Bergey Windpower Case Study

~ 60 miles Offshore from Savannah, Georgia

 Telemetry for U.S. Navy Air Combat Training Range

The U.S. Navy operates a Tactical Air Combat Training System (TACTS) range approximately 60 miles (100 km) offshore from Savannah, Georgia.  This training range is primarily used by Navy and Marine fighter pilots for air combat (dog fighting) training.  During training exercises the planes are equipped with extensive sensor packages that relay real time information on location, speed, heading, etc on each plane to a number of communications platforms spread over the range.  The platforms, in turn, relay the flight data to an onshore station that is connected to the TACTS computers at the Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station in South Carolina.  Following a training mission the pilots can review every action and see what they did right and what they did wrong.

On the three major TACTS platforms two Bergey 7.5 kW turbines and a small solar array provide virtually all of the power required to operate the TACTS communication system and other platform functions.  There are back-up diesel generators on each platform, but they are very seldom needed and in some years they don't run at all.  The TACTS platforms were installed in 1988 and originally used two 9 kW turbines from Northern Power Systems.  While these complex turbines were reliable, they required a very expensive preventive maintenance program to achieve the necessary reliability.  The offshore environment is very corrosive and this area of the Atlantic is often hit by hurricanes and severe tropical storms.

In an effort to reduce operating costs the Navy replaced one of the NPS turbines with a Bergey 7.5 kW unit in November, 1993.  After three years of operation on the pilot Bergey system with 100% availability and zero maintenance costs, the Navy decided to replace the remaining five NPS systems with Bergey units.  This replacement was completed in November, 1997.  The solar arrays on all the platforms had to be replaced in the Summer of 1999 due to deterioration of the modules.  The Navy is currently planning to add Bergey turbines to other TACTS ranges in the U.S.