A recent report from farm equipment manufacturer Deere & Company notes that it will review its wind energy business.
According to the agricultural equipment producer, the company has retained Goldman, Sachs & Co. as its advisor during the process of reviewing its wind operations. The company has engaged in wind energy projects for five years.
"Currently, Deere has 34 wind energy projects in seven states with operational capacity of 706 megawatts," a release from Deere & Co. said. "In addition, the company has numerous wind energy projects in development."
As well, the growth in the offshore sector, which has lagged the onshore sector, will continue to develop and grow as more governments and power generation companies locate areas where the wind energy warrants wind farm development.
Wind Power a Viable Energy Source
In 2010, the global acceptance of wind power as a viable alternative energy source is closely related to the capability of the international community and governments of all countries to negotiate and agree upon legally binding terms on limiting greenhouse gasses.
While Copenhagen 15 did not result in any binding agreements on limiting greenhouse gasses, wind power was represented by a large wind turbine erected on-site, a massive rotor blade, and photographs of onshore and offshore farms.
European Wind Power
In Europe, which has a much longer experience with the capability of wind power to generate electrical energy, than North America, wind energy has become a driving force, and the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), the voice of the European wind industry, reports that it now has over 600 members from almost 60 countries, with a 90 percent share of the world wind power market. Members include manufacturers, plus component suppliers, research institutes, wind and renewables associations, developers, electricity providers, finance and insurance companies and consultants
European wind power will continue to grow as the older and antiquated onshore grid systems are enhanced and a dedicated offshore grid is established.
BALTIMORE, Maryland could meet two-thirds of its electricity needs through offshore wind turbines, a new study says.
The report was prepared by the University of Delaware's Center for Carbon-free Power Integration for the Abell Foundation, The Baltimore Sun reported Tuesday.
Researchers said as many as 2,900 turbines could be placed off the coast. They recommended putting them at least 9 miles out to sea so they could not be seen from resorts such as Ocean City and said they would also have to be located where they would not block shipping into and out of Delaware Bay.
But the report suggested Maryland might become a net exporter of electrical power as new technology, including placing turbines on floating platforms, develops.
"There is, if Maryland so chooses, a significant opportunity to develop
a very robust offshore wind energy economy and create a new economic and job base in the state," said Jeremy Firestone, lead author of the report.
FARMERS BRANCH, Texas – With a surplus of both land and sunshine, Texas could easily be the nation's leader in solar power generation but needs more help from state leaders, advocates said Wednesday.
A coalition of environmentalists, politicians and more than 80 businesses held events around the state to release a letter urging Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Public Utility Commission to take more action promoting solar power use.
The group noted that Texas, which produces and refines a huge portion of the nation's oil, already is home to many companies in the solar business as well as plenty of high-tech and energy industry expertise. So they say there's no reason only 0.01 percent of the state's power should come from the sun.
"We're here today to call on Governor Perry to use his authority to make Texas go solar," Environment Texas spokesman Sriram Madhusoodanan said at a 5,000-square-foot home in suburban Dallas that produces its own solar energy. "Right now is really the time for Texas to take the lead, to lead the world."
Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said the governor supports all sorts of alternative energy in Texas, which leads the nation in wind energy production. Three major solar projects are scheduled to begin this year, others are in development and 11 utility companies are already offering rebates for solar energy systems, she said.
"Texas is the very picture of a state aggressively seeking its future in alternative energy through incentives and innovation, not mandates and overreaching regulation," Castle said. Energy supply is a huge concern in Texas. The state is growing so fast that an estimated 2.2 million single-family homes are expected to be built between 2010 and 2030. Texas also has chronically dirty air, caused in part by numerous coal-fired power plants.
The PUC is considering a rule requiring electric companies to obtain 500 megawatts of electricity from solar energy and other emerging renewable technologies by the year 2015. That's about the size of one coal-fired power plant.
The solar group, called the Go Solar Texas Coalition, wants the rule passed quickly and wants Perry to increase those numbers dramatically. It thinks Texas should push for 1,000 solar megawatts by 2015 and 5,000 by 2025. Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100210/ap_on_bi_ge/tx_solar_power_texas
In 2009 the US wind energy industry installed a record-breaking 10,000 megawatts of new capacity, according to a new report released today by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). That's enough electricity to power 2.4 million homes.
In the 4th quarter of 2009 alone, the wind energy industry brought 4,000 MW of new capacity online.
“The U.S. wind energy industry shattered all installation records in 2009, chalking up the Recovery Act as a historic success in creating jobs, avoiding carbon, and protecting consumers,” says AWEA CEO Denise Bode.
