=Cartoon Report=
Wind Turbine Golf Club
A Visit to Shirakawa Meadows Golf Club
Report : Taichi Ozawa / Illustration : Nobuya Akamatsu

For this Cartoon Report, I visited the Shirakawa Meadows Golf Club in a town called Ten-eimura in Iwase-gun of Fukushima Prefecture. At this golf club, I saw two wind power generation systems with a rated output of 225 kW.

About an hour's drive by taxi from Shin-Shirakawa Station on the Tohoku Shinkansen, the golf club stands high on the peak of Mt. Shirakawa Nunobiki. Stretching out across this mountain is an area concentrated by holiday villas called the Hatoriheiwago. Mr. Nobuhisa Takahara of the Sales and Planning Division of the company running this area called Heiwa Kanko Kaihatsu agreed to my request for an interview. Heiwa Kanko Kaihatsu started wind power generation in 1995 based on the principle of "providing a chance to live in nature, away from the hustle and bustle of the city" by the suggestion of the president Yutaka Hirata. At the beginning, they had planned to set up four 250 kW wind turbines. Should output have been 1000 kW, it would have been the leading wind farm in Japan.

"I know nothing of machines and electricity, and I have come this far through trials and errors" says Mr. Takahara.

When embarking on the wind power generation project, they did not know where to begin from. They started by groping their way, by consulting Tohoku Electric, a local power company, and visiting the wind power plant in Mattou City in Ishikawa Prefecture. On learning that the wind turbines in Mattou City are made by a company called Micon in Denmark, and that their dealer in Japan Ecology Corporation takes very good care of their clients in the installation of the wind systems, they decided to ask the dealer to install the wind turbines fot them. Taking into consideration the conditions of the site. etc., they decided to change the initial 1000 kW class wind power generation plan to two 225 kW power generators.

Since the place of installation of the wind turbines is surrounded by prefectural park, there was a need to consider the surrounding scenery in the installation. In the beginning, the park management office asked that the color of the wind turbine be made dark green to match the surrounding forests. This seemed to be a good idea at first, but imagine deep green wind power generators, 30 m high, 45 m if the tip of the rotors are included, glaring out of the trees of the mountain. Far from matching the scenery, it would have been quite grotesque. The wind turbines we usually see in pictures, etc. are white or cream yellow. White is said to have become the common color of wind turbines by public voting when it was first introduced in Denmark, the country leading in wind power generation, because white would best match the surrounding. Eventually, they decided to have the wind turbine in white-gray. On the day of the visit, it had just snowed strongly in Tokyo, and naturally the shirakawa area located 950 m above sea was covered by a blanket of snow. What a grand sight the wind turbins presented, standing out against a gray background as snow fell. Most of the power generated is used for the power supply of the golf club house while the remainder is sold. During the heavy snow winter seasons, from the end of November to mid April, the club is closed, so all the power is sold. Though located on the golf course, the wind turbines are not installed above the courses. Two wind turbines are constructed, 100 m apart, one road across from the golf course.

It took about 2 years from the planning stage to completion, with one year spent on surveying the wind conditions. Actual construction at the site took about 10 days and was carried out by 15 to 16 persons. Although located in the mountains, they were able to stay at the petite hotels in the holiday villa area nearby during the construction. The wind turbines were disassembled, placed in containers, and brought up the mountain by large trailers. The length of the blades of the rotors, the largest part, were 12 to 13 m, but they were transported safely up the curvy mountain roads. The towers are made up of three layers, each of which are divided into four by vertical poles. These were placed sideways on the ground when assembled, and placed upright using a crane. Finally, the rotors were mounted to complete the wind turbines. The people of the area are said to have been astonished by the power generation wind turbines which seemed to have appeared suddenly. The wind turbines are also visible from the route 118 which runs through the mountain.

The wind turbines from Denmark are set for standard use on level land, and therefore need to be run while finely adjusting to the wind conditions of the area. When just completed, minor problems, the usual initial malfunctions, occurred frequently such as emergency stops due to difference of wind quality at the mountain peak. Today , more than 2 years after completion, the wind turbines are running without malfunctions in almost maintenance-free states.

Heiwa Kanko Kaihatsu's next ambitions are to build a large scaled wind farm composed of 10 wind power turbines of 600 kW. Nothing has yet been decided, but should this be realized, it would become Japan's largest wind farm.

So what do the golfers think about the wind turbines? The smart ones, they say they play looking at the movements of the wind turbines to determine the direction and strength of the wind. Wind turbines are not only earth-friendly. they are even golfer-friendly.

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Numerical Data

Capacity : 225kW x 2 units ( Micon, Denmark )

Cut-in wind speed : 3.0 m / second

Rated wind speed : 17 m / second

Cut-out wind speed : 25 m / second

Average wind speed : 6.5 m / second

Annual power generated : about 500,000 kWh / unit

Load : ( about 60% of the generated power is used for club house lighting, charging golf carts, etc. Extra power is sold to Tohoku Electric Power Co. )

Oil alternative effects : About 254 kl / year

Total investment cost : 180.25 million yen