This is an archive of articles and news on both large and small wind turbines, wind energy & the environment, and links to topics on the history of wind energy.
I've been working with wind energy since 1976 and my professional experience in the subject runs the gamut from wind resource assessment to installing and testing small wind turbines. I continue to follow the industry and analyze its growth and increasing contribution to renewable electricity generation worldwide.
The Kern-Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club will lead a hike among the wind turbines on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) at 9:00 am on Saturday May 16, 2020 near Tehachapi, California. [more]
For three decades, citizens, e.g. in local energy cooperatives, have been promoting the energy transition, by initiating and installing individual wind turbines and later also larger wind farms....
A key gatekeeper with the U.S. Navy says they are ready to move forward on plans for offshore wind along the Central Coast — particularly efforts to install floating turbines off of Morro Bay.
The primary reason, let’s be clear, has been the global trend towards support schemes which favour large investors; in particular, auctions have caused such results. Looking at the frightening...
On a 4-0-1 vote, with 4th District Supervisor Peter Adam absent, the board denied the appeals and granted de novo approval of the project southwest of Lompoc but added a new condition and expanded...
Researchers, including Dr. Julia Ponder, executive director of the Raptor Center, want to learn what frequencies and levels of sound can be heard by the birds, and their reactions to them.
Presentation for the Buena Vista Group of the Kern-Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club 1 February 2020 Bakersfield, California. Check against delivery.
There were 5,250 fatal work injuries in the US in 2018, with falls a leading cause of death – and cuts in government oversight may lead to more
When a trench partially collapsed on a coworker at the Skookumchuck Wind Project outside of Rainier on the morning of Thursday, Jan. 9, 24-year-old Chehalis man Jonathan Stringer didn’t hesitate....
Latvia has had a system of support for energy production in place for many years, based on compensating investment through a feed-in tariff (FiT). However, the support has been provided not only to...
One person working at the Skookumchuck Wind Project construction site is dead and another is critically injured after a trench collapsed on the two workers Thursday morning.
The International Energy Agency said in a report in November that by 2040, offshore wind power alone has the potential to meet Japan’s total power demand by over ninefold and the world’s total...
America's foremost scholar on the power-generating prowess of wind turbines has been challenged by a lesser expert from Bakersfield. That foremost scholar, according to President Trump, is President...
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on Tuesday announced the 2020 feed-in tariff (FIT) rates for renewable energy generation, with the rate for onshore wind power facilities with a capacity of 1...
The turbine started spinning on Dec. 17, providing power to nearby buildings, according to the Bronx Times.
A wind turbine collapsed in the Bronx on Monday, setting off a frightening series of events.
Yes, the United States could be generating 100% of its electricity from renewable energy if we had used the money spent on our ill-advised wars in the Middle East to build wind and solar systems, as...
Tasmania’s Musselroe Wind Farm will undertake an Australian first trial of new radar technology that the operators hope will help reduce instances of collisions with wedge-tailed eagles.
THE EU’S COURT of Justice has fined the State €5m over its failure to comply with EU legislation that might have prevented landslides linked to the construction of a wind farm in the west of Ireland...
Don’t believe everything you hear about the green-energy revolution. It’s coming, but more slowly than advertised. Fossil fuels, in absolute terms, are still on the rise because of population and...
Thilo Wirth was working in the LVR building the Cologne district of Köln-Deutz and sent me his cell-phone picture of the Clean VerTec wind turbine on the roof. [more]
Commissioners approved the Strauss Wind Energy Project that will bring 29 wind turbines mounted to towers more than 260 feet tall and capable of generating 98 megawatts of electricity per year to the...
The latest feed-in-tariff for onshore projects, introduced last year, stands at 8.5 US cents/kWh, while offshore wind power generators will be paid 9.8 US cents for every kWh of power exported to the...
The global climate crisis could lead to more renewable electricity being generated by spurring faster wind speeds for the world’s growing number of windfarms, according to research.
One of the reasons is the failed policy of leaving the working feed-in tariff in favor of an experiment with auctions. Said experiment has failed in a spectacular way. As a part of my job I follow...
Wind energy was found not guilty of health impacts 48 times in 5 countries
"It’s bullshit," said Paul Gipe, who has published five books on wind energy since 1995 and who has closely studied California’s wind farms. (Now the American Wind Energy Association does that.)
Preliminary results from a study involving a wind turbine at Heartland Community College in Normal indicate that using software that turns off turbine blades at lower wind speeds can cut bat...
While most of a turbine can be recycled or find a second life on another wind farm, researchers estimate the U.S. will have more than 720,000 tons of blade material to dispose of over the next 20...
Donald Trump’s family firm is refusing to accept a legal bill worth tens of thousands of pounds after he lost a lengthy court battle against a windfarm near his Aberdeenshire golf course, according...
An MIT student's defense of urban ducted wind turbines.
A fatal, work-related incident this past weekend at Arcosa, a wind tower manufacturing plant in Newton, has resulted in one person dead and another critically injured, the Newton Fire Department...
One wind farm in Glenrock and two from the Saratoga area have partnered with the Casper Regional Landfill to dispose of their old wind turbine blades. More than 900 blades will be brought to the...
Martin Frey's wonderful little guidebook to the Energiewende in Germany is now available in English. Germany - Renewable Energy Experience Baedeker Guides. Frey's book is highly recommended for...[more]
We find that most wind project developers, sponsors and long-term owners have increased project-life assumptions over time, from a typical term of ~20 years in the early 2000s to ~25 years by the...
Good news — neither the president nor anyone else will lose their wealth because of wind energy. On the contrary. A green energy system is cheaper, cleaner and safer than most systems dependent on...
French historian Étienne Rogier examines in depth one of the great wind turbine development programs of the post WWII years. En francais.
. . . supply that would be sufficient to cover the global all-sector energy demand from now through to 2050.
The family of a 29-year old man who died while clearing trees for construction of a wind farm has settled various legal actions for a substantial six figure sum.
Farmers in France are claiming that electromagnetic fields created by wind farms and other electrical installations are leading to low productivity and high rates of mortality.
Alan Grimsley, Director of Business Development of White Electrical is seeking to buy a Honeywell Windtronics 6500. Grimsley wants the device for experimentation.[more]
Vaughn Nelson has pulled together some links to web pages that display either humanity's incredible ingenuity relative to wind energy, or humanity's folly, depending upon your point of view.[more]
In another blast from the past, Vaughn Nelson has tracked down a promotional film (now on youtube) from August 1985 of the Windjammer IV sail wing wind turbine. Patterned after Cretan sail windmills,...[more]
In research for his new book, Vaughn Nelson is turning up a number of fascinating videos. One he found is a video of Heidelberg Motor's H-rotor operating in Germany. The VAWT was unusual in that the...[more]
In the research for his new book, Vaughn Nelson has been dredging up some amazing videos. (See Hywind Scotland Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Video.) [more]
In another sign of the times, I've closed Wulf Field and sold the property to the neighboring wind farm managed by Windstream Properties.[more]
I don't often comment or link to news about offshore wind projects or technology. There's plenty of land available for wind energy. In most cases we don't need to go offshore. [more]
Christopher Booker had campaigned vociferously against wind turbines for over a decade, describing them as 'one of the most dangerous political delusions of our time'
A worker at the site of a wind farm under construction in north-central Iowa has died after being run over by a semitrailer.
