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 I’ve added the glossary to my web site for both its historical content—many of the terms were in use during the 1980s and 1990s—and as a reference for the thousands of newcomers to the wind industry since it was first published.
Wind Turbine Shadow Jumping
By
Paul Gipe
By now you’ve probably seen the viral video of a woman or girl jumping or skipping over the shadow of a wind turbine blade as it sweeps across the ground. It’s all over the “interweb” as a friend calls the internet.
GE Renewable Energy Partners With Veolia NA For Wind Turbine Blade Recycling
By
Steve Hanley
GE Renewable Energy has found a new use for old turbine blades — chop them up and use them to make cement. In a press release, the company says it has signed a multi-year agreement with Veolia North America to recycle blades removed from its US-based onshore turbines during upgrades and repowering efforts. Veolia will use kiln reprocessing technology to turn the blades into raw material for cement. Similar recycling techniques have been proven effective at a commercial scale in Europe.
Uptime Wind Energy Podcast with Paul Gipe
By
Going to be up on YouTube Tuesday morning 1 December 2020 talking about EVs and wind energy.
Innovative Wind Turbines: An Illustrated Guidebook by Vaughn Nelson–A Review
By
Paul Gipe
I bristled when Vaughn Nelson contacted me for help with his new book Innovative Wind Turbines. Not that it was Vaughn. He’s my mentor and the founder of West Texas A&M University’s Alternative Energy Institute (AEI). Vaughn first taught me the importance of swept area and how to quickly cut through the hype that often surrounds new wind turbines. He’s the physicist I turn to when I have a wind question. And no it wasn’t that he was asking for some photos I’d taken decades ago of obscure wind turbines. It was simply the word “innovative.”
The English Windmill by Rex Wailes–A Review
By
Paul Gipe
Ok, I am a windmill geek, have been for decades now. I work with modern wind energy, but my interest in the subject has led off in many directions, including traditional or “Dutch” windmills. I have a hefty collection of books on Dutch, German, French, and, yes, on English windmills.
79th Anniversary of First Wind Turbine Interconnection with the Grid in North America
By
Paul Gipe
On this date in 1941 an ungainly wind turbine atop Vermont’s Grandpa’s Knob fed electricity into the lines of Central Vermont Public Service Company. This was the first time in North America that a wind turbine fed electricity into the grid. Until then wind turbines had been used solely to charge batteries at remote homesteads in Canada and the United States.
