Published on October 17th, 2009
Using just the resources that are currently commercially deployable; 31 of our 50 states, or 64% of US states could get 100% of their electricity from renewable sources in-state, and another 14 percent could generate 75 percent of their electricity in-state, according to a paper published by New Rules Project that focuses on the potential for local production.
In some ways, very local; which actually makes this a conservative estimate. For example:
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Published on October 17th, 2009
Big shifts seem to be stirring in the wind turbine market. Foreign companies are backing out of China due to China’s move to use more home-grown technology. At the same time, China is looking to expand its wind turbine sales into Europe.
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Published on October 15th, 2009
A big factor limiting solar and wind power growth across the US is the current transmission network. It is disconnected. A new project proposed by Tres Amigas LLC in New Mexico would link the nation’s main power grids and, therefore, give hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of households links to already existing renewable energy sources.
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Published on October 14th, 2009
A Florida school district was way ahead of the clean energy curve in the ’80’s. The Hillsborough School District contracted with the first companies pioneering the use of cheap excess off-peak night time power to freeze water at night which would then provide simple cooling by day for air conditioning. Some of those companies had not yet ironed out the kinks in the brand new technology, and recently the district had to find a replacement for these coolers.
A more timid school district might have run from off-peak energy storage altogether. But not Hillsborough. They are taking what they learned and applying their school of hard knocks expertise in selecting from the many companies that now provide second generation night cooling technology to power air conditioning systems.
What’s changed since the eighties is the addition of more wind power to the grid, and the likelihood of more to come with RPS legislation requiring the purchase of more renewable power in many states.
Typically most wind power comes ongrid at night; much more than can be used.
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Published on October 5th, 2009
Coal power is not base-load electricity by itself. To enable coal to reliably deliver electric power, it took the creation of an entire other national infrastructure; the trans-continental railroad system.
Without the unceasing rail-car-load delivery, every 12 hours, on the hour, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, year after year, of every next 12-hour-supply of fuel for the fire; the fire would go out, the water wouldn’t boil, the steam wouldn’t rise, the turbine wouldn’t turn; the next 12 hours of electricity wouldn’t be made. The fire must never go out.
Coal plus railroad = base-load power.
Even today, a century later, every 12 hours in this nation a trainload of coal from Wyoming or Pennsylvania or Ohio, must arrive at an electric power station near your city, to make your coal power for the next 12 hours. No trainload of coal; no coal power. What does that have to do with wind storage?
Wind plus storage = base-load power.
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Published on October 3rd, 2009
European energy giant E.ON “turned on” what is reported to be the largest wind farm in the world this week, in Texas.
The farm contains 627 wind turbines on almost 100,000 acres of land near Roscoe, Texas.
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Tags:
alternative energy,
general electric,
Mitsubishi,
renewable energy,
siemens,
Texas,
Wind,
wind energy,
wind farm,
wind farms,
wind power,
wind turbines
Published on October 1st, 2009
As the US finally moves into manufacturing our own clean energy, a new kind of engineering is starting to move to the forefront. Manufacturing processes engineering. Under the direction of associate professor Vinay Dayal; Iowa State U students are trying to find the way to make wind turbines roll off US assembly lines more efficiently. If we can work out cheap production processes here, we can build parts here.
The university is using a $6.3 million fund from the US Department of Energy, TPI, and and the Iowa Power Fund and has the assistance of scientists from Sandia National Labs and TPI, which operates a local turbine blade factory. Initially they are trying to see how they can boost the speed of the manufacturing process by increasing automation and by automating quality control.
They could improve the productivity of turbine blade factories by as much as 35%.
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Tags:
aerospace engineering,
American clean energy,
clean energy jobs,
Clean Energy Jobs & American Power Act,
industrial manufacturing systems engineers,
Iowa State University,
Iowa wind power leader,
puts a price on pollution,
Sandia National Labs,
turbine blade factory,
US Department of Energy funding,
Wind Energy Manufacturing Laboratory
Published on September 24th, 2009
An amazingly high percentage of people who live down the Mid-Atlantic Seaboard from New York to Virginia want wind turbines off their coast.
Even if they can be seen from the shoreline, 67% support off-shore wind power, according to a new poll of coastal residents of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia .
If the turbines are out of sight, the level of support goes up to an astounding 82%.
A full 25% of the population of the US lives in the nine Atlantic states from Massachusetts to North Carolina. The potential is staggering. So it is very fortunate that so many people in the middle of part of the region with such great potential for wind power feel this way.
Off-shore wind power off the Atlantic could take one third of the US population off the fossil grid.
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Tags:
25% of US population,
67% for off-shore wind,
82% for off-shore wind,
Comprehensive Energy Plan on U.S. Outer Continental She,
Delaware,
maryland,
Mid Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean,
Mid-Atlantic states 100% powered off-shore wind,
Monmouth University,
New Jersey,
new york,
poll commissioned by governors,
Urban Coast Institute and Polling Institute,
Virginia supports off-shore wind,
wind NIMBYism
Published on September 21st, 2009
Iowa leads the US in the percentage of wind power on the grid. The local utility companies pay area farmers royalties of $3,000–5,000 per year so huge wind turbines can share their vast farmland acreage and feed the power to the grid. The arrangement has been so successful that 15% of Iowa’s power now comes from wind.
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Published on September 21st, 2009
Europe’s Cap and Trade has reduced fossil energy use and grown renewable energy
Here’s an example of how fossil energy companies could switch to renewable energy. The Norwegian company StatoilHydro is celebrating the off-shore wind inauguation this month of their Hywind pilot in the North Sea. Off-shore oil drilling companies are in a good position to leverage their expertize to develop off-shore wind; (just as fossil companies on land could also switch from oil drilling to geothermal drilling.)
StatoilHydro’s $58 million Hywind project draws on the company’s long years of experience in offshore oil and gas drilling to easily make the switch to renewable energy. Because of the long previous experience with suppliers they were able to deliver the off-shore wind project on budget and on schedule.
Siemens built the turbine, while Technip built and installed the offshore floater. Nexans Norway laid the submarine power line to the receiving station operated by grid operator Haugaland Kraft who will deliver the power to the grid
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Cap and Trade success,
first floating wind turbine inaugurated,
floating wind turbine,
Haugaland Kraft,
Hywind,
Margareth Øvrum,
Nexans Norway,
pilot program,
siemens,
StatoilHydro,
Technip
Using just the resources that are currently commercially deployable; 31 of our 50 states, or 64% of US states could get 100% of their electricity from renewable sources in-state, and another 14 percent could generate 75 percent of their electricity in-state, according to a paper published by New Rules Project that focuses on the potential for local production.