We find that average all-in lifetime OpEx has declined from approximately $80/kW-yr (~$35/MWh) for projects built in the late 1990s to a level that is approaching $40/kW-yr (~$11/MWh) for projects...
While deleting some old files--yes, I am one of those who deletes unnecessary files--I came across two photos I meant to post in 2018.[more]
Davis was CEO of Dragonfly Industries International, LLC, which sought to build a wind farm on 300 acres near in Elm Springs for electric power generation in 2015.
At the same time, we notice with growing concern that there are increasing barriers against the rapid growth of renewable energy globally, e.g. through the introduction of auctions in the renewable...
Seventeen intrepid hikers crossed the Cameron Canyon segment of the Pacific Crest Trail Saturday on the 33rd annual Windmill-Wildflower hike near Tehachapi, California. [more]
One possible way to prevent these deaths is to chase the birds away with acoustic signals—sound. To determine what types of sounds are most effective in deterring the birds, researchers at the...
On 26 April 2019 the alumni association of the Natural Resources and Environmental Management Department at my alma mater, Ball State University, presented me with its Award of Distinction, the...[more]
Massive pods of 700-foot floating wind turbines off the coast of California are edging closer to becoming a reality, now that the state has firm applications from several companies hoping to realize...
It is uncertain if the Company’s efforts (i) to address its cash constraints and its legal difficulties with Comerica and/or (ii) to effect one or more strategic transactions will be successful.
A group of French cattle farmers is suing the state over the mysterious death of hundreds of cows, which they believe are the victims of harmful electromagnetic fields. Local vets are at a loss to...
The Kern-Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club will lead a hike among the wind turbines on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) at 9:00 am on Saturday May 18, 2019 near Tehachapi, California. [more]
No, Mr. President, windmills don’t cause cancer. What they do cause is the creation of thousands of jobs and businesses in Kern County, and technical innovations that help keep America energy...
Thank you, Mr. President, for the timely attention. My recent book about windmills, or what we call wind turbines, has been languishing in a New York warehouse not far from Trump Tower--until now,...[more]
Thank you, Mr. President, for the timely attention. My recent book about windmills, or what we call wind turbines, has been languishing in a New York warehouse not far from Trump Tower — until now,...
U.S. President Donald Trump mocked renewable energy at yesterday's campaign rally in Michigan. Implicating Hillary Clinton as part of Big Wind, Trump said, "If Hillary got in...you'd be doing wind....
The dream of Morro Bay as a new hub of offshore renewable energy production in California could be over before it even gets its sea legs — or it could just be ramping up.
While there is ample land area for both wind and solar power plants, there is also ample area offshore of major metropolitan areas to power the world's major cities.[more]
The French offshore Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine developer Nénuphar closed its doors in early 2018. Their web site is dark, though there are several Nenuphar Animations on YouTube.com.[more]
One of the conclusions then is no doubt true today: "There is no well established relationship between Darrieus wind turbine prototype costs and volume production costs because only one company,...[more]
The report was prepared by Lawrence Schienbein Associates, Kennewick, Washington.[more]
World-renowned wind energy expert Paul Gipe of Bakersfield joined The Californian's Robert Price for his weekly "One on One" webcast to talk about California's energy future. Gipe said PG&E's...
Japan’s nascent offshore wind industry is expected to increase dramatically over the next ten years, according to energy analysts Wood Mackenzie, who predict that by 2028 the island country will...
Gregory Jaczko was an outsider. He wasn’t from the industry. But somehow he was appointed to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, eventually becoming its Chair. His 2019 book, Confessions of a...[more]
Peddling green works. After watching Budweiser's 2019 Superbowl commercial-- the Clydesdales racing through wheat fields on Tejon Ranch, with wind turbines turning serenely in the background--I...[more]
How about just one really important climate-control thought? How about windmills? If the country really threw itself into wind power, we could, er, breeze toward our goals on that alone. Wind...
Peddling green works. After watching Budweiser's 2019 Superbowl commercial-- the Clydesdales racing through wheat fields on Tejon Ranch, with wind turbines turning serenely in the background--I...
Up in the Air is a short film about the wind turbine project in Prince Edward County. For nearly two decades, a group of County residents have been supporting wind energy initiatives. The White Pines...
he Logan County Sheriff's Office identified Carl Pierce, 41, of Portland, Ore., as the man who was pronounced dead at the wind tower work site Tuesday.
Elsevier has published an extensive survey of attempts at building commercial Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines on its digital platform. The print version of the survey by Swedish academic Erik Möllerström...[more]
Since the 1970s, there have been several VAWT projects with installed turbines of significant size, either as attempts to commercialize VAWTs, or as university led research projects, or as a...
Nine years after the first was built beside Falmouth’s waste treatment plant, both turbines now stand idle, no longer producing a kilowatt of electricity, totems of good intentions gone awry.
The Associated Press circulated a news item on 14 January 2019 about a field hand killed near Visalia when the blade of a "wind machine" fell off. See California orchard worker dies after 600-pound...[more]
A new study published in the Journal of Environmental Management has found that offshore wind turbines in the German North Sea are having an effect on where birds fly and land. As a result, loons...
The renewable energy company Pacific Hydro confirmed to The Courier that three deaths of the eagle – Australia’s largest bird of prey – have been recorded at the wind farm since it began operating in...
Sheerwind-Invelox, a ducted-turbine fiasco, officially went bust in early 2018. Incredibly, there are a number of promotional videos still on line at youtube.com and on vimeo. The latter is even more...[more]
While poking around on the Internet to see if anything new had popped up on some of my favorite ducted turbine projects I came across some videos of FloDesign-Ogin that I hadn't seen before.[more]
I've been alerted to an error in the second edition of Wind Power (2004): Renewable Energy for Home Farm and Business.[more]
Hundreds of wind turbines could pop up along the coast off Los Osos and Cambria — but before they do,the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Managment wants to know if you think that’d be a good idea.
A trial of its ultrasonic acoustic Bat Deterrent System reduced overall bat fatalities at the Los Vientos Wind Energy Facility in Starr County, Texas, by 54 percent. The results of the test prove...
Texas now produces four times as much wind energy as California, which has fallen to No. 4 in the United States — not a promising trend, given the state’s ambitious goal of switching to 100 percent...
The worker has since been identified as Joseph Hill of Minnesota. Mitchell County Sheriff Greg Beaver said deputies responded to the site, and provided medical attention. The deputies determined that...
Mitchell County Sheriff Greg Beaver said the fatal accident occurred about 1 p.m. Saturday while the worker was loading heavy equipment at Turtle Creek Wind Farm, which is under construction near St....
An Iowa construction worker was killed in what authorities are calling an "industrial accident" in St. Ansgar, Iowa over the weekend.
Windustrious Cleveland's Sara Taylor calls for opponents of offshore wind in the Great Lakes to evolve, as others have done in past, to avoid technological stagnation.[more]
In 1980 the Department of Energy published a short film titled Wind: An Energy Alternative. The 12-minute film was produced by the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) probably in 1979.[more]
The presence of wind turbines can reduce the number of birds and lizards in an area, a new study has found. Should we start tearing the farms down?
I've added several rare photos and scans Vaughn Nelson found in his files from the 1970s. Nelson, one of the wind industry's pioneers, has an extensive collection of experimental wind turbines from...[more]
New technology to detect and prevent eagles from colliding with rotating wind turbine blades will be applied in Australia for the first time – at Goldwind Australia’s Cattle Hill Wind Farm in the...
