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Directory:Wind

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Wind Power


Directory of wind technologies and resources.

Contents

Overview

      "The power of the wind has been overlooked. Some day it will be forcibly brought to the position it deserves through the need of a substitute for the present method of generating power. Given a good breeze, I have estimated that there is as much as half a horsepower to every square foot of area exposed. The contrivance that has been at the disposal of mankind from all time, the wind-mill, is now seen in the rural districts only. The popular mind cannot grasp the power there is in the wind." -- Nikola Tesla ("Our future motive power"; Everyday Science and Mechanics; Dec. 1931)

Plans

See Directory:Wind:Plans - separate index page

Image:Gotwind95x95.jpg Image:RichardLaws DYI wind turbine 95x95.jpg Image:AE_WindTurbine_Plans_sideblade_130.jpg Image:Wind wood95x95.jpg Image:Bubble mill 95x95.jpg

Wind Energy Technologies

Wind Turbine Guides

  • Wind Power Generators Guide - Four categories within the wind power generators industry to profile including Large Scale, Large Residential, Residential Rooftop and DIY Wind Generator Plans. (Green Tech Gazette; Oct. 27, 2008)
  • Want Your Own Wind Turbine? EcoGeek's Guide - Wind is part of the renewable energy mix, and there certainly are many homes where is is a viable option. For those, the range of options is growing. Besides the propeller turbine, there are a number of other options that are being developed and coming into availability that offer different features and performance that can make them appealing alternatives for some. (EcoGeek; Sept. 11, 2008)

Wind Energy Storage Technology

  • Hydraulically Stored Wind Power Increases Efficiency Dramatically - a company from Alberta, Canada (Lancaster Wind Systems) wants to bring an innovation to the classic and old wind turbines. The company itself hasn’t described the exact method by which they are going to improve the efficiency of the wind turbine, but the main idea is that they’re going to store a few hours of energy in a hydraulic system, so when the wind doesn’t blow, you’ll still have energy, converted at a higher rate.

Direct Drive

  • Siemens New 3.6 MW Direct-drive "Concept" Wind Turbine - Siemens Energy will install a highly innovative 3.6-megawatt (MW) direct drive "concept" turbine developed by Chief Technology Officer Henrik Stiesdal, at a location near Ringkoebing, Denmark, where it will undergo a two-year test period. (Renewable Energy Worldwide; July 4, 2008)

HeliWind

Lighter-than-air helical balloon. Power generator placed on the ground. Runs silently with no bird or bat kills. Generates electricity for 3.4¢/Kw-Hr: less than 50% the cost of oil and less than 25% the cost of a conventional wind turbine.

High-Efficiency Horizontal Axis

Image:Stormblade_Turbine_95x95.jpg Image:Venturiwind_Turbine_95x95.jpg Image:Enflo_wind_turbine_95x95.jpg Image:OConner_wind_turbine_logo_95x95.jpg Image:Selsam_Wind_Turbine_95x75.jpg Image:RichardLaws DYI wind turbine 95x95.jpg

Kites & Sails

  • Hybrid Boats and Ships - SkySails is testing a high-tech kite to pull ship along, designed to be a retrofit for existing vessels. Copenhagen group trying airfoils on cargo ships. Danish group implementing aerospace tech for airfoils on ships. SolarSalor implements movable wing-like solar panels that double as sails. (Alt-Energy-Blog; Feb. 24, 2005)
  • KiteShip - Very Large Free Flying Sails (VLFFS) for boats and ships provide up to 10,000 horsepower of controlled, inexpensive power from wind energy, to reduce ship owners' fuel costs by up to 25 percent, and vastly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and pollutants.

Artificial Pressure Difference

  • Shinyeon Magnet and Wind Systems - Shinyeon Energy Research Center of Korea has two highly exotic prototypes. One is a piston-based permanent magnet motor called the Magforce engine, that doesn't require fuel or electricity. The other as a tower-based induction wind generator. (PESWiki; June 18, 2008)

MagLev

  • MagLev Wind Power Generator Unveiled in China - World's first permanent magnetic levitation wind power generator is expected to boost generation capacity by as much as 20% over traditional wind turbines, dropping operational costs by as much as 50%.
  • Mag-Wind - Magnetically-Levitated Axial Flux Alternator with Programmable Variable Coil Resistance, Vertical Axis Wind Turbine. See also Turbine Company Harnesses Wind Power - Article - Mag-Wind Co. L.L.C. in February will install one of its first five pre-production models.