The American Recovery and Investment Act, introduced last year by the Obama administration to battle the recession has invested more than $80 billion in clean energy, with much of that going invested in the wind power sector. On the White House blog today, Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, wrote in reaction to the positive wind energy numbers that:
"Across the country, communities are beginning to establish the clean energy industries that will power the 21st century global economy. Just last week, President Obama got to see firsthand how clean energy investments are putting people to work during his visit to the Wind Turbine Manufacturing and Fab Lab facilities at Lorain County Community College (LCCC) in Elyria, Ohio. LCCC is offering the first associate's degree credit program in Ohio in the burgeoning field of wind turbine power generation."
A shift to 20 percent or more of the Eastern Interconnection’s electrical load to wind energy is possible by 2024, but costs for new transmission lines could be as high as $93 billion, according to a new study released by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
In addition to a significant expansion of the transmission infrastructure, it will also require system operational changes and offshore wind, according to NREL.
The primary goal of the study is to use three years of modeled time-series wind speed and power output data to evaluate the power system impacts and transmission associated with increasing wind penetration to 20 percent and 30 percent on most of the eastern interconnect, reports R&D magazine.
The Eastern Interconnection grid covers the eastern half of the U.S., extending roughly from the western borders of the Plains states through to the Atlantic coast, excluding most of the state of Texas. View a map of North American electrical interconnections below.
Supplying 20 percent of the electrical requirements of the Eastern Interconnection would call for approximately 225,000 megawatts (MW) of wind generation capacity, which is about a tenfold increase above today’s levels, according to the study. To reach 30 percent energy from wind, the installed capacity would have to rise to 330,000 MW.
Thousands of massive wind turbines might not be the ultimate solution after all. Bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to wind energy.
Doug Selsam, CEO of Superturbine, Inc. and wind turbine inventor, certainly doesn’t think so. He knows “small is beautiful”.
Cheaper, lighter turbines can operate on an industrial scale. Doug gets 400 watts per pound out of his small rotors, where as the giant megawatt rotors get 30 watts per pound, that’s a better than 10 to 1 ratio of improved performance.
What’s different about Selsam’s design is its simplicity; no gears or other complex parts, just one spinning drive shaft!
A small module, such as an assembly of 8 propellers in line can produce up to 2 kilowatts. He can make this assembly longer and get more power, he can multiply the assemblies, the sky is the limit…One could imagine thousands of these drive shafts side by side and it would be enough power to run a small city.
Over 7,000 MW of wind power are expected to be installed this year in the U.S. That's down from 2008's record 8,545 MW, but that still would make it the second best year in the history of the industry. Not bad, at a time when the rest of the economy tanked and the value of your primary financial policy driver became all but worthless.
What events drove those highly respectable numbers? What pushed them down and, likewise, what kept them up? What other industry events defined 2009 and promise to impact the industry in the future?
A chronological look at just some such events in the wind energy industry tells the story behind the numbers, and even sheds a ray of light on what’s to come for 2010 and beyond. (For another year-in-review list that’s lengthier with a bit less detail, check out AWEA’s year-end release.)
Fall 2008: credit crisis and recession hit hard. For all intents and purposes, this year actually started last year, if that make sense. By October of 2008, the month that AWEA held one of its popular Wind Energy Finance and Investment Workshops in New York City, the wind industry market dynamics that would plague the first chunk of 2009 were already all too evident. As members of the industry gathered in the finance capital of New York City for the event, the financial crisis had already grabbed the economy by its neck, and lenders had put the breaks on lending—even to an industry with the kind of upside that wind energy was acknowledged to have.
At the workshop presenters spoke of capital “sitting on the sideline” and offered forecasts for the coming weeks and months that ranged from a short-term slowdown with business picking up swiftly once the initial shock of the crisis wore off, to significantly weakened prospects thanks to a financial meltdown they said would leave no industry, no matter how robust, untouched.
In addition to the credit crunch, which hit the capital-intensive wind industry extremely hard, the production tax credit (PTC), wind power’s primary policy driver, became largely impotent virtually overnight. In the recession, companies weren’t making profits, and so tax credits became valueless.
February 2009: Congress gets stimulus package done. Seeking to avoid a meltdown, in February the federal government stepped in to shore up the nation’s economy. Congress passed, and President Obama signed, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which included provisions deemed crucial to ensuring that the wind power industry hold onto its status as one of the economy’s few “bright spots,” to use AWEA’s favorite phrase.