I've added a new page on photos of historical Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines to include VAWTPower Management's prototypes at Clines Corner, New Mexico.[more]
Since 2010 the small wind industry in North America has been in steep decline. First Congress turned its back on the industry in the United States. Then the descent accelerated with the rapid fall in...[more]
The findings indicate an overall positive attitude toward the nearby turbines, including for those living even as close as ½ mile. Roughly 8% of the population had negative attitudes within 5 miles.
In the mountains 20 miles west of Willcox, 15 wind turbines stand 450 feet tall, spinning with the wind. This is the Red Horse II Wind Farm, the only wind farm operating in southern Arizona.
Ulrich Mertens has done us all a very big favor. With graphic clarity and a professional photographer’s keep eye for composition, Wind in Sicht – Landscape in Transition illustrates the newest...[more]
In an Aug. 30 rally in Evansville, Indiana, President Donald Trump made three unsubstantiated claims about wind turbines, which he calls “windmills”.
Efforts to build fields of floating wind turbines off the coast of California are gaining momentum, and Morro Bay might be at the front of the line.
Christopher Bruce lost his automotive job, sulked, then reinvented himself
What struck my eye is the quote, "Indiana is a better location for the use of windpower than many eastern states, since most wind speeds are higher, the terrain flatter, and most of the trees cut...[more]
The growing excitement for offshore wind development on the Great Lakes is great to see. William Friedman, of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority, has announced that they have identified the...[more]
A crawler crane operator has died in an incident at a wind farm in Poweshiek County, Iowa over the weekend.
The unexpected cancellation of a wind energy project by the new Ontario government will cost ratepayers more than $100 million according to the company spearheading the project.
So, the question is, do these assertions hold up under scientific scrutiny? The answer appears to be “no.”
Green Energy Act allowed province to ignore local concerns, but election gives opponents new optimism.
The House of Representative is set to authorize a study to determine if offshore wind facilities are killing whales and other sea life.
A wind farm comprised of 432 vertical-axis wind turbines on the coast of Changhua County’s Fangyuan Township (芳苑) has become the county’s latest tourist attraction. The turbines look like egg...
Tubs of Strawberry Breeze-cake, Cherry Gale-cia and other wind-themed ice-creams will feature in a campaign by Ben & Jerry’s to persuade the government to rethink its opposition to onshore windfarms.
There are some books that simply bring a smile to your face--even to someone as jaded as I. This is one of them. There is a joy in discovering what the future may hold that comes across in Ulrich...[more]
Research published today by Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) claims that wind farm technicians often struggle to recall key safety instructions.
The digital version of Paul Gipe's Wind Energy for the Rest of Us has been re-launched on several platforms at $19.99, 33% off the previous e-book price.[more]
Wind, meanwhile, saw a drop in installation activity due to the transition from a feed-in-tariff (FiT) scheme to auction mechanism, with less than 2 GW of new wind parks coming online, a year-on-year...
The United States Wind Turbine Database (USWTDB) has gone live according to a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) press release.[more]
Presentation by Paul Gipe for PG&E 21 April 2018 at CalPoly, San Luis Obispo, California. Check against delivery.
Presentation by Paul Gipe for PG&E 21 April 2018 at CalPoly, San Luis Obispo, California. Check against delivery.
Presentation by Paul Gipe for PG&E 21 April 2018 at CalPoly, San Luis Obispo, California. Check against delivery.
Presentation by Paul Gipe for PG&E 21 April 2018 at CalPoly, San Luis Obispo, California. Check against delivery.
Presentation by Paul Gipe for PG&E 21 April 2018 at CalPoly, San Luis Obispo, California. Check against delivery.
Presentation by Paul Gipe for PG&E 21 April 2018 at CalPoly, San Luis Obispo, California. Check against delivery.
Presentation by Paul Gipe for PG&E 21 April 2018 at CalPoly, San Luis Obispo, California. Check against delivery.
Presentation for the CORE Energy Summit in Winnipeg, Manitoba 12 April 2018.
Presentation for CORE Energy Summit in Winnipeg, Manitoba 12 April 2018.
Presentation on Electric Vehicles for the CORE Energy Summit in Winnipeg, Manitoba 12 April 2018.
What's up with Canada? I've gotten two enquiries from the Great White North about Bluenergy Solarwind, a US company claiming to have developed another vertical-axis wind turbine (VAWT).[more]
4 April the transfer of remaining copies of Wind Energy for the Rest of Us to a new distributor was completed.[more]
Celebrities like former Tonight Show host Jay Leno and actor Ed Begley Jr. endorsed the Canadian entrepreneur's product. Rowan was making national headlines with his invention. But skeptics wondered...
One of the UK’s best-known and most iconic small-scale wind companies, Gaia-Wind, has been forced into provisional liquidation and the company and outside observers are highlighting government...
Cleveland has been a city of innovation, right from the very beginning. In 1796 Moses Cleaveland, in his westward journey from Connecticut, discovered the area around the mouth of the Cuyahoga River,...[more]
Yesterday trade organisation RenewableUK added its voice, calling government decision-making a “key factor” in the fall of one of the sector’s “best-known and most iconic companies”. The Feed-In...
Bosnia’s maiden wind farm began producing electricity on Wednesday as part of the country’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and meet the renewable energy standards of the European Union it...
Gaia-Wind, which celebrated the roll-out of its 1000th device from Glasgow last April, has appointed a provisional liquidator. The company moved its operations to Scotland from Denmark seven years...
Sex sells. Always has, always will. Sex has been used to sell beer, cars, and even wind energy--well, at least articles about wind energy.[more]
Wind power prices have plummeted in recent years since Germany switched to auctions. Now, a study has found what readers of this blog already knew: the prices only look low because they are reported...
The family of a security guard who died after becoming trapped in heavy snow on a remote wind farm are demanding answers about his death.
CGE Energy recently issued a press release applauding the US Congress for extending tax subsidies to small wind turbines. The press release also touts CGE's Darrieus wind turbine, the Wind-e 20.[more]
The 1992 report on the project by the Centre de Recherche Energétiques et Municpales reads like so many of the others from the period. In short, the four-year project was a failure for a host of...[more]
Wind historian extraordinaire Etienne Rogier sent me a carte postale (post card) promoting a 1988 French postage stamp. The card depicts the postage stamp and an experimental Darrieus turbine.[more]
The turbines ran for three months before one blade fell to the ground 190 feet below. Then a second blade crashed through a nearby storage building's roof, falling into a conference room. No one was...
Daryoush Allaei extolling the wonders of his device in his native land. Note the location of the device--down below the ridge on which they are standing. Also notice that there are some real wind...
Additionally, the sound-level drivers (modeled wind turbine sound level and background sound level) are poor predictors of very annoyed responses; one’s prior support for or opposition to a local...
A similar mean level of annoyance to sound is found in European results. In the U.S. sample, the mean levels of annoyance to lighting, shadow flicker, and landscape change are similar but slightly...
Attitudes were significantly correlated with compensation, sensory perceptions of the nearby turbines, planning process perceptions, and attitudes toward wind turbines in general. It was also found...
In 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy funded Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to lead a 4-year project collecting data from a broad-based and representative sample of individuals...