Magnus Effect

  • Mehmetoğlu - Wind turbine with cylindrical blades is claimed to produce 30% more energy than similar types of turbines with the same input energy level. The video was taken under 4 m/ sec. wind conditions.
    • New prototype The function of this generator is that two or more cylinders are rotating in their own axis by giving some inferior quantity of energy. With the help of the wind stream the cylinders are causing the so-called Magnus-Effect and are turning in a constant circle.
  • Magenn - Inflatable, rotating balloon, wind turbine design had expected to be read for market readiness in 2006 (haven't made it yet); at a price close to grid power.
  • Magnus Turbine Generates Power at a Low Cost - MECARO launched production of the Vortes-model wind turbine, based on the principle of the Magnus effect, enabling the turbine to turn using lift generated by spinning cylinders with spiral fins instead of the usual propeller-like blades. The lift of the Vortes is four times that of conventional propeller-type wind turbines, and the turbine operates at any wind speed. (Japan for Sustainability; Jul. 21, 2007)

Micro Turbine

  • NANO VENT-SKIN: CO2 Filtering Solar Micro-turbines! - Nano VentSkin Agustin Otegui, who works with economies of a much smaller scale. He has conceived of a next-gen Nano Vent-Skin that sheathes structures in a shimmering solar weave studded with micro-turbines. The concept takes advantage of a structure’s maximum available surface space, and its modular composition allows it to retrofit our old buildings instead of pouring resources into new ones. (Inhabitat; June 4, 2008)
  • Tiny, Plastic Wind Turbines Suitable for City Dwellers - Engineers have developed a new micro wind turbine that can generate electricity at low wind speeds, on rooftops and balconies of crowded cities. Plastic gearwheels are linked to one another and can be arranged in an array from two to thousands of square meters. A set of 20 gearwheels costs about $25. (TreeHugger; Mar. 19, 2007)
  • Pocket-Sized Wind Generator for Cell Phone - Small device generates 3-4 watts of electricity from wind. Hand crank option a probable add-on. Once commercialized would cost around $4.00. (Slashdot; Rediff; Feb. 24, 2005)

Oscillating Wing

  • Wings for Wind Energy - W2 Energy Development may have a more efficient answer for capturing wind energy, based on up-and-down oscillation of a wing attached to a lever. The WindWing puts more surface area in contact with the wind than a propeller, and the lever magnifies the wind power, providing 40% to 60% efficiency, W2 reports. (VenturaCountyStar; Aug. 5, 2007)
  • EconoLogica - Rotary windmills are so badly matched to pumping water that they convert only about 10% of the windpower they could capture into usefully pumped water. Their cranking cannot vary the stroke of the pump with windspeed. Variable stroke is inherent in our oscillating wing'dmills, as is our high wind protection, neither needing fallible add-on mechanisms.
  • Vortex Oscillation Technology - Wind-generators with oscillating actuating bodies (wingmills) can produce several times lower cost electric power. It is possible to produce generators from 0.1 Kw up to 100 Mw, from wind, rivers, tide and sea currents.
  • BioPower Systems - O-DRIVE™ converts low-speed large-torque oscillations to AC power.

PiezoElectrics

  • "Wind Tree" Electrical Generator - Imagine harnessing the power of hundreds of leaves fluttering in the wind. Richard Dickson is developing a passive wind harvesting technology that uses piezoelectric materials woven into textile-like material to form artificial leaves for a bio-mimicking "tree".


