Wind-Electric Ice-Making Investigation

The village power group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has been researching the most practical and cost-effective means for producing ice from off-grid wind-electric power systems since 1993. The first phase of the project demonstrated that commercial vapor-compression ice makers could operate effectively when powered by a variable speed permanent magnet wind generator. In thesecond phase of the project, steady-state and dynamic numerical models of these systems were developed and experimentally validated. The third phase of the project was thorough steady-state and dynamic testing of a commercial 1.1 ton ice maker unit powered by a commercial 12 kW wind turbine alternator on an NREL dynamometer test stand. With the data from phases I-III, an economic feasibilityanalysis was performed. It is hoped that continued development, and eventually commercialization, of this concept will take place in the private sector in the form of small business partnerships.