings generate, on average, 40% of greenhouse gas emissions annually. The incorporation of new construction techniques, building materials and technologies could significantly help reduce that average. Sustainable design is a necessity in this endeavor and should immediately be incorporated into all types of design whether it be residential, commercial, or industrial. This thesis project will focus mainly on how to incorporate sustainable design into smaller communities. A proposed self-sufficient neighborhood will convey how altering our lifestyles can not only help improve the life of the planet, but also the physical and emotional well-being of humans as well. The community will focus on finding the balance between modern technology and traditional living methods to create a healthy, comfortable and unique environment where individuals and families can thrive