Variable Blade

  • Mass Megawatts Wind Power - The Multi-Axis Turbosystem (MAT) is capable of generating electricity at 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour at an average wind speed of 15.5 miles per hour. It can withstand 120 mile per hour winds, and level four earthquakes.
  • Energy Unlimited - Variblade™ - variable length blade is proven to increase productivity in low winds and reduce strain in high winds. It can increase capacity of a turbine by up to 20-40 percent in low winds while reducing unproductive load in higher winds. Replacing standard blades with the Variblade can turn a 108 kW machine into 140 kW overnight.
  • Eotheme Sàrl Switzerland - CRWT (Counter Rotating Wind Turbine) has some advantages: Effective reduction of electricity cost by 8% to 12%. Competitive efficiency enhancement by 20% to 22%. Enhancement of “farm power density‿ (i.e. more power and revenue from the same surface of wind farm or same infrastructure cost).

Vertical Axis

  • Directory:Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (separate page) - Vertical axis turbines have several advantages over the typical horizonal axis turbines. Generator can be on the ground for easier access, rather than up in the air. Generally begin rotating at lower speeds and are quieter. Lower susceptibility to cross-winds.

Image:TMA_vertical_axis_earlier_prototype_95x95.jpg Image:PacWind_95x95.jpg Image:Quietrevolution_wind_turbine_95x95.jpg Image:Eurowind_VAWTMU_turbine_95x95.jpg Image:Wind_Harvest_Windstar_turbine_95x95.jpg Image:Ropatec_Windrotor_95x95.jpg

  • Former Soviet Weapon Designers Take On Wind Power - Vertical axis wind turbine systems have several advantages over more traditional horizontal axis wind turbines. They scale down more efficiently, are usually quieter, and have a much lower rate of bird kills. (WorldChanging; August 22, 2004)

Wind Ribbon

  • Humdinger's Wind Belt Economizes Low Wind Harnessing - Invented by Shawn Frayne, the Windbelt is a taut membrane fitted with a pair of magnets that oscillate between coils. Designed for low wind speeds and budgets, the device is 10x to 30x times more efficient than the best microturbines, and its cost is proportionately small.

Commercial

  • IQWind - The IQWind flagship product is a new and unique gear system that solves the variable wind limitation. It is a mechanical add on to wind turbines that enables the upgraded turbines to work at much higher efficiency rates than current turbines under the same wind conditions. In addition, the IQWind solution is more reliable, lighter, and enables generation of higher quality electricity than other potential solutions.
  • Featured: Videos > Wind / PAC >
    Pickens Plan Video Contest - Former oilman, Billionaire T. Boone Pickens, invites you to 1) sign a petition telling Senator Obama and Senator McCain to adopt the Pickens Plan to break our oil addiction, 2) come up with a < 60 sec energy ad to push the candidates to endorse the Plan. Deadline: Oct. 25. (PESWiki; Oct 22, 2008)
  • Ming Yang - Produces energy efficient wind turbines - China.
  • AltEnergyStore > Buy Wind Turbines - "Low prices on wind turbines for home, business, boat, rv, farm."
  • WindBrokers.com - "First-class, second-hand wind turbines from Western-Europe."
  • Windports™ - The turbine effect windmill can withstand winds of 200 km/h when standard propeller units must be stopped at winds of 70 km/h. Absolutely noise free and without vibrations. Captures all 3 vectors of the wind when conventional windmills only capture one.
  • REPower Systems - With a rated power of 5 megawatt and a rotor diameter of 126 metres, the 5M is one of the largest and most powerful wind turbines in the world.
  • Wind Turbine Harnesses Aerodynamics of Buildings - Aero Vironment, which engineered GM's EV-1, has unveiled a compact wind turbine that sits on the parapets of a building rather than the roof, catching the wind as it travels up the side of a building, resulting in as much as 30% increase in energy production. It requires only a 7 mph (3.1 m/s) breeze to start up, and produces roughly 55kWh per month per unit. (TreeHugger; Oct. 2, 2006)
  • Skystream > Wind Energy Goes Mainstream with New Residential Small Wind Generator - Skystream 3.7™ is the first fully integrated wind generator designed specifically for the grid-connected residential market. The output would provide 40 to 90 percent of an average home’s energy needs. In states like Hawaii, where the cost of energy and wind speeds are both high, Skystream 3.7 can pay for itself in less than 4 years. (Southwest Windpower; June 27, 2006)
  • WindPartnersBg - - Used wind turbines 225kW - 1.5MW - Mediator and consultant for used wind turbines up to 1.5MW for Bulgaria only.
  • SkyBuilt aims to be the Dell of renewable energy systems - If you have a unique power need that is off grid, and you want something that can deploy quickly, is rugged, and will last for a long time, SkyBuilt is who you call. The CIA shouldn't be the only one to benefit. (PESN; Oct. 20, 2005)
  • John Deere Credit Wind Energy - Currently, John Deere Wind Energy is interested in investments that involve utility-scale wind projects. This generally includes projects that involve multiple wind turbines with a manufacturer’s nameplate capacity of 1.25 megawatts or greater.