A manufacturer and exporter of wind turbines based in the People’s Republic of China was convicted today of stealing trade secrets from AMSC, a U.S.-based company formerly known as American...
The Unite union has called on the UK government and Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to toughen the laws governing the construction and maintenance of wind farms, following the death of a worker at...
UK: A 74-year-old man has died at a wind farm in southeast Scotland after becoming stranded without heat or power.
The Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) has been reviewing the application by Icebreaker Windpower Inc., regarding its proposal to install six turbines on Lake Erie, a few miles offshore from Cleveland....
The feed-in tariff is currently applicable to electricity generated from plants gen¬erating electricity from renewable sources with an installed capacity not exceed¬ing 15 MW (“Preferential...
The Nature Conservancy (TNC), one of the nation's premier land preservation trusts, isn't talking about its failed investment in a ducted wind turbine debacle 1,000 miles from Hawaii.[more]
French wind historien Etienne Rogier has published an article on French post war wind turbines in the latest issue of the house organ for the Fédération des Moulins de France.[more]
The following are comments to Another Ducted Device Dead: SheerWind-Invelox Bankrupt. They were so insightful I decided to repost them here where they are more easily archived.[more]
My inbox saw a flurry of emails 4 January 2018 to inform me that ducted turbine darling SheerWind-Invelox was bankrupt. While the event wasn't much of a surprise, it did take much longer than I'd...[more]
But after 16 years — and $100 million of his own money — that dream is, well, gone with the wind. Mr. Gordon has pulled the plug, stymied by endless litigation and a series of financial and political...
"Grind up the SUVs and build wind turbines with them," says David Blittersdorf, founder of AllEarth Renewables. Podcast with more provocative thoughts on renewables, transit, and energy policy in...
The Interior Department has quietly rolled back an Obama-era policy aimed at protecting migratory birds, stating in a solicitor’s opinion that it will no longer prosecute oil and gas, wind, and solar...
A big reason Dow chose wind energy in gas-rich Texas, is that wind power has a completely predictable fuel cost (zero), which budget planners like. They don't have to guess what their costs will be a...
We feature full sized wind pumps, steam engines and a unique scoop wheel along with a collection of photographs, models of various mills which all depict the evolution of the drainage of the Broads. [more]
Someone sent me a link to a YouTube video titled Abandoned Vertical Axis Windmill In The Magdalen Islands.[more]
Renewable energy and electric vehicle fan Bob Tregilus was out and about in rural Nevada when he came across an odd wind turbine powering a well pump in the Reese River Valley. So he sent along his...[more]
Contrary to the ideas promulgated by some opponents of wind generation, most of the substantial investment in wind farms in South Australia is not being paid for by taxpayers or electricity consumers...
At first I resented the way they blocked the view. But now the towers look like part of a brighter future.
Permitting for the project dragged on for more than ten years and the 30-megawatt project is expected to go online in 2018. A contract worker died on the site in April after he was electrocuted.
Science deniers needlessly killing animals, in order to needlessly kill more animals. Appalled but not surprised. People who don’t care about the massive extinctions brought on by climate change...
Located on the arid and windswept plains of northeastern Iran, 30 miles from the Afghan border, the small village of Nashtifan is keeping ancient traditions alive amid the winds of change. The town...
David Sprague, of Windham, Maine, was 59 years old when he was electrocuted at the Putnam Road construction site on April 18.
Anxiety over “wind-turbine syndrome” stems from a decades-old misunderstanding of inaudible noise. (Jun 19, 2017)
Even though the blades appear curved, each is made of 11 sections with hinged connections. The rotor will be limited to about 80 rpm by using several aviation-style airbrakes in the center sections...
At £57.50 per megawatt-hour (MWh), it is far cheaper than the state-backed price of £92.50 awarded in 2016 to Hinkley nuclear power station. The speed of wind’s progress is extreme and inarguable.
I pay a price for debunking various wind turbine flim-flams and posting critiques on my web site. Consequently, I am cursed to be listed by Google and Indian call centers as the person to call if a...[more]
In response to a query from a Swedish researcher, I’ve posted eight historic photos of the Adecon Darrieus wind turbine to my web site. See Adecon under Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) in the...[more]
Hans-Detlef Feddersen sent me a copy of a little picture book celebrating the 25th anniversary of Bürger-Windpark Lübke-Koog. He included a DVD video of interviews with the founders of the...[more]
Small Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) come and go so fast no one can keep track of them before they become history.[more]
The ruling would push back community wind projects by "at least a decade''.
Benny Christensen knows his windmills. An early anti-nuclear activist and proponent of 100% renewable energy—a photo of him appears in Steven Borish’s Land of the Living—Christensen has now turned...[more]
The title, Störfall mit Charme, is a playful thumbing of the nose in German at the critics of a movement by citizens in a small village in the deepest reaches of Germany’s Schwarzwald or Black Forest...[more]
One of Victoria’s best-known wind farms, Waubra, 35km north-west of Ballarat, has been shot at several times in recent years, police have revealed.
Geothermal energy is one of the dark horses of renewable energy. Few “renewable energy advocates” know much—if anything—about it. They don’t know what geothermal contributes today and have no clue...[more]
Given that this is offshore wind, it stands to reason that lenders and investors will work from what they know (offshore wind using fixed-bottom foundations), and try to understand how different FOW...
At the heart of the problem has been governments’ trust in market solutions without a sharp eye on the shortfalls in market performance and without adequate leadership on the long term outcome the...
The world’s first ever offshore wind farm has finally been dismantled, with DONG Energy announcing this week that it had completed decommissioning the 4.95 megawatt Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm.
The Snickers, Twix, Milky Way and Skittles maker has also revealed plans to champion renewable energy through its M&M’s brand, featuring images of things such as wind turbines alongside its red and...
In response to my review of Energy Democracy, a new book on Germany’s energy revolution by Craig Morris and Arne Jungjohann, long-time colleague Bernard Saulnier contacted me with his thoughts.[more]
Rightwing Poles have raised the old canard that wind turbines and, hence, wind energy, is the detestable spoor of Nazi racial ideology. Nothing could be further from the truth.[more]
Tom Gray, former executive director of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) died Wednesday.[more]
The copyright was finally issued for Wind Energy for the Rest of Us. A long time coming, the copyright was issued under Title 17 of the United States Code and became effective 5 December 2016.[more]
Is one of the most powerful books on the renewable energy revolution in decades. It’s a chronicle of the remarkable transformation underway in the world’s fourth-largest industrial economy.[more]
Cody Hubbard, 29, was electrocuted and trapped at the top of a wind turbine at a farm on CR 183 Thursday. He was doing work for Ivenergy LLC when the accident occurred, injuring one other employee,...
When was the Energiewende born? Lots of dates are tossed around, but one German press report argues that it all started today 30 years ago, when a test wind farm was connected to the grid.
I’d seen a reference to the technical paper, Optimization of a vertical axis wind turbine for application in an urban/suburban area, by two academics making the rounds but didn’t take much notice of...[more]
Germany’s Network Agency has announced the results of the second round of onshore wind auctions. The new price is 4.29 cents/kWh, a quarter lower than the 5.71 cents from the first round.
We find cumulative wind and solar air-quality benefits of 2015 US$29.7–112.8 billion mostly from 3,000 to 12,700 avoided premature mortalities, and cumulative climate benefits of 2015 US$5.3–106.8...
