Vestas Wind Systems has secured an order to help produce 33 new turbines for a New Hampshire wind farm, a contract that experts say should help sustain work at its Windsor plant. The Weld County operation, where the blades will be constructed, temporarily halted turbine work in December in light of weak sales. “The turbines… Read more »
The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) this week at a workshop in Turkey, said that Turkey must exploit its huge wind energy resources if it wants to meet its increasing power demand while becoming less dependent on energy imports. The workhop on integrating wind power was held in Ankara and organized by the European Wind… Read more »
Funds from the $787 billion stimulus package and other federal assistance kept growth in the renewable energy sector strong in 2009, a trend that will probably persist as federal investment continues to pay off over the coming year, industry leaders said in a teleconference Tuesday. The picture was especially good for the solar industry, which… Read more »
The Michigan Public Service Commission has approved two grants totaling about $1.7 million for studying the development of offshore wind technologies in the state. Grand Valley State University’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center and the University of Michigan’s Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute are getting $1.3 million for jointly researching offshore wind and ice data… Read more »
It started as just an idea, but now the thought of a wind farm in mid-Missouri could become a reality. Mark Chamberlin is a chicken and dairy farmer who originally had the idea to put a wind turbine on his property. “You always have a lot of time to think when you’re in tractors,” Chamberlin… Read more »
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar journeyed out into Nantucket Sound on a Coast Guard vessel last week to signal the Obama administration’s readiness to put some muscle behind wind energy. To do that, Salazar has to resolve a battle over building a wind farm on 25 square miles of open water that has driven a rift… Read more »
President Obama is spending $2.1 million to help Suntech Power Holdings build a solar-panel plant in Arizona. It will hire 70 Americans to assemble components made by Suntech’s 11,000 Chinese workers. That gap shows the challenge Obama faces as he works to create “green” jobs. Asia makes more than half the world’s wind and solar… Read more »
The world’s wind power capacity grew by 31 per cent in 2009, according to statistics released by the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). The boost added 37.5 GW to total global wind power installations, bringing the figure up to 157.9 GW. One third of these additions were made in China, which experienced yet another year… Read more »
New Energy Husum, in cooperation with the World Wind Energy Association, is hosting the 1st World Summit for Small-scale Wind – Turbines, with participants and speakers from 11 nations. Leading experts from Egypt, Argentina, Belgium, China, Denmark, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, Mali, Spain and the USA will be presenting an overview of the use and potential… Read more »
The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) has welcomed the publication of the European Energy Regulators (ERGEG) draft strategy on the role of Regional Initiatives towards a single energy market in Europe. “Regional Initiatives are a very good step forward, but the final aim remains the creation of a single European market for energy, which should… Read more »
Husum’s New Energy trade fair, which with around 16,000 visitors last year – well over half of which were trade visitors – making it one of the best visited events in the renewable energy sector, announces an increase in exhibition space of over fifty percent for the exhibition in March 2010.In 2009 there were 148… Read more »
Data released Tuesday by the American Wind Energy Association show that Michigan’s efforts to diversify into wind energy face some significant headwinds Orders for new wind turbines have slowed dramatically and the state lagged far behind others last year in the installation of wind turbines, the association’s report shows. And any hope that production of… Read more »
Claims that wind turbines cause health problems will be discussed at a conference in Cardiff later. “Wind turbine syndrome” was dismissed last year by a panel of experts, commissioned by the American and Canadian Wind Energy Associations. They said headaches, nausea and panic attacks “were more likely associated with annoyance to low sound levels”.Environment Minister… Read more »
North Dakota has been at the top of many lists. And recently, the state was added to yet another one. The American Wind Energy Association names North Dakota as one of the top ten wind producing states in the country. P-S-C Commissioner Tony Clark says it a pretty remarkable accomplishment for the state. Nearly ten… Read more »
The global race to develop clean technology is not just about who can build the best solar parks or wind farms. It is also shaping up as a contest between Chinese-style capitalism and the more market-oriented approach fancied by the United States and Europe. The question comes down to this: will China’s highly capitalized command-and-control… Read more »
State regulators have designated a region in the Thumb area of Michigan and a west Michigan region as those likely to be most productive for wind energy. In designating the “wind energy resource zones,” the Michigan Public Service Commission said the primary zone is a region that includes parts of Bay, Huron, Saginaw, Sanilac and… Read more »
Operations at a 2,000-acre wind farm in Cadillac, Mich., are meeting the electricity demands of roughly 2,000 homes, Michigan utility Detroit Edison said. Anthony Earley, chairman at Detroit Edison’s parent company DTE Energy, said the wind farm fit within Michigan’s vision for a clean energy future. “We’re focused on finding clean, cost-effective new sources of… Read more »
For years, the interest in harnessing wind power has grown in Iowa to the point where our state is looked upon as a national leader in that alternative energy source. Recently, Iowa surpassed California to claim second-in-the-nation status in wind energy capacity, trailing only Texas. Large wind farms in rural areas have become a familiar… Read more »