  • Electric Pinwheels LLC - New type of small wind turbine/generator using a fabric blade structure. Available in a wide variety of colors, and even a transparent version. The result is a safer, aesthetically-pleasing alternative to other forms of wind power.

Government & Politics

  • Wind Energy Multiyear Program Plan For 2007 - 2012 - The Wind Energy Program is one element of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Wind and Hydropower Technology Program (WHTP) under the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). EERE leads the Federal government’s research, development, and deployment efforts in energy efficiency and renewable energy. 115-page PDF. 2.2 MB. (PDAFku.com; Nov. 29, 2008)

Used Wind Turbine Market

Other

  • Theo Jansen's StrandBeest Kinetic Sculptures - Modern-day DaVinci-like genius has been building various contraptions that walk along via the power of the wind. Made from commonly available tools like plastic tubing, cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, hose, and tape, they combine engineering with art.

Past Developments

See Wind Past Developments (separate index page) - includes past coverage and history.

Research & Development

  • Better Wind Turbines - ExRo Technologies, a startup based in Vancouver, BC, has developed a new kind of generator that's well suited to harvesting energy from wind. It could lower the cost of wind turbines while increasing their power output by 50 percent. (MIT Technology review; Nov. 13, 2008)
  • Power from Thin Air - Having just provided gearless permanent magnet generator systems for a set of 3 MW wind turbines in Norway, the head of Arctic Wind Power Consortium gives the low-down on the latest hi-tech practice that is taking the large-scale turbine industry by storm. (Power Engineering International; May 05, 2006)
  • Centripetal Dynamics - Developing a two-blade, variable camber rotor with “ALC‿ (Active Lift Control), Down Wind Turbine technology that will reduce the cost of energy to 3 cents/kW at Class 4 wind sites. It features a reduced drag rotating airfoil tower, flow through-hub-rotor construction, permanent magnet drivetrain and advanced composite construction.
  • Brushless Doubly-Fed Generator (BDFG) improves the reliability of wind turbines - A research team from the University of Cambridge have developed a new generator technology for the wind turbine industry to the point of commercial exploitation, for application in a wide spectrum of wind turbines ranging from multi-megawatt systems for wind farms down to domestic micro turbines. (PhysOrg; Oct. 29, 2007)
  • New Low-Speed Wind Turbine Blade - “STAR�?, or Sweep Twist Adaptive Rotor, by Sandia National Laboratories promises to be more efficient and significantly reduce the cost-of-energy at low wind speed sites. Such sites are numerous in the U.S. and would increase by 20-fold the available land area that can be economically developed for wind energy. (TreeHugger; Feb. 7, 2007)
  • Project to Produce Hydrogen from Wind Power - Corporacion Energia Hidroelectrica de Navarra (EHN) of Spain is investigating ways of obtaining hydrogen from water through electricity generated from wind power. (Solar Access; Aug. 20, 2004)

Tools

  • Software Predicts Electricity Output for Wind - The Previento system, developed at Oldenburg University in northern Germany in cooperation with researchers from Denmark's Riso National Laboratory, can predict not only how much electricity a specific wind park in Germany will produce but also the total amount of electricity the 20,000 or so wind parks dotted around the country will generate in the coming days and with a high level of accuracy. (Renewable Energy World; August 11, 2008)
  • Using LIDAR for Identification of Wind Parameters - Currently, Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is the best candidate to replace the met mast-based wind measurements used in power curve calculations for offshore wind farms and is being tested at the Alpha Ventus wind farm. (Renewable Energy; March 27, 2008)
  • Global Wind/Solar Map - The global wind/solar map can be viewed at Wind/Solar. 3TIER chose to unveil its global wind map at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC 2008). (Renewable Energy World; March 3, 2008)
  • IRATA rope access safety systems for wind farms - "The combination of our offshore and on shore maintenance and repair rope access experience, along with our NDE inspection services make us an ideal partner for a joint venture with a wind turbine management company or installer."
  • Device determines how well wind turbines operate - Accurate Time Linked data Acquisition System (ATLAS II) can provide a great deal of the information necessary to understand how well a turbine is performing, capable of sampling a large number of signals at once to characterize the inflow, the operational state, and the structural response of a wind turbine. (PhysOrg; July 26, 2006) }