$13 billion was invested in new wind power plants in 2016. In 2016, wind energy contributed 5.6% of the nation’s electricity supply, more than 10% of total electricity generation in fourteen states,...
It is a meaningless concept at the least and dangerous at its worst
Yes, I’ve written about this subject once before, Everything You Need to Know about Wind Energy Was Written in 1957!, but I am moving the date back thirty years in the light of more research. The...[more]
Largely forgotten today, Georges Jean Marie Darrieus was one of France’s great engineers. While he is mostly known in the English-speaking world for his patent on vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs),...[more]
A wind-turbine-blade factory in Southwestern Ontario that Siemens Wind Power Ltd.’s former parent company called “a key part of our global supply chain” just last September is winding down...
In response to the June 24, 2017 piece, “Block Island Wind Farm May Have Killed Young Humpback Whale,” several of us, researchers at the University of Rhode Island (URI), feel it is important to...
Oh the ways of the wind. It blows where it will--or something to that effect. We were on our way to pick cherries. That’s a fairly innocuous activity. From Bakersfield we had to cross the Antelope...[more]
The Chaska, Minnesota promoter of a ducted wind turbine appears to have fallen on hard times. The fabric covering of the intake duct for their demonstration turbine is torn and in disrepair and the...[more]
York University’s International Renewable Energy Academy designated 29 June as the “wind day” on their week-long program. [more]
The 29 June was the “wind day” for York University’s International Renewable Energy Academy. As the featured speaker to start the day I donned one of my favorite wind tie.[more]
(1) North American support for wind has been consistently high. (2) The NIMBY explanation for resistance to wind development is invalid. (3) Socioeconomic impacts of wind development are strongly...
The Chinese Government is therefore set to publish at least 2 or 3 additional reductions to the onshore wind FiT level before 2023.
Right-wing media find a new renewable energy bogeyman.
Presentation by Paul Gipe for York University's International Renewable Academy on 22 June 2017. Check against delivery.
In 2014, Senate Republicans tucked into an 822-page mid-biennium budget review (HB 483) a rider that more than doubled the distance a wind turbine must be from the adjacent property of anyone who...
"Wind farms and nuclear power stations are responsible each for between 0.3 and 0.4 fatalities per gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity while fossil-fuelled power stations are responsible for about...
They say that a good book should always tell a story. And this is true for this book by Paul Gipe. Titled "Wind Energy for the Rest of Us" is not just about the technology, but it tells the whole...
While thumbing through German renewables magazine, Sonne Wind&Wärme, a table jumped out at me. The table confirmed that the Silent Wind Revolution that French renewables expert Bernard Chabot first...[more]
Dr. Alt is a journalist who has been promoting the vision of a renewable energy world for more than two decades. As head and presenter of important political tv magazines, he became one of the most...
I have a Casella CEL-464 professional-grade sound level meter for sale. I used the unit during the early 2000s to measure the noise emissions from small wind turbines.[more]
The onslaught of super-dooper new windmill inventions is never ending. Frankly it’s wearing out us old timers. We can’t keep up with the damn things. We try to ignore them but our friends and...[more]
It is no wonder that a modern wind turbine looks so beautiful.[more]
So, are wind and solar killing coal and nuclear? Yes, but not by themselves and not for the reasons most people think. Are wind and solar killing grid reliability? No, not where the grid’s technology...
Ogin raised more than $150 million in funding — even attracting the attention of former Vice President Al Gore, now a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, one of the company’s earliest...
Four years after a federal grand jury in Raleigh, North Carolina returned a two-count indictment against James Alan Rowan for his fraudulent wind turbine investments, the fugitive was caught in...[more]
Among all those who lost money in the FloDesign-Ogin fiasco is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Compared to others the state lost a relatively modest amount of $3 million.[more]
Urban environments are challenging locations for small wind turbines. Moreover, the sector must deal with cases of small turbines poorly sited and installed by companies that are more interested in...
The work within this thesis is made in collaboration between Halmstad University and Uppsala University. A 200-kW semi-guy-wired VAWT H-rotor, owned by Uppsala University but situated in Falkenberg...
James Alan Rowan was apprehended in Saskatoon, where his parents live. A Saskatoon judge committed him to be extradited to the U.S. to face two fraud charges filed against him amid allegations he...
Recently a Dutch wind farm developer’s home was firebombed. Dutch Wind Developer Fire Bombed What other instances of violence against wind industry staff have occurred?
New Zealand’s Superannuation Fund has written down its $47.5 million (NZ) investment in ducted turbine promoter Ogin. [more]
In June 2016 the Ogin Board of Directors and management mutually agreed to separate. At that point we wrote the Fund’s NZ$47.5 million investment down to nil, and that was included in our annual...
Sometime around midnight 10-11 April the home of Bob Jans was firebombed in Assen, the Netherlands. Both Jans and his wife were home, asleep at the time.[more]
Keynote presentation to the 2017 Small Wind Conference 11 April in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[more]
When she's not climbing in Patagonia, Jessica Kilroy hangs off wind turbines
Bergey Windpower, an American manufacturer of small wind turbines for residential and commercial applications, recently announced a new product, the Excel 15 wind turbine.
"Als die Gemeindevertreter der drei Gemeinden mit diesem Konzept auf die Bürger zugingen, war das Vorhaben schnell akzeptiert“, erinnert sich Schäfer.
Investigators are looking into the possibility that the man may have taken his own life, it is understood.
Police have identified a worker who died in an accident on a wind farm site in the south of Scotland.
Another interesting concept being considered is to locate one or both reservoirs below ground (sub-surface).
A proposal by Northland Power for a project in Ontario, Canada.
Gemany is turning one of its old coal mines into a giant 'battery station' that will store hydroelectric power and provide energy to around 400,000 homes, with hopes of launching similar facilities...
As wind energy achieves a historic milestone – surpassing the total capacity of hydropower dams to become the nation’s largest renewable energy resource – many of California’s pioneer wind projects...
A poll published in the Sunday Times shows more than half of Conservative voters think the government should do more to encourage onshore wind power. 52% of those surveyed said the building of wind...
The Small Wind Conference has chosen Paul Gipe as its keynote speaker for its 2017 conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Calling Gipe “legendary” for his four decades writing about wind energy, the...[more]
Nova Scotia policy on wind farms makes them 3 times more popular than in Ontario, study says.
Presentation before the Distributed Wind Energy Association in Washington, DC February 28, 2017[more]
The book is a combination between a historical book, a textbook and a do-it-yourself book if you want to install your own wind turbine or want to invest in wind energy. It describes the different...
A stark, but somewhat expected finding is the high degree of support for wind energy in Nova Scotia compared to Ontario. Local support of their own nearby turbine development was three times higher...
With a month to go this fiscal year, Japan's installation of new wind power capacity in 2016-17 is set to come in almost double that of the previous 12 months, propelled by higher tariffs guaranteed...
The Canadian province of Ontario generated a higher percentage of its electricity with wind energy than California in 2015. [more]
Is the end near for SheerWind’s Invelox ducted wind turbine? The problems with SheerWind’s design are coming to a head as its signature clients lose faith.[more]
No, that’s not mere click bait. That’s the argument Geoff Henderson makes in a provocative paper on wind turbine size and the landscape impact of wind turbines.[more]
The Kern-Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club will lead a hike among the wind turbines on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) at 9:00 am on Saturday May 20, 2017 near Tehachapi, California. [more]
The current newsletter of the Poul la Cour Foundation offers kudos for the new book by Paul Gipe, Wind Energy for the Rest of Us. [more]
Last week, we got a peek at Trump’s infrastructure plan, which included infrastructure projects that he considers a priority. Three of those are wind-related projects.
