Wind Farms

With all the talk of going green, the question had been thrown out many times if there will ever be a time that we can use nothing but renewable energy to power our world. A small island in Denmark is trying answer that question with a resounding yes as they power up every single day via nothing but wind power. The Danish island is the ideal setting as the wind literally never stops blowing. The North Sea offers the perfect opportunity to capitalize on the winds that come off of the sea and for them to use wind power as their primary source of power. As a matter of fact, the wind power that they are using is their ONLY source of power. 17 Comments

GE, the US industrial group, is promoting and showing confidence in offshore wind technology by buying ScanWind, which makes direct-drive turbine components. This move will help in generating thousands of new jobs in the field of designing and manufacturing turbines. This move will affirm the confidence of investors in the fledgling offshore wind industry, which has been weighed down by concerns about costs and reliability. GE is moving ahead with establishing turbine manufacturing facilities to serve the European markets at first. They have to make up their mind about the size of the investment and location. 12 Comments

Off shore wind is steady and blows harder. If a country is densely populated it is hard to find open space to install wind farms. That is why there are more and more offshore wind farms in densely populated Europe where there is limited space on land and relatively large offshore areas with shallow water. Scientists of the Geesthacht GKSS Research Centre are interested in offshore winds and mechanics of sea waves. They are working on a radar system to study the behavior of the sea waves. This technology will be available for utilization on the North Sea on the FINO3 research platform. This technology will help in finding out the details of the interactions between offshore wind power machines and swells. 1 Comment

Some of the African regions are so hot that unless you're are accustomed to that climate it is not possible for your to survive. Extreme temperatures also generate extreme winds and perhaps this is the reason wind farms have great potential in Africa. Some 365 giant wind turbines will be installed in desert around Lake Turkana in northern Kenya to create the biggest wind farm in Africa. Once completed -- tentatively in 2012 -- the £533m project, backed by the African Development Bank, will have a capacity of 300MW, a quarter of Kenya's current installed power and one of the highest proportions of wind energy to be fed in a national grid anywhere in the world. 9 Comments

Sources of alternative energy are still in infancy stage and taking nascent steps towards the future. So there are ample scopes for scientists to improve upon the various aspects of existing models of alternative sources of energy. There is so much untapped, and so much to explore in this sector. That’s why we are daily flooded with information in the alternative energy field. But sometimes we hear about the improvement in the existing models itself. Researchers from the University of Alcala (UAH) and the Complutense University in Madrid (UCM) have devised a new method for predicting the wind speed of wind farm aerogenerators. 9 Comments

The new Peñascal wind farm in Texas hopes to become a model for responsible development by installing new radar technology to protect migratory birds and wildlife. According to recent studies, wind farms kill about 7,000 birds a year, although actual numbers are thought to be much higher. The new 202MW wind farm, operated by Spanish firm Iberdrola Renewables, uses radar technology developed by Florida based DeTect, Inc. 9 Comments

As soaring oil prices and greenhouse gas emissions fuel the search for cheaper and cleaner sources of energy, a Japanese aerospace manufacturer may have found the right stuff for a solution. It’s a windmill you can call your very own. Yokohama-based aerospace manufacturer, Nippi Corporation, has developed a revolutionary 20 kW wind turbine power generation system that’s turning heads everywhere. 19 Comments

While very small wind energy projects are not normally viable due to the cost and effort involved, a small wind farm in the Clay County could easily start generating power as early as 2010. If this project, called The Romar wind project, starts generating power successfully it will certainly trigger a trend. 6 Comments

By generating 40% of the energy required by wind Spain set a world record last week. When high winds blew through north-west Spain on Thursday, a massive 11,180 MW was generated. Of course the wind energy farms were helped by one of the strongest spells of fierce winds experienced by the region recently. 5 Comments

We all know that the need of the hour is alternative energy so that future generations can still breathe fresh air and have enough energy for their industrial purposes and domestic use. Many states and countries are promoting wind energy as a clean and green energy. We all know the advantages and disadvantages of alternative energy. No doubt harvesting wind for energy purposes is a good move but maintenance of wind farms has its share of headaches. Wind turbine generators already mark the horizon for miles in every direction in many parts of the world. But maintenance of the windmills has been a strenuous task for human technicians. Rotor blade damage is a routine but irritating problem that demands many hours of maintenance. 1 Comment

Alternative energy giant Horizon Wind Energy wants to trap the immense potential of wind energy. They are planning to open an Indianapolis office for developing up to four new wind farms in Indiana. It will cost them more than $2 billion. Indiana wind farms will be the largest of the Horizon's farms and the proposed site will be at Meadow Lake in White County. The company will install up to 660 turbines spread over 100,000 acres. When the project is fully operational it could produce more than 1,000 megawatts per year - enough to power 300,000 houses. 2 Comments

GE Energy Financial Services, an investor in energy and water industries and a business unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), is investing $141 million into a wind farm. This wind farm is owned by a Spanish renewable energy developer and wind turbine manufacturer named Acciona. This Tatanka Wind Farm, on the North Dakota-South Dakota border, will power 60,000 homes. It is estimated that this $141-million-wind-farm will generate 180-megawatts of electricity. GE recently crossed the $4 billion mark with a $100 million investment in three wind farms in New York. No Comments

Much solar and wind power are generated far away from the real consumers. It’s a great problem to transport the generated power to its genuine users because vast amount of wind and solar resources are located in remote areas. Legislatures are paying attention to the time-consuming and somewhat costly process of building and upgrading transmission lines so that clean energy can be accessible by the consumers in populated areas. The Texas Legislature in 2005 directed the PUC to identify the most productive wind zones in the states and devise a plan to move power generated from these zones to the most populated areas in Texas. 1 Comment

The U.S. Department of Defence has released a report about the impact of wind farms on military radar installations. The report undermines previous U.S. Air Force report which stated that the impacts were minimal, and the new report calls more a more in-depth look at the risks. The report covers all aspects of risk, including the impact on military radar, commercial air radar and fishing and ocean navigation systems. The department would like to see radar 'red zones' implemented in order to appease national security concerns and maintain the credibility of current systems. 5 Comments

The Airtricity firm wants to build wind farms on 38 sites in the UK, two of which are in the Harborough district around Kibworth and the Langtons. The first plot runs from the Carlton Curlieu and Shangton villages in the north, down into Kibworth and Tur Langton. Part of the land is the former site of Kibworth Rifle Range. The second boundary is kidney-shaped and runs from Burton Overy down into Kibworth Harcourt. The land is owned or worked on by different farmers. No Comments

Eurus Energy Holdings Corp., Japan's biggest wind power supplier, may scrap a plan to build turbines in the north of the country after the regional utility said it will cut purchases of wind-generated power because supply is unreliable. The project for Hokkaido island would not be profitable under a power purchase plan offered by Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Eurus Energy President Kiyoshi Haraikawa said in an interview on Aug. 22. Hokkaido Electric in June told wind power companies bidding to supply the utility that it wants to buy 25 percent less electricity than offered. No Comments