Alternative Energy / Wind Power

• The Windscraper - New Building Design Harvests the Environment for Energy

  Designed by HollwichKushner (HWKN), the Windscraper is the winning entry for the Piraeus Tower competition (held in 2010) to complete and modernize the Piraeus Tower in Greece. Called the Sleeping Giant because of its 40 year old construction hiatus, the Piraeus Tower is a 22 story office building. HWKN’s Windscraper proposes finishing the existing structure with a multi functional wind harvesting facade made up of ‘leaf’ panels coated in Alesta Eco Coating which would create an ethereal glow. The concept integrates wind harvesting into the building’s facade instead of just adding turbines.  SmartPlanet: According to the architects’ statement: “…sealed buildings…

• The Changing face of Wind Power - New Turbine Designs

  There was a time not so long ago that seeing a single wind turbine spinning in the distance was a novel experience for most people. Not so much any more. There are now hundreds of wind turbines scattered across the province, representing 1,700 megawatts of wind capacity in Ontario alone — or just over a third of all capacity in Canada. Hundreds more are in the queue waiting to be installed. Most are large turbines, about 2 megawatts or more in size, and between 80 and 100 metres high. All look pretty much the same: a big tall white tower…

• Wind Power to be Competitive with Natural Gas by 2016

  Falling costs mean that the average onshore wind farm will be competitive with natural gas-fired power generation by 2016, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The London-based analysis company says that the levelised cost of energy from onshore wind farms – that is, the cost without subsidies or support mechanisms – has fallen by 14% for every doubling of capacity. Between 1984 and 2011, that cost has dropped from €200 ($271)/MWh to €52/MWh, in 2011 terms – just €6/MWh more expensive than the average cost for power from a combined-cycle natural gas fired plant. That figure excludes any cost…

• Texas Wind Power - Good Money After Bad?

  The cost of building transmission for expensive wind power in Texas is coming in nearly 40 percent higher than initially promised. Instead of $4.9 billion, as estimated in 2008, the transmission lines are now expected to cost $6.8 billion, according to a report prepared by the RS&H infrastructure consulting firm for the Texas Public Utility Commission.  This amounts to approximately $800 per household in the state, or at least $5 per month per ratepayer. Cost Gaming The report states several factors caused the initial underestimate of transmission line construction costs. For example, the initial estimate assumed transmission lines would be…

• Sunny Egypt Interested in... Wind Power

  Egypt currently has a total electricity capacity of about 23,500 megawatts, which the government hopes to increase to 58,000 megawatts by 2027. A prime potential element in increasing this electrical output? Renewables. One might think, given Egypt’s climate, solar? Wrong again – wind power, which currently contributes less than 1 percent to Egypt’s energy mix. In 2003 Egypt had its wind potential assessed and published a wind atlas, which found that with wind speeds of 7-10 meters per second, almost the entire nation was ideal for wind power installations, with the country’s best areas being along the Gulf of Suez…

• Soaring U.S. Wind Power Sector Growing Nervous Over Tax Incentives

  The US wind power sector is soaring thanks in large part to a tax policy that makes it attractive to investors, but the uncertainty surrounding those very incentives is casting a cloud over the future, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). In the quarter to the end of September, a total of 1,204MW of wind capacity was installed across the US, taking new capacity installations for the year to date to 3,360MW – up 74% percent year on year – and the industry total to 43,461 MW, representing some 20% percent of global capacity, AWEA said Tuesday presenting…

• Turkey: Betting on Wind Power, One Village at a Time

  Akbiyik, a village with 365 residents in Turkey’s western Bursa province, has a head start on the country’s plans to increase domestic energy production. The reason is simple -- it has a wind turbine and villagers eager to capitalize on a government push toward alternative energies. Four years ago, Akbiyik villagers stopped paying the electricity bill for a pump that brought water from deep underground to a reservoir they’d built to store water for their homes and fields. The price was exorbitant, they say. With the pump shut off, Akbiyik residents -- mostly women -- for a year instead carried…

• Wind Energy Lies and Turbine Noise Pollution

  “When will the environmentalist community writ large wake up to the unintended micro consequences of their increasingly futile macro policy of forced energy transformation?” Herkimer County, New York, is the latest location to register wind turbine noise complaints. The source? Iberdrola’s Hardscrabble wind facility (37 turbines) that went online earlier this year. Studies are underway to determine if the project is operating outside legal sound limits, but the larger question is “Why?” Why, with over 1,300 MW of wind installed in New York today and an extensive body of evidence showing turbine noise is causing deleterious impacts on people living…

• Race to Build America’s First Offshore Windfarms

  Plans for large commercial-scale wind farms have been on the table for years, but constantly held up by environmental permitting issues, financing concerns, or local objections based on aesthetics. States like New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Massachusetts all have offshore wind projects that have yet to commence. At the American Wind Energy Association's annual conference last week, two major offshore wind developers have announced progress in their attempts to build America's first offshore wind farms. Those two companies, Providence, RI-based Deepwater Wind, and Cape May, NJ-based Fisherman's Energy are taking their projects to the next phase. Deepwater Wind has…

• Wind Power Takes a Hit as Charlestown Rhode Island Bans Wind Turbines

  Wind mills are a clean alternative energy supply but not everyone agrees. The Rhode Island General Assembly’s newly enacted laws facilitating the siting, construction and power-purchase agreements for commercial-grade renewable energy projects recently took a big hit. On September 12th, the town of Charlestown Rhode Island became a U.S. trendsetter in the renewable-energy sector when the Town Council voted to pass the first-in-the-country ban on any size or type of electricity-generating wind turbines. The sweeping prohibition applies to large commercial turbines as well as smaller, residential models. After working for three years to craft an ordinance that was acceptable to…