Tutorials

  • Wind Powered Electrical Power Systems: 'Blowing in the Wind, If Any' - Wind power is great where there is wind and consumers nearby. However, if there is wind power in Wyoming, there is little power in Chicago due to the amount of electrical resistance. Understand resistance is critical to understanding power generation and consumption. Techtionary > W > Wind Power Generation. (TMCnet; July 14, 2008)

Location

Building Integration

Videos

High Altitude

  • High Altitude Wind Power (Separate page) - The energy in winds miles above us is sufficient to provide all the world's energy needs. It can be captured with Flying Electric Generators at two cents per kilowatt hour or less. This is less than the cost of producing electricity using fossil fuels or nuclear fission.
  • Wind Power "Laddermills": High Altitude Kites to Replace Turbines - Concept of 5-mile-into-the-sky cable with chain of controllable wing-like kites attached to a looped cable, generating 100 MW. Developers at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands hope to build a working model in the next four years. (Alt Eng News; Dec. 19, 2004)

Offshore

See Wind Offshore (separate index page) - includes floating wind turbine designs.

Image:Floating_wind_turbine_concepts_NREL_95x95.jpgImage:Norsk Hydro illustration 95x95.jpgImage:Off shore wind farm 95x95.jpgImage:REpower 5M wind turbine 95x95.jpg

WindCrofting

  • The emergence of windcrofting - An alternative to large scale wind farms is "windcrofting," installing rows of smaller-scale turbines between fields on rented farmland, so no productive land is lost. Proven Energy is beginning a program for windcrofting in the UK, and has already installed more than 1000 of their turbines on farms. (EcoGeek; Feb. 2, 2007)

Wind Farms

  • Wind Farms (separate index) - Wind farms resent an economy of scale, enabling them to produce electricity in the price range of grid power.
  • Two oil giants plunge into the wind business - Two of the world's leading oil producers, Shell and BP, have almost overnight joined some of the biggest players in wind power in the United States, accelerating a trend of large corporations investing in the rapidly growing alternative-energy field. (Boston Globe; March 2, 2007)

In the News


  • Five Weird-Ass Wind Turbines - Here are a few of the more radical designs for wind-capturing devices out there. The huge, the odd, and the ingenious. A look at the Maglev, the Aerogenerator, the Magenn, the Flo-Design, and a rotating tower. (EcoGeek; Sept. 7, 2008)
  • Clearing the Air: Wind Power and Reliability - Our studies and experiences show that wind energy integrates effectively and reliably into our power systems with regional market operations to mitigate the impact of wind variability. (Renewable Energy; March 25, 2008)
  • 70% Of Navarra's Power Comes From Wind, Solar - The region of Navarra, in Northeastern Spain, gets approximately 70% of its electricity from the wind and the sun. With 1,100 windmills, this tiny region is capable of generating more electricity from renewable sources than France or Poland. Navarra plans to reach 100% renewable energy generation by 2010. (TreeHugger; Mar. 22, 2007)
  • Compressed air wind turbines - General Compression thinks it's found a way to make wind power available on-demand using turbines to compress air and store it underground. A pipeline network collects and stores compressed air and a power plant of expanders and generators produces electricity when needed. Wind farms could sell power during peak demand, making them grid compatible. (Inside Greentech; Mar. 20, 2007)
  • Efficient Wind Tunnels: Could Be Big? - Green Energy Technologies has developed a wind tunnel product that captures wind and pulls it into the center where the turbine is, increasing the velocity of the wind by Bernoulli's Principle. The WindCube is the urban-friendly rooftop application and the WindMAX is the tower application for high power users, with a payback period of 3-7 years. (TreeHugger; Mar. 16, 2007)
  • New Advanced Propeller / Rotor System - Hi-Q Products has been awarded a grant from the California Energy Commission to develop “cutting-edge‿ advanced wind rotor system. The Mamikon Spinner, based on single strip geometry, is stronger and more stable than 3 blade designs. Able to spin in the slightest breeze, it is designed for sites with a high percentage of low wind days. (Hi-Q Products; March 23, 2005) See also Hi-Q Rotor (pdf file) at DOE
  • Breakthrough, low-cost wind turbine technology moves closer to commercialization - The Wind Turbine Company has been awarded a contract with the U.S. DOE NREL to continue prototype testing and development of the WTC 750 kilowatt wind turbine. "Our new wind turbine technology provides the potential to reduce wind electricity cost by approximately one-third," said Larry Miles. WTC's 750 turbine features 2 rotor blades, oriented on the downwind side of the tower. (The Wind Turbine Company; July 6, 2006)

