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 I’ve added the glossary to my web site for both its historical content—many of the terms were in use during the 1980s and 1990s—and as a reference for the thousands of newcomers to the wind industry since it was first published.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 Energy and Friends of the Earth in Kassel, Germany–Some Observations
By
Paul Gipe
Over the years I’ve noted more than once the observation that most major environmental groups in Germany give a full-throated …
Wind Power history blows away Ed Davey’s excuse for giving short contracts to renewables
By
Dave Toke
Ed Davey’s excuse for limiting wind power contracts to 15 years whilst Hinkley C gets a whopping 35 year contract is blown away by some elementary history checking. Lots of wind turbines in Altamont Pass – installed during the so-called Californian ‘windrush’ – are still turning after 31 years. Davey claims that the contracts he has awarded are in proportion to the technologies’ design life expectancy. Yet the Altamont turbines will be turning until 2015, a 33 year lifetime . . .
Trout Unlimited: Why Trout Fishermen should be excited about Wind Turbines
By
Shane Cross
As sportsmen we support oil and gas producers who develop energy responsibly. And we should support renewable energy projects that will help reduce climate change and protect our hunting and fishing resources.
Specific Rated Capacity of Wind Turbines in the 1980s
By
Paul Gipe
I am posting this data for its historical context and because the question of specific capacity has come to the …
Renewables International: Impact of wind turbines on tourism
By
Craig Morris
Jürgen Peters, Professor of Sustainable Development at Eberswalde College in Germany, found (PDF) that 32 percent of tourists and locals do not mind wind turbines at all, while only 9.2 percent do. His findings are in line with a study for the Eifel region in Germany, where 59% of those surveyed (PDF) said they did not mind the turbines, while 28% said they were “acceptable”; in contrast, only 12% said they did not like the turbines.
Enterprise-Bulletin: Judge awards costs to wind company
By
Morgan Ian Adams
“It is erroneous to interpret the reasons as establishing a precedent for the degree of proof required to establish a decrease in property values in these circumstances,” wrote Justice Healey in her decision. “…this court was invited to, and did, engage in a legal fiction in order to cast the plaintiffs’ case in its most favorable light. That legal fiction involved accepting, without requiring the plaintiffs to prove, that they were currently experiencing a decrease in their property values as a result of the announcement of the wind project.