The digital version of Wind Energy for the Rest of Us is now available for download. This is the version of the book for true wind geeks as it offers photographic detail not seen any other way.[more]
It seems to happen with every new technology. It wasn’t so long ago that some people were convinced a photograph could steal your soul. We may read about that now and have a little chuckle, but are...
Despite its previous association with a questionable wind turbine and its promoter, Clarkson University announced that the school in upstate New York has transferred ducted wind turbine technology...[more]
Honeywell WindTronics may be dead but that doesn’t stop others from spinning the WindTronics hype. [more]
“The province gave the company $2.7 million to open in Windsor — under one condition. The company promised there would be 200 workers in the plant by the end of this year. That is now very unlikely,”...[more]
"It is prohibited for any private actor, any renewable energy company to come into Newfoundland to build a renewable energy source or to sell or transmit it on the grid. It's essentially against the...
Fans of my work with wind energy have often joked that my books would have a larger audience if they had some sex in them--or at least a bare breast.[more]
This book analyzes Germany's path-breaking Energiewende, the country's transition from an energy system based on fossil and nuclear fuels to a sustainable energy system based on renewables. The...
Messages sent before his White House campaign show US president-elect harassing Alex Salmond over windfarms
Levelised cost of electricity from wind farms in France stands at EUR 76 per MWh, says a joint study of Pöyry Managing Consultants and French wind industry body France Energie Eolienne published...
Patrick McCaffrey (37) from Rossinver, Co Leitrm died on Monday evening after a landslide on a mountain bog on the Sligo-Roscommon border where groundworks for turbines were being carried out.
Endurance Wind Power filed for bankruptcy sometime around early November and placed under trust with Grant Thonrton, after its bank called in its loan.
Wind Energy for the Rest of Us, Paul Gipe’s new book on wind energy is finally hitting the streets. Complimentary copies of the 560-page tome are reaching the first group of colleagues and reviewers...[more]
Energy Democracy traces the origins of the Energiewende movement in Germany from protests against the industrialization of rural communities in the 1970s to the Power Rebels of Schönau and German...
The $107,516 spires stand immobile more than two months after they were erected and more than a year after the city council approved them.
SeaTwirl has already installed a 30-kW prototype floating offshore wind turbine at Lysekil and it wants to build a full-scale machine, SeaTwirl S2, by 2020.
More correctly, the Chelsea Green warehouse has books. They arrived 9 November all 2,150 copies. [more]
US president-elect does not deny pushing interim leader Nigel Farage and key associates to fight development of windfarms in Scotland
Paul Gipe has been named to the Energy Watch Group, one of only two North Americans on the prestigious panel. He joins Stanford academic Mark Jacobson, internationally known for his work on moving to...[more]
FloDesign’s prototype ducted wind turbine on Deer Island in Boston Harbor is being removed, according the agency that operates the nearby sewage treatment plant.[more]
Ok, we did have a previous ship date. Printed copies of Wind Energy for the Rest of Us were to arrive in the warehouse at the end of October. Obviously, that didn’t happen--and for good reason. I...[more]
“Purdue is involved in trying to look at the genetics of these birds to figure out whether they are local birds that were born and hatched near the Altamont site, or whether they are birds from other...
Some 73% of the British public polled by ComRes support onshore windfarms in contrast with government decisions to block them
On this date in 1941, the first commercial-scale wind turbine was connected to the electrical grid in the United States. It was a milestone in the development of wind energy. The giant Smith-Putnam...[more]
Wind energy companies in Indiana are attempting to mitigate the deaths of bats during migration season by slowing or stopping their turbines at night.
But amid the gale-force havoc, the day also brought a critical milestone in a quiet energy revolution: For the first time ever, the army of spinning white turbines that has sprouted across the lush...
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) concludes in a new report that rooftop-mounted and building-integrated wind turbines are a failure, though readers would be hard pressed to find that...[more]
Cleanfield made a big media splash in Ontario, Canada during the mid-2000s with its claim of producing a new wind turbine suited for mounting on buildings. [more]
Makani Airborne Wind Energy Turbine (AWT) hasn't been in the news lately. They arrived in a flurry of press in 2013 as the next big thing from Google. The device is a powered kite tethered to the...[more]
There’s no better example of ignorance, hype, and hubris by people with more money at their disposal than their knowledge of energy when the government of Ontario funded Cleanfield Energy, a small...[more]
Who knew that printing a book would be so complicated? Yes, writing, designing, and editing a book are difficult. That’s expected. But picking out paper weights?[more]
Vertical axis wind turbine design to be tested soon
Though the Mariah Windspire Company is defunct, the design has been taken up by another company. Doing business as Windspire Energy, the new company backed by Wisconsin's Ark Alloy LLC has revisited...[more]
According to NEDO, about 0.18GW of wind power plants (86 plants) were newly installed in Japan in fiscal 2015. As of the end of the fiscal year, there were 2,102 wind power plants (total capacity:...
Turns out, the wind tree is actually worse than initially thought.
Former employees of the erstwhile ducted turbine manufacturer Ogin have posted comments about their jobs on a public web site.[more]
More photos of the Ogin ducted wind turbine dismantlement have been “thrown over my transom.” These close-up photos show far more detail of the disassembly and scrapping process than before.[more]
French aerodynamicist Stéphan Aubin sent in a photo of Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) near the port of Siacca while he was vacationing in southern Italy.[more]
Photographer Bob Tregilus sent along a couple of pictures of some recycled US Windpower turbines in Nevada.[more]
Controversial developer of “urban” wind projects Urban Green Energy (UGE) is quitting the wind business. Using its in-house designed vertical-axis wind turbine, the New York City-based company...[more]
Study concludes there is no ‘detrimental effect’ on the number of holidaymakers in places with wind turbines
The highly hyped ducted wind turbines near Palm Springs have been removed. The Ogin turbines were removed sometime this summer.[more]
Critics of renewable energy have a full quiver of objections of why we shouldn’t bother developing wind and solar energy. One of my favorites is when they say, “Well renewables are nice, but they...[more]
The Library of Congress has assigned the Control Number 2016912305 for the title. The process isn’t complete until a printed copy of the book is received by the Library of Congress. We don’t expect...[more]
A campaign calling for two kilometers between a turbine and the nearest built environment for new wind farms has failed. State politicians are nonetheless looking for ways to increase acceptance.
The state's 25 largest wind farms generate $30.4 million in annual property taxes and $13.86 million in extra income each year for landowners who lease their land to wind farm developers, according...
The act against wind turbines imposes a number of restrictions on producers of wind energy (except for micro installations and offshore wind farms).
Britain, with one-fifth the population of the USA, installed 560 MW of wind generating capacity in distributed applications from 2010 through 2015. This represents more than three times the MW per...[more]
Authorities say a 31-year-old from Manly died Thursday in a construction accident at a wind turbine in central Iowa. Christopher Thompson of Manly was working inside a wind turbine under construction...
After a long delay, Denmark is poised to reintroduce a new Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program for small wind turbines. The previous program had been suspended when it reached its cap. The new program cuts...[more]
Commissioners decided that Greycliff can arrange a contract of up to 25 years at a price of $45.49 per megawatt hour. That price is less than consumers are paying NorthWestern for power from the...