Applications

  • Wind Turbine Success Story At Jiminy Peak - Jiminy Peak, a western Mass. mountain resort, marked the one year anniversary on August 15 of flipping the switch and connecting its 1.5 megawatt GE wind turbine to the grid. The turbine, nicknamed Zephyr, is now generating a full third of the ski resort's power. But getting there wasn't exactly a breeze. (Information Week; Aug. 21, 2008)
  • Wind walkers (video) - Animari are animals that can walk without having to eat. One engineer has designed a light-weight robot that can walk along the beach, powered only by the wind... (Discovery.ca; Oct. 18, 2005)
  • Max Whisson's Gust Water Trap Apparatus - The Whisson vertical windmill cools the air passing through the whirling blades. As it does so, a proprietary process collects condensate, yielding fresh water from the air.
  • Clean Patagonian Energy from Wind and Hydrogen - A laboratory situated in the southern Patagonia region of Argentina is producing hydrogen from wind energy to supply power to a village -- and prove that it is possible to replace the polluting fuels derived from petroleum. (Sustain Online; May 13, 2005)
  • Sun and wind bring power to Navajos for the first time - The systems are portable, running on both solar and wind power, and composed of an 800 watt photovoltaic cell, 400 watt wind turbine, 10,000 watt hour batteries and an AC inverter. Added to the package is a high efficiency refrigerator and energy efficient light bulbs. (Salt Lake Tribune; June 27, 2005)
  • Wal-Mart Deploys Solar, Wind, Sustainable Design - New store outside of Dallas, Texas could revolutionize how leading world retailer builds and powers their stores. Experimental design combines a host of renewable energy technologies including numerous solar PV arrays, two, small wind turbines, a bio-fuel boiler to recycle and burn recovered oil from store operations and a nearly endless list of energy-saving and sustainable design principles. (Renewable Energy Access; July 22, 2005)
  • Hydrogen Generated by Antarctic Winds - The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) received a grant of half a million dollars from the Australian Greenhouse Office to demonstrate the use of hydrogen generated by wind in Antarctica. (Renewable Energy Access; Nov. 29, 2004)

Associations

  • Wind Power Goes Global - The Global Wind Energy Council, launched Wednesday, is the new global forum for the wind energy sector, uniting the wind industry and its representative associates. Members represent all the world’s major wind turbine manufacturers and 99 per cent of the world’s 47,317 megawatts of installed wind power capacity. (H2O Power; March 27, 2005)



