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 I’ve added the glossary to my web site for both its historical content—many of the terms were in use during the 1980s and 1990s—and as a reference for the thousands of newcomers to the wind industry since it was first published.
Video of NedWind Turbines Spinning in Palm Springs May 2024
By
Paul Gipe
This is a 23 second video of NedWind wind turbines operating on the Whitewater Wash near Palm Springs, California in …
Wincon Wind Turbine Runaway San Gorgonio Pass Mark Haller
By
Paul Gipe
This is a nearly 30-minute video of a Danish Wincon wind turbine running away in the San Gorgonio Pass some …
Enertech E44 Wind Turbine Runaway SeaWest Altamont Pass
By
Paul Gipe
This is a 33-minute video of an Enertech E44 running in overspeed in the Altamont Pass in the late 1980s. …
Inside The Iberian Grid Collapse: What Really Went Wrong
By
Michael Barnard
This combination created atypically low wholesale electricity prices, with significant amounts of renewable energy being curtailed, but the blackout was not a renewable-energy-driven event. Rather, it was the result of multiple layers of insufficient planning, inadequate voltage management, and poorly managed grid dynamics. 50% of the allocation of responsibility was to human failures in planning, 30% to legacy generation not performing as it was designed to do, and 20% to renewables exiting the system because they weren’t configured to deal with the scenario, once again a human failure more than a technology failure.
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 …
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.