Unsurprisingly, raptors were found to be the most vulnerable. The bird everyone in Germany is talking about in the context of wind turbines – the red kite – was not found in the study to an extent...
The Dutch Government has awarded a contract to build two 350 MW Borssele offshore windfarms for 87 euros per MWh (£74 per MWh), some 25 per cent cheaper than the current value of the contract for...
Later this year Georgia Power Company, a part of the Southern Company, is installing three small wind turbines as a demonstration. Is this newsworthy? Is it significant in any way?[more]
What summary data tells us is that California wind farms generated 13.7 TWh from 6,200 MW of installed capacity in 2014. This results in a fleet-wide yield of 2,200 kWh/kW/yr. This is an important...[more]
No. That title isn’t click bate. Long ago, in a land far away, I had to give a speech on the future of wind energy. That’s not noteworthy; I do it all the time. What was noteworthy, though, was that...[more]
Newly released assessments of nearly 1000 properties in the southern part of El Paso, located near a wind farm southeast of Calhan, found no decrease in property values since the wind farm’s...
It went by various incarnations, but it was founded as Windtamer by one Gerald Brock and it finally and officially is gone.[more]
The proofreader dropped the marked up manuscript in my lap the Friday evening of Memorial Day weekend—all 550 pages of Wind Energy for the Rest of Us. [more]
This is the way to do small wind right. "When Hurricane Joaquin affected the East Coast the first week of October 2015, the two wind turbines, which were selected for their ability to withstand...
In early 2016 the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) installed a large wind turbine at their headquarters in central England. The 100-meter (330-foot) tall turbine was installed at the...[more]
Work begins in Sandy, Bedfordshire on 25 January, and the 100-metre tall Enercon E-53 800kW turbine will generate around 2m units of green energy every year, equivalent to over half of the...
That this turbine was doomed to fail—and would give small wind another—and unneeded—black eye was obvious from the beginning—for anyone who had the desire to know.[more]
Sven Ruin brought to my attention the test summary report on Solid Wind's 14-meter diameter, 25 kW wind turbine. The report was issued in mid-2015.[more]
The U.S. Department of Energy is awarding $40 million to the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. to build a six-turbine pilot wind farm in Lake Erie by the end of 2018.
Up to now, public support for wind power has been very strong in Germany. But recent changes to German law have encouraged local groups that oppose wind farms. The relegation of competence from the...
“Some electricity utility companies in Canada will tell you all you’ll ever get from wind is 10 per cent of your electrical needs,” Carl Brothers, an engineer and wind energy consultant, said. “In...
The good news is that with a smaller font size and tighter leading (the space between lines) than in my previous books, Holm has been able to substantially reduce the number of printed pages from...[more]
James Sim, 32, was working in a trench laying ducting for new cable for an offshore wind farm being built off the coast at Heysham in April 2010.
It’s no small sign of wind energy’s success that you can’t keep up with the steady stream of books in English--even when you’re into books on wind energy. It’s even more problematic is you spread...[more]
Watch the little wind turbine at Burlington Electric Department and you’ll find, as often as not, its blades are stock-still.
In 1919 the utility installed a wind turbine at Buddinge and connected it to its lines—a first worldwide, a full two decades before the Smith-Putnam machine in Vermont was connected to the grid.[more]
With tax benefits scaled down and some states reducing tariffs, there is a danger of the wind sector getting short shrift at a time of heightened focus on solar power
The German manufacturer of direct-drive turbines has built a prototype of its 4.2 megawatt unit recently announced. But the important thing is not the generator size, but the 126-meter rotor. It is...
Today marks the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945 by the 6th armored division of the US Third Army. Buchenwald is significant for several reasons. 56,000 people died in the...[more]
In short, anyone who claims that these wind turbines are spoiling the view from Kaiserstuhl is very sensitive indeed, not to mention highly selective. Perhaps because Kaiserstuhl is arguably the...
Imagine for a moment that these new studies find no statistically defensible evidence to link infrasound to human ill-health. Will those calling for a moratorium accept the results and declare wind...
On the left, we see turbine types for which permits were granted last year; on the right, those actually built in 2015. In other words, the ones on the left point into the future more than those on...
Big step in the long road to publishing my new book: Wind Energy for the Rest of Us. Today I assigned the ISBN numbers to the digital and print version. Each version of the book has its own distinct...[more]
France's National assembly defeats Senate measure to effectively ban wind turbines in France.
The proposed law on the cultural landscape in France is a Trojan Horse designed to ban wind turbines. Why do they hate windmills so much?
In the research for my new book, Wind Energy for the Rest of Us, I came across several unsung heroes of wind energy development. One of those was French engineer Louis Vadot.[more]
The recorded small wind capacity installed worldwide has reached more than 830 MW as of the end of 2014. This is a growth of 10,9 % compared with 2013, when 749 MW registered. In 2012, 678 MW were...
We took a chance when we bought our Tesla, and it’s paying off because our power comes from the wind. Our residential sized turbine captures wind from Lake Superior in Upper Michigan and fuels our...
The Madison County (Indiana) Historical Society was able to locate the photo that I'd seen on display in mid 2015 of Charles E Miller's 1926 wind turbine in Anderson, Indiana.[more]
In the last few years of eligibility, feed-in tariffs for offshore wind power dropped to 3.9 cents. Today, guest author Philipp Schmagold explains that the rising cost of O&M at the end of the second...
Bernard Chabot is back today with a comparison of wind and nuclear in the "BICS" countries (BRICS without Russia). He points out that wind has boomed in China since the country got rid of auctions...
Miller is practically unknown among historians for his contribution to wind energy technology. He could be an unsung Hoosier hero for his invention of the pitchable blade tip.[more]
In the research for my forthcoming book, Wind Energy for the Rest of Us, I came across a lot of intriguing information about the development of wind energy. While fascinating, much of it is too far...[more]
Onshore wind schemes now being installed are being paid over 30 per cent less than what Hinkley C would be paid under the UK Government's current agreement with EDF if it was generating now.
Hundreds of turbines and towers are being taken down. Foundations must also be removed, and the site must be reseeded and graded, said Sandra Rivera, assistant deputy director of planning at Alameda...
But not only can renewables supply baseload power, they can do something far more valuable: supply power flexibly according to demand. Now nuclear power really is redundant.
Miller was an inveterate inventor and the Madison County (Indiana) Historical Society has an exhibited devoted to his work. It was here that I first saw a clipping of his wind turbine.[more]
Wherein we reconnect with a Dutch miller and learn of his campaign to preserve his adopted country’s watermills.[more]
I am continuing to update my web site by posting a series of photographs taken many years ago of Dutch or European windmills. There are now three new sub categories under Traditional Windmills: ...[more]
I've finally taken the time to post some pictures from my career in renewable energy and energy policy. Some date from 1976, possibly earlier. My memory of those days is fuzzy as they say.[more]
When the Wildcat Wind Farm was constructed in Madison and Tipton counties, E-on Climate & Renewables agreed to provide a $1.2 million donation for economic development.
Experience with measures and innovations for grid integration in all these categories is given, from several jurisdictions like Germany, Denmark, and California, where renewables already provide...
