Alternative Energy / Wind Power

• Forget Wind Turbines - a Completely New Type of Wind Farm is in Development

  A design firm from New York, Atelier DNA, has developed a concept that uses cattail like stalks instead of traditional turbine blades for harnessing the power of wind. Planned for the city of Masdar, being built just outside of Abu Dhabi, the “Windstalk” project came in second in the Land Art Generator competition, generating renewable energy in an artistic way from a plethora of international submissions. Traditional wind turbines' biggest downfalls include noise pollution, inadvertent bird death trapping and general difficulties in installing such large structures. Atelier's new stalk design generates electricity when the wind sets them waving—minus the dreadful…

• U.S. - China Energy Trade War Imminent?

  Washington loves free trade – if it produces a surplus for the U.S. In an election year, with a modest economic recovery underway, American politicians are trumpeting their credentials in saving and creating jobs and protectionism sentiment against foreign products is rising. And the number one target? China. Hardly surprising, as during the period January-November China’s surplus balance of trade with the U.S. reached $272 billion, almost 8 percent higher than that registered during the corresponding period in the previous year, as U.S. consumers become more dependent on Chinese producers than ever before. Without directly criticizing China, during his State of the Union address on…

• Why Wind Power Doesn’t Live up to its Environmental Promises

  “I cannot abide the suggestion that we must sacrifice our environment in order to save it. This is an absurd argument enabling this energy imposter’s invasion of delicate habitat with little return. … Environmentalists must consider the possibility that industrial wind, by its failure to perform to stated goals, does not then qualify for this sacred consideration.” The heavily funded and admittedly effective U.S. industrial wind lobby portrays its product as descending from old-world windmills. Close your eyes and you’ll surely imagine these magnificent machines gently turning in the breeze … each kilowatt arriving at your reading lamp courtesy of…

• Uruguay Seeks Investments in Wind Power - With Price Caps

  The good news for potential investors in Uruguay is that two months ago Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining Ramon Mendez, commented that by 2015 Uruguay could have $1.3 billion dollars of wind farms if developers provided less expensive electricity than that generated by conventional fuel powered plants. Mednez added that Uruguay's state owned national power company Administracion Nacional de Usinas y Trasmisiones Electricas (National Administration of Power Plants and Electric Transmissions, or UTE) could purchase up to 600 megawatts of electricity from projects from companies that participated in an auction for new wind farms, four times more than expected…

• China Wind Power - Good Time to Invest?

  With the ongoing financial turmoil in western markets nervous investors are looking more and more to overseas opportunities in order to protect their capital and few markets are more alluring than China. A potential consumer base of 1.4 billion consumers, all of whom would like their lights to be on 24/7, what's not to like, as the economy booms along despite the global recessional that began in 2008. Accordingly, investors look to the Celestial Empire as a potential safe haven. Given the turmoil in international markets, there are a number of problems involved in investing in China, not the least…

• Canada's Wind Future Take a Tumble

  Edgy energy investors seeking to diversify their portfolio away from Big Oil and nuclear have taken a revived interest in renewables, especially projects in investor-friendly countries with progressive governments. At the top of the list would be Canada, right? Stable, largely English-speaking, progressive and environmentally friendly, right? Therein hangs a tale, proving the timeless value of the adage, "caveat emptor." Trillium Power Wind Corp., according to its website, is "a privately owned company headquartered in Toronto committed to the development of offshore wind in Ontario and The Great Lakes region. The Trillium Power management team has developed and operated waterpower…

• Are Offshore Wind Farms a Feasible Option for the Future?

  Britain is the pioneer in offshore wind energy, with more turbines placed out at sea than by any other nation. However, constructing such offshore wind farms is far tougher and more expensive than land based wind energy. In the dockyards at Belfast in Northern Ireland, where the Titanic was built, are blades longer than the entire wingspan of a Jumbo jet at 61.5 metres and weighing 22 tonnes. The blades are made of fibreglass and become thicker toward their point of attachment where they are fixed by 128 massive bolts in a ring to the rotor hub of the machine.…

• A Look at Some of the Obstacles Facing Wind Energy in the U.S.

  In the United States, we have been working on scaling up wind energy but not getting very far. In 2010, wind energy supplied only 2.3% of electricity purchased. Such slow progress seems strange for a product that seems to have such great promise. It can reduce CO2 emissions. It doesn’t require fuel. It is at least partly US made. The popular view is that it could eventually replace gasoline, but that view is very optimistic because electricity is very different from gasoline, and because of the scalability issue.Figure 1. Wind energy (dark green) is barely visible in a graph of…

• Brazil Bets Big on Wind Power

  Looking towards the future, one of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) is seriously investing in wind power. According to the Brazilian Association of Wind Energy ABEEolica, Brazil is already Latin America's leading wind energy market, with a current wind power capacity sector of roughly 1,400 megawatts, which is projected to grow within the next three years nearly eight-fold by 2014. Supporting ABEEolica statistics, a study by IHS Emerging Energy Research states that Brazil is expected to have 31.6 gigawatts of installed capacity by 2025, which would make it Latin America’s leading producer of electrical energy generated by wind power.…

• Wind Energy Breakthrough: Japan Designs New Wind Turbine With Triple the Output of Traditional Models

  In light of recent events, Japan has been urged to pay more attention to renewable energy sources. Coincidently, in the same month as one of the world's worst nuclear crises devastated Fukushima, an incredibly innovative wind turbine system revealed itself on Kyushu University's campus for field testing. With a promise to generate two to three times the power of traditional models, the new turbine designs exemplify the potential for a cleaner energy future in Japan and around the world, removed from the dangers of nuclear power plants. While energy from wind turbines currently accounts for less than one percent of…