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister is eyeing the potential for wind power along Haiti’s coastline as part of the effort to improve the earthquake ravaged country’s capacity for power production. Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Monday technology will be an important element of rebuilding in Haiti after its infrastructure was devastated in the Jan. 12… Read more »
A Texas-based wind energy company has chosen Clovis for its venture into wind farm operation and turbine manufacturing. Officials at Vert-I-Go, a subsidiary of Plano, Texas-based Abundant Energy, say they expect the New Mexico plant to produce 60 jobs by 2013. Vert-I-Go has reached a preliminary agreement with Clovis officials to purchase six acres south… Read more »
On a mountain top 80 miles northeast of Bangor, Maine, in country where houses and gravel pits are mere pinpricks on a map green with forest, Paul Gaynor is making stimulus work. Gaynor, chief executive of First Wind, is using $40 million in federal funds to help build a wind farm that will produce enough… Read more »
After eight years of review, the future of a controversial wind farm off Cape Cod now rests in what would seem to be friendly hands – an Obama administration that’s pledged to make the U.S. “the world’s leading exporter of clean energy.” But it’s tough to tell if Cape Wind’s prospects just got better or… Read more »
China Wind Power International Co Ltd, which was listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange, said in an update on its project pipeline in Du Mon County, Heilongjiang Province, including its Sino-Danish project, has been identified by the Heilongjiang Province Development and Reform Commission as one of the key development areas in the province. China Wind… Read more »
Populations continue to swell. Cheap energy begins to fade. And rising oceans swallow urban lands. Such problems demand solutions to the current path of energy, according to scientists, business leaders and politicians who gathered at a recent public forum at UNC-Chapel Hill’s William and Ida Friday Center. But it’s still unclear what alternatives are viable,… Read more »
PPG Commercial Coatings today launched its advanced “thin-film” HSP-7401 Polyurethane Primer and AUE-50000 Series Polyurethane Topcoat wind turbine blade coating system. The coating system is designed specifically for wind turbine blades and uses a thinner build to reduce labor, material use and weight while providing unparalleled adhesion, erosion resistance and flexibility protection properties. PPG technical… Read more »
The head of one of the largest utilities in Massachusetts is not sold on the state’s largest wind power project.NStar chief executive Thomas May said yesterday that although he believes in alternative energy, he’s not counting on the proposed Cape Wind project. Cape Wind, which has been supported by the Patrick administration, would place wind… Read more »
Europe’s fledgling offshore wind industry will grow this year by 1,000 megawatts, or 75 percent, the European Wind Energy Association forecast in a report Monday. That compares with a 54 percent growth rate in 2009, when nearly 2,000 turbines and 373 megawatts of offshore wind were installed. “This is an incredibly good result considering the… Read more »
Wind turbines offshore in the Great Lakes have the potential to generate a huge chunk of Ontario’s power, but a more streamlined approval process is needed if the offshore industry’s potential is to be achieved. That’s the conclusion of a report from wind developer Trillium Power Wind Corp., which calculates that the Ontario government has… Read more »
Omaha Public Power District Board of Directors has approved a power purchase agreement expected to substantially increase the district’s renewable energy portfolio. Under the agreement the utility plans to purchase up to 40.5 megawatts (MW) of wind energy for twenty years from a wind farm to be built in Boone County near Petersburg, Nebraska. The… Read more »
In a new twist on opposition to wind farm development, the sector is now experiencing infighting, with the largest owner of wind farms in the U.S. challenging a recent state decision that aids another company. Now, instead of fighting environmentalists or NIMBYs (not in my backyard types), MidAmerican Energy must face off against electricity giant… Read more »
Staff members at the Public Utility Commission will get to work today trying to please a district judge who threw a $5 billion wind energy transmission plan back to the agency. The city of Garland’s municipally owned utility had objected to losing out on an opportunity to build some lines to take West Texas wind… Read more »
In 2009, a total of eight new wind farms consisting of 199 offshore wind turbines, with a combined power generating capacity of 577 MW, were connected to the grid in Europe. This represents a growth rate of 54% compared to the 373 MW installed during 2008. For 2010, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) expects… Read more »
Arabic script is about to appear on television sets across the country, with the Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens helpfully reading an English translation, Clifford Strauss writes in The New York Times. “Go back to sleep, America; the oil crisis is over,” Mr. Pickens intones, deadpan, in the new video. Seductive Middle Eastern music plays… Read more »
Installation of the largest wind turbine in the history of Long Island was completed last month. The 100-kilowatt turbine stands 121 feet tall but the tip of its rotors will reach a height of 156 feet above the ground. The clean-energy device was installed at a 1,200-acre wholesale nursery in Laurel, in Riverhead Town, at… Read more »
What’s that on the sixth-floor deck of Adobe headquarters in downtown San Jose? Those slender silver spires, spinning quietly in the breeze, are actually turbines producing environmentally friendly electric power. Workers installed the 20 wind turbines over the December holidays at Adobe Systems’ high-rise offices at Park Avenue and Almaden Boulevard. Officials at the big… Read more »
The Blaine County Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance that will permit and regulate wind-energy facilities, bringing to an end a process that has taken about a dozen public hearings and witnessed multiple drafts. At a regular meeting at the Old County Courthouse in Hailey, the commission made minor editorial changes to the draft… Read more »