Wind
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Wind meets Scotland’s demand for electricity
Posted by admin2 on 04 Sep 2010 | Tagged as: Wind
Wind power met the electricity demand of Scotland’s north and northeast for the first time in the last weekend of August.
In Dundee, Perth, Aberdeen and Inverness wind power kept the lights on, the washing machines turning and the kettles boiling from 8.00 on Saturday 28 August to 9.00 on 29 August.
Just over 700 MW of wind energy was produced in that time frame, while consumer demand for electricity was just under 700 MW, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) said.
SE Louisiana’s first wind turbine to be installed near Lake Pontchartrain
Posted by admin2 on 18 Aug 2010 | Tagged as: Wind
The first commercial wind turbine in Southeastern Lousiana will be built on the northern end of the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway in Mandeville.
The single turbine, which is expected to generate about 3 kilowatts of electricity, will barely dent the energy used by the nearby toll plaza. But Causeway General Manager Carlton Dufrechou said the project, the first commercial use of wind power in southeastern Louisiana, could show that a larger project involving turbines installed along the bridge itself is feasible.
New design could create a 20 MW wind turbine
Posted by admin2 on 30 Jul 2010 | Tagged as: Wind
The Aerogenerator is a new turbine design measuring 900 feet across and potentially generating up to 20 megawatts of power.
The Aerogenerator has two arms coming out of its base to form a V-shape, with rigid “sails” mounted along their length. The arms act like aerofoils as the wind passes over, helping to generate lift.
The first Aerogenerator could be up and running by 2013.
California places record order for wind turbines
Posted by admin2 on 25 Jul 2010 | Tagged as: Wind
Terra-Gen’s Alta Wind Energy Center near Tehachapi, California placed a record order with Vestas for 190 wind turbines that can generate 570 megawatts.
The contract includes delivery and commissioning as well as a five-year service and maintenance agreement. Delivery is scheduled for late 2010. The first 50 wind turbines will be commissioned by the end of 2010 and the remaining ones will be online in the first half of 2011.
Australia: 100% renewable by 2020?
Posted by admin2 on 23 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Solar, Wind
While the Australian government is projecting that 20% of the country’s energy needs will be met by renewable sources by 2020, Zero Carbon Australia, a climate change group, said that the country can be 100% reliant on renewables by that date.
The authors propose a mix of 60 percent of energy from solar thermal with molten salt storage and 40 percent from wind power. Solar thermal plants are designed to store heat for nighttime when there is no sun.
But achieving the 100 percent renewables goal would depend on a $92 billion upgrade that would create a single national electricity grid linking the renewable projects to the city and urban areas. The authors liken that amount to about one cup of coffee per person each day during the 10-year transition.
DoE study shows grid can handle wind and solar
Posted by admin2 on 02 Jun 2010 | Tagged as: Solar, Wind
A Department of Energy study has concluded that the existing power grid can integrate wind and solar power to make up 35% of generated electricity by 2017 with no increase in infrastructure.
The study shows that in order to accommodate 30% wind and 5% solar energy penetration, utilities will have to substantially increase their coordination of operations over wider geographic areas and schedule their generation deliveries, or sales, on a more frequent basis.
More frequent scheduling would allow generators to adjust that amount of power based on increases or decreases in available wind or solar power.
Scarves woven with wind power
Posted by admin2 on 08 May 2010 | Tagged as: Wind
The Wind Knitting Factory is a machine that uses the wind to turn yarn into scarves.
The brainchild of product designer Merel Karhof, the Wind Knitting Factory is an ingenious contraption that attaches to the outside of a building. Just feed it yarn and it creates an endless skein of scarf, which can be cut from time to time and sewn off into individual scarves. Each scarf comes with its own label telling you exactly how long your scarf took to be knitted and on what date.
Google invests in wind
Posted by admin2 on 04 May 2010 | Tagged as: Wind
Google, Inc. has invested in two wind farms in North Dakota.
These wind farms, developed by NextEra Energy Resources, harness power from one of the world’s richest wind resources in the North Dakota plains and use existing transmission capacity to deliver clean energy to the region, reducing the use of fossil fuels,” Rick Needham, Google’s green business operations manager, wrote in a blog post.
The wind farms can generate 169.5 megawatts of power, which can power more than 55,000 homes, Needham wrote.
UK reaches 1 gigawatt of offshore wind
Posted by admin2 on 28 Apr 2010 | Tagged as: Wind
When two wind farms became operational last week, the United Kingdom reached the milestone of one gigawatt of offshore wind capacity, according to RenewableUK.
The milestone was reached in a decade, with future additional gigawatts likely to occur much faster. Over 40GW of offshore wind farms are at various stages of development in the UK, with in excess of 4GW in construction or with planning consent .
Germany uses 10% renewables in 2009
Posted by admin2 on 26 Mar 2010 | Tagged as: Biofuel, Biomass, Geothermal, Hydro, Solar, Wind
Germany is well on its way to its 18% renewable energy goal in 2020. The country used renewable sources for 10% of its energy needs in 2009.
Energy produced by sources including biomass, geo-thermal, hydro-electric, solar and wind accounted for 10.1 percent of the total consumed by Europe’s biggest economy, up from 9.3 percent in 2008.
Biomass sources were the single biggest supplier.
