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Wind power grant to help West Texas town desalinate groundwater |
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Written by Staff Reports
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Tuesday, 15 April 2008 |
AUSTIN — A pilot project utilizing wind power to desalinate brackish groundwater in West Texas will get a jump-start thanks to a $500,000 grant from the Office of Rural Community Affairs (ORCA).
The grant to the City of Seminole in Gaines County from ORCA’s Renewable Energy Demonstration Pilot Program will help fund the $1.075 million project.
The project holds great promise for rural communities in West Texas and the Panhandle needing to develop new sources of drinking water, said Charles S. (Charlie) Stone, ORCA executive director. “This project could be a roadmap for how our rural communities can use wind power to help meet future water needs,” Stone said.
The project would be the first in the U.S. to use wind power to desalinate drinking water for an inland municipality, as opposed to a town located on a coastline.
Seminole’s proposal to ORCA calls for groundwater to be pumped from the deep, brackish Santa Rosa aquifer. A 50-kilowatt wind turbine will help power a reverse osmosis plant that will make the water drinkable for the town’s residents.
ORCA is partnering with Texas Tech University, which has been working three years with Seminole on the design and economics of wind-driven groundwater desalinization systems.
“This project represents an innovative approach ORCA can take to help rural communities meet basic human needs, such as clean, reliable sources of drinking water,” said. Dr. Wallace Klussmann, chairman of ORCA’s governing board.
Seminole, like many West Texas towns, draws its drinking water from the Ogallala Aquifer, which is rapidly being depleted. The town has no access to surface water supplies.
And the cost of electricity to operate a reverse osmosis plant large enough to meet the town’s water needs was cost prohibitive, said Jamie Chap-man of Texas Tech’s Wind Science and Engineering Research Center.
“Seminole can make this project affordable by tapping into the strong wind power resources in West Texas,” Chapman said. “With this ORCA grant, we can get this pilot project underway.”
The wind turbine will provide the electricity for a reverse osmosis plant that, depending on the aquifer characteristics, will produce up to 30,000 gallons per day of drinking water for the city.
If the project is successful, Chapman said Seminole eventually plans to install three megawatts of wind turbines to power a reverse osmosis plant large enough treat a future peak demand of three million gallons of water per day. Seminole currently uses about two million gallons per day on average from the Ogallala aquifer.
In addition to the ORCA grant, the project calls for Seminole to contribute $400,000 in cash, land and in-kind services. Texas Tech will contribute $25,000 in data collection and analysis and Entegrity Wind Systems will donate for two years a wind turbine valued at $150,000. After two years, Entegrity likely would lease the turbine to Seminole, Chapman said.
“We are grateful to ORCA for its leadership on addressing the critical water needs of Seminole and the region,” said Seminole Mayor Mike Carter.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 17 April 2008 )
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