News & Articles on Wind Energy

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.

For newcomers to wind energy I’ve added pages from my previous books explaining terms used in the industry.

  • 200 Term Multilingual Lexicon: The lexicon translates English terms into five different languages: Dansk, Deutsch, Español, Français, and Italiano.
  • Glossary of Wind Energy Terminology: The glossary was written by Paul Gipe and Bill Canter in the late-1990s. I’ve added the glossary to my web site for both its historical content—many of the terms were in use during the 1980s and 1990s—and as a reference for the thousands of newcomers to the wind industry since it was first published.
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Passerby Killed by Wind Turbine in Japan

By

Paul Gipe

A cyclist was killed by falling wind turbine blade in Japan. To my knowledge this is the first case of …

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More on Fayette Manufacturing and its One-Time Resurrection

By

Paul Gipe

While archiving articles I’d written for the American Wind Energy Association’s newsletter, Wind Energy Weekly, I came across this one about Fayette’s restructuring in 1990. At the time I was the west coast representative for AWEA in Tehachapi. There’s not a lot on my web site about Fayette. (I do mention them in my books and in articles on capacity factor and how this figure of merit can be so misleading.) Consequently, for historical reference I am posting the article with the original date that I submitted it to AWEA. See Fayette Reborn in Major Restructuring.

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French court suspends wind farm after death of golden eagle

By

External Source

The Montpellier court has ordered a one-year suspension of the Bernagues wind farm, finding Énergie Renouvelable du Languedoc responsible for the death of a golden eagle, a protected species, in January 2023.

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Set of Enertech 10-foot Long Blades for Sale

By

Paul Gipe

Robert Kroeger, a former Enertech sales representative, has a set of 10-foot long Gougeon blades probably for a 4 kW …

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1984 Films of Fayette Wind Turbines by Thomas Braise

By

Paul Gipe

In the fall of 1984 California photographer Thomas Braise filmed Fayette Manufacturing’s wind turbines in the Altamont Pass. Braise was …

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Renewables provided over 90 per cent of the world’s increase in generation capacity in 2024. How is this happening?

By

David Toke

Solar and wind power are dominating new generation capacity around the world. This is to such an extent that, according to data from the International Renewable Energy Association (IRENA), 90 percent of the net increase in global electricity generation capacity came from wind or solar and 93 percent from renewable energy as a whole. Solar PV provided the lion’s share of this increase, at 72 percent, with wind providing 18 percent, fossil fuels 7 percent, hydro 2 percent, bioenergy 1 percent, and nuclear power less than 0.5 percent.