I don’t have a good answer to that question. All I know is that I stumbled a cross a faded newspaper clipping at the Madison County Historical Society that pictured a wind turbine that I’d never seen...[more]
Finally an answer to a question that has gnawed at me for decades: Where did one of the great windmill manufacturers of all time get the name Aermotor? Why not Aeromotor? That was the way I’ve...[more]
Today I updated my pages on cultural icons of wind turbines to include two murals and a sign board in Tehachapi, California.[more]
I am writing this now to close the book on this sad little turbine and the whole “let’s put them on the roof” phenomenon. Stumbling across an obscure NREL field test report from long ago (see Power...[more]
The Kern-Kaweah Chapter of the Sierra Club will lead a hike among the wind turbines on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) at 9:00 am on Saturday May 21, 2016 near Tehachapi, California. The Sierra Club's...[more]
According to preliminary figures, the world has seen a new record in new wind installations, adding 63’690 MW within the year 2015. The total wind capacity of the world has reached 435 GW.
The good news is that just over 3.5 gigawatts was installed, putting 2015 in second position behind the roughly 4.4 gigawatts of 2014 and ahead of the previous record year of 2002 at 3.2 gigawatts.
“The feed-in tariff is still important as a driver,” Lewis said, “but there are other government policies and incentives that are continuing to drive the rapid pace” of wind power development in...
Renewable energy, presented as environmentally friendly and clean, must turn out to be harmful to humans and the environment. There's an ironic, vindicating righteousness in believing, as intensely...
Ogin, the Massachusetts-based ducted turbine company, has installed six of seven turbines in the San Gorgonio Pass near Palm Springs, California.[more]
In its fifth year of operation, Germany’s first offshore wind farm, Alpha Ventus, once again surpassed expectations. The first people (besides me) now say that feed-in tariffs for offshore wind are...
It seems to happen with every new technology. It wasn't so long ago that some people were convinced a photograph could steal your soul. We may read about that now and have a little chuckle, but are...
Danish authorities are to re-open an investigation into a diver’s death while working on an offshore wind farm in the German North Sea.
Wind power generation plant AES Laurel Mountain LLC has pleaded guilty to two federal misdemeanors in the deaths of hundreds of migratory birds five years ago at its Barbour County facility.
Wind Energy for the Rest of Us by Paul Gipe straddles two—or more—worlds. The book is about wind energy. It’s not just about small wind turbines. It’s not just about large wind turbines. It’s about...[more]
So we are backing up the cheap renewables with fossil fuels that are not so cheap, and the solution to that is to use the fossil fuels that are not so cheap all the time? That sum does not quite add...
There are 484 MW of wind in Ontario’s distribution system. CanWEA says that Ontario has 4,361 MW installed. So the IESO is missing 12% of Ontario’s wind production. If you add 12% to their number,...
2015 was another record year for wind power in Denmark, where turbines generated 42 percent of demand, topping the old record of 39 percent from the previous year. No other country has such a large...
Last year, wind power production in Germany increased by around 50 percent – and the country already had the third largest fleet of wind turbines worldwide.
Andringa said that Japan had the most attractive feed-in tariff (FiT) worldwide and that the company's local reselling partners were preparing to help deliver the shift from nuclear to renewable...
A prototypye vertical axis wind turbine is set to go into operations at the Iowa Lakes Community College Farm Laboratory. - See more at:...
Den Wind der Welt einfangen is part of series of retrospectives being issued by pioneers in the field of wind energy as they near retirement. Written by freelance journalist Dierk Jensen, Catching...[more]
Germany, as it happens, has a very strong culture of benefit sharing. I had a chat to my host about my experience on the outskirts of Ebersheim. She told me about a neighbour in the small town who...
The expansive title of Vaughn Nelson’s Wind Energy is appropriate as Nelson delves into such taboo topics as population, exponential growth, and exhaustion of fossil fuels.[more]
Wind Power for the World tells an exciting tell of hope and promise—how a small band of activists, dreamers, and entrepreneurs built one of the world’s fastest growing and dynamic industries. It’s a...[more]
Nolan Clark, an early wind pioneer, summarizes a lifetime of developing and testing wind turbines for agricultural use in Small Wind: Planning and Building Successful Installations.[more]
I am hosting the following spreadsheet file prepared by the Idaho National Laboratory that is no longer available or has been compromised. The xls file contains tabular power curve data for a number...[more]
In sum, another story of ill-advised “development” of a revolutionary Darrieus wind turbine with all the attendant hubris and hype. The sad saga cost the government of Quebec $350,000—money that...[more]
Its goal is to create a wind farm off the shores of Lake Erie and use wind power to replace fossil fuels as a source of energy in this region.
The capacity factor for solar PV was about 10% and that for small wind turbines about twice that of solar PV at about 20%.[more]
This year, it will have closer to a third renewable power, close the new target for 2020, which now stands at 35 percent. Moreover, the level of 20 percent – once thought hard to reach by 2020 – has...
It is understood that the man had been working on the €145m Meenadreen wind farm extension project when the tragedy occurred.
“Secondly caps to the number of turbines which can be built, hidden in the detail of the review, mean, for example, that just three 50-100kW machines and three 1,500kW machines can be deployed every...
Let this be a warning to you skeptics, critics, and debunkers of new-fangled wind turbine flim flam. It will come home to haunt you. Are you listening Mick Sagrillo?[more]
It was during this process that Colin Sinclair’s harness became entangled in the high-speed shaft coupling, causing him to be pulled in towards the shaft.
The answer is Denmark by a mile, followed by Germany then Spain. I'm pleased to see Canada in fourth spot, beating USA and the UK by a reasonable amount.
Wind power, which the transition needs the most, will suffer the most, especially on shore.
The company responsible for more than one-third of Germany’s electricity grid says there is no issue absorbing high levels of variable renewable energy such as wind and solar, and grids could absorb...
Presentation to the Sierra Club's Buena Vista Group, Bakersfield, California 5 December 2015.
Chabot examines Denmark's 2012 policy to address climate change and finds, surprise, that the Danes are well on their way to meeting their objectives--ahead of schedule.[more]
Wind covers 3.7% and solar PV 1.3% of 462 TWh of consumption. Wind & solar are seasonally complimentary. With current policies France is unlikely to meet its 2020 targets of 27% renewable energy...
The most challenging hurdle that the Mexican wind sector faces is the engagement with the local populations that own the land where major wind parks are intended to be set up.
In fact, buried deep inside regulatory reports there is official recognition that wind power does have substantial equivalent firm capacity.
“Up to a renewable electricity share of 60%, the addition of power storage devices is not a condition for the addition of solar PV and wind power plants… Even at high degrees of penetration (90% in...
The family of a commercial diver from Bebington who died on a dive at an off shore wind farm in Germany are demanding answers.
Siemens Windpower A/S and Fluor Ltd were sentenced on Friday and ordered to pay GBP 650,000 (USD 988,000/EUR 876,000) in fines after in 2010 a worker was killed and another seriously injured during...
Two companies have been sentenced after a worker was killed and another seriously injured during construction of an offshore wind farm.
According to a recent presentation by Danish Small Wind Association there are 1,000 wind turbines less than 25 kW in capacity installed in Denmark, representing a total of 8.6 MW. Small wind turbines...[more]
This document describes the up-to-date characteristics and performance of the reference wind turbines and wind farms using the principles and the design of the “Silent Wind Power Revolution” (SWR),...