Cautions

  • Wind Power: The “Green” Myth - Wind power is touted as a “green” solution to Oregon‟s increasing energy demand. However, as a power source, wind is inconsistent and intermittent, requiring inefficient and costly backup sources. In addition, various negative environmental externalities make wind power far from “environmentally friendly.” (Cascade Policy; Nov. 18, 2008)
  • False Renewable Energy Job & Economic Benefits Claims - Gross overstatements of job creation and other economic benefits are often the result of twelve common flaws and faulty assumptions that are either purposely or inadvertently made by those who prepare the analyses, studies and reports that allege big benefits. (Cohocton Wind Watch)
  • UK wind farm plans on brink of failure - Planning delays, long delivery times, escalating costs, 10-year hold-ups in connection to the national grid and technical problems in building offshore windfarms, all threaten to derail Gordon Brown's ambitions. The result could be electricity shortages by 2020, failure to meet climate change and energy targets and possible hefty fines from Europe. (Guardian.uk; Oct. 19, 2008)
  • Strong wind destroys Searsburg wind turbine - A blade on one of the 12 Searsburg wind power turbines flew off during a recent windstorm, hitting the tower the turbine sits on and destroying it completely. "They don't make them this size any more." The Green Mountain Power project remains the only operational industrial scale wind project in the Vermont. (Rutland Herald; Oct. 15, 2008)
  • Wind Energy: Unreliable, Heavily Subsidized - Problems with wind energy have been the same for 40 years and little has changed to modify any of this. After 40 years of heavy subsidies, dedicated government research programs (wind mills just aren’t that complex), wind energy is still a small marginal source of unreliable energy. (Hawaii Reporter; Oct. 14, 2008)
  • Wind Fuels Gas - Wind turbines generate electricity very irregularly, because the wind itself is inconsistent. Therefore wind turbines always need backup power from fossil fuels to keep the electricity grid in balance. Gas turbines respond quickly and can be turned on and off almost instantly. (Wall Street Journal; Sept. 11, 2008)
  • Beware the wind energy hot air - The real innovation here is the well-coordinated manipulation of public perception. The Pickens media campaign focuses on independence from foreign oil, and he is just one among many who have tried to convince the public and policymakers that there is a connection between wind-generated electricity and oil, which is hardly used for electricity. (Roanoke Times; August 14, 2008)
  • Wind Action - Industrial Wind Action was formed to counteract the misleading information promulgated by the wind energy industry and various environmental groups. Support for this effort comes from a large and diversified group of environmentalists, energy experts, and ordinary citizens.
  • Cost Of Wind Power Turbines Is SkyRocketing - "The price of offshore turbines rose 48 percent to 2.23 million euros ($3.45 million) per megawatt in the past three years, according to BTM Consult APS, a Danish wind power consultant. By comparison, land-based rotors cost 1.38 million euros per megawatt after rising 74 percent in the same period." (TreeHugger; May 21, 2008)
  • Country Guardian - A UK conservation group which, since 1991, has campaigned against the construction of wind turbines in environmentally sensitive areas.
  • Wound Up Over Windmills - Gov. George Pataki has taken drastic measures to help combat energy-supply problems and decrease the Empire State's ecological footprint; but many residents are not happy about widespread plans to install wind farms. (Wired; Jan. 6, 2006) (See Slashdot discussion)
  • Lightning at wind farms 'could start fires' - Direct lightning strikes on wind farms could create power surges that damage the electricity network and start forest fires, according to campaigners against the proliferation of turbines in Scotland. (Scotsman; Aug. 20, 2004)

Reply: "Think of how many hits the electric grid take each year. There are miles upon miles of electric wires strung around that lightning can hit - and has." -- Sheldon

  • A Campaign That's For The Birds - Environmental activists, once reluctant to take on an industry that provides an eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuels, are suing nine wind farm operators. The reason: migrating birds are being killed by the fast-rotating turbine blades. (CBSNews; July 6, 2005)
  • Wind companies sued over bird deaths - California environmental group seeks to force the operators of one of North America's largest windmill farms to take steps to reduce the number of birds killed in the turbines' propellers. (Reuters; Nov. 4, 2004)
  • Will Wind Power Change Earth's Climate? - Recent wind power study models the effects of introducing massive amounts of wind farms into North America. According to their results, while still having only 1/5th the impact of fossil fuels, wind power will still adjust the earth's climate with the equatorial regions warmed while the arctic grows colder. (Slashdot; Nov. 10, 2004)

Comments

See Discussion page

Directories

  • Second Hand Wind Turbines - Repowering Solutions is a supplier of second hand wind turbines and new. In the last years we have given wind turbines to countries of all the continents. Madrid Spain.

See also

GENERAL

TYPES

SPECIFIC

- Other Directory listings • Latest • A-I • J-R • S-Z • Tree • News
- PESWiki home page

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