Firm Existing Wind Farms

The DWPS can be implemented at existing wind farms. The current installed base of windfarms in the world is about 75,000 MW. Many of these existing wind farms have additional land and permits, and a well-understood wind resource, but are limited by their connection to the grid.

A 500 MW conventional wind farm needs 500 MW of grid access, even though on average it will only produce 150 - 200 MW of power. This ratio of 150 or 200 over 500 is called the capacity factor. Capacity factors range in conventional wind farms from the low 20%s to the low 40%s, with a rough average of around 30%.

The DWPS can be built adjacent to an existing wind farm, and connect to the same location on the grid without any required substation or grid upgrade. The project can be built in one to two years, it can double or triple the power production capacity of the existing wind farm, it can upgrade the transmission utilization rate to 90% or better (so the 500MW wind farm actually produces 500MW continuously), and it can make the entire project perform as a baseload power generator eligible for full ancillary grid service.