Coastal Windpower – Where the jobs are

This is pretty mundane from my perspective. The US is building 100s of wind farms around the country. The coasts are places where the wind is most powerful and consistent. Are the numbers accurate? Who knows? They likely would be higher than what is stated, so why worry about that?

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/09/17/858551/offshore-wind-on-the-atlantic-cost-could-create-300000-jobs-and-200-billion-in-economic-activity/?mobile=nc

Offshore Wind On The Atlantic Cost Could Create 300,000 Jobs And $200 Billion In Economic Activity

By Climate Guest Blogger on Sep 17, 2012 at 3:12 pm

by Silvio Marcacci, via CleanTechnica

America has some of the best offshore wind resources in the world — especially along the Atlantic coastline. But while the promise is massive, zero turbines are currently spinning in U.S. waters.

Fortunately, federal and state governments have made significant progress toward the first offshore turbines and have put America at a turning point toward harnessing the more than 1,300 gigawatts (GW) of energy generation potential identified along our coasts. Harnessing a realistic fraction of offshore wind’s potential — 52GW — could power 14 million homes with clean electrons while creating over 300,000 new jobs and $200 billion in new economic activity in some of our biggest cities.

These findings come from “The Turning Point for Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy,” a new report from the National Wildlife Foundation (NWF) outlining the energy and economic benefits offshore wind could create in the U.S., highlighting progress made to date, and detailing policy action needed to realize the industry’s potential.

Federal Policy + State Action = Turbines

While it seems like offshore wind has been touted for years, the future is closer to reality than ever before.

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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Finally A Plausible Tidal Energy Program – If it is not Scottish it is rubbish

I skip the light fandango.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-06/15/scottish-undersea-turbines

Technology

Largest tidal arrays in the world to be built in Scotland

15 June 12

Scotland will see the world’s largest tidal arrays constructed off its coast, as the first large-scale rollout of tidal energy generation.

A trial with one 30m turbine, the HS1000, anchored to the ocean floor in a fast-flowing channel near the Orkney Islands, raised one megawatt of electricity — enough to power around 500 homes. Now, Scottish Power is planning on building two farms of turbines off the Scottish coast.

The project at the Sound of Islay should hopefully generate 10MW, and then the later project off Duncansby Head (the most northeasterly point of Scotland) should generate around 95MW. While individual turbines have been trialled across the world, the arrays will be the largest of their kind, with local communities having their power provided by renewable tidal sources.

The turbines — built by Andritz Hydro Hammerfest, a Norwegian firm — represent a tricky engineering challenge. Considerations for wild plants and fish means that the blades can’t move too fast, and the turbines must be located in areas where there is a reliably fast current travelling at at least 2.5m/s (such as the Sound of Islay, a narrow passage between the Scottish mainland and the island of Jura).

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Go there and read. More tomorrow.

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Ever Wonder What A Wind Turbine Looks Like ON Fire – Well look no further

OK so this is not the one in Scotland. I tried youtube first and I couldn’t even get their search engine to respond. They gave me things like Bruce Springsteen singing Fire. So then I googled it and got boat loads of text, mainly borrowings from the article below and one video on youtube. Let us see, google’s search engine is smarter than youtube’s?? The article itself doesn’t have a picture either. Their picture is of an aircraft jetliner’s wobbly landing in the same winds. The pilot should be shot. First the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOfHxINzGeo

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Then the text.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/8944597/Blown-away-gales-wreck-wind-turbines-as-Scottish-storm-wreck-havoc.html

Blown away: gales wreck wind turbines as Scottish storm wreck havoc

Fears over the safety of wind turbines in high winds have been raised after one burst into flames and another crashed to the ground.

Donna Bowater

By , and Rowena Mason

10:02AM GMT 09 Dec 2011

Gusts of up to 165mph were recorded in the Cairngorms in Aberdeenshire as gales brought travel chaos to Scotland and the North.

A 100-metre tall wind turbine burst into flames in North Ayrshire, and in Coldingham in the Scottish Borders, a turbine crashed to the ground yards from a road.

The £2 million turbine in North Ayrshire was not believed to have been spinning at the time. Fires can occur if extreme wind loosens or breaks electrical connections, whether turbines are rotating or not.

Fraser McLachlan, the chief executive of GCube, a wind turbine insurer, said he was expecting a rise in turbine failures due to the “exceptional” weather in Scotland.

“We see turbine fires around the world when it gets very, very windy,” he said. “They usually shut themselves off as a safety feature if the wind gets too much. But sometimes there is another failure.

dot dot dot as they say

Modern turbines usually have a safety braking mechanism that turns the blades off if wind speeds reach 56mph.

The turbine in North Ayrshire was believed to belong to the renewable power company Infinis. It was one of 15 built to supply 20,000 homes.

In a statement, Infinis said: “Infinis confirms that a nacelle on a turbine at its Ardrossan wind farm, Ayrshire, Scotland, caught fire this afternoon in extreme stormy weather conditions. The fire had extinguished itself before the fire services arrived and did not result in personal injury.

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More next week.

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Neil Steinberg And Energy Policy -New Technologies bring new complaints

The internet can be such a frustrating place. I thought that because I had put up about 15 right wing pundits views about energy policy that I should put up some left wings views as well. So I searched for something like “10 most left wing journalists” in America and I came up with this site.

http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/huston/100723

Now this piece listed number two and I had to futz around to find number 10 which he listed as Neil Steinberg who works for the Chicago Sun Times which is of course here.

http://www.suntimes.com

I googled up Neil Steinberg for energy policy and found a great article by him but it was filed as a PDF file in a Wisconsin Utility hearing docket. I can’t copy a PDF file and I always like to give original citings but I could only find a weird copy of it in a weird place so here it is. It was originally titled:

Winds of change inevitably get the hot air stirring

and was dated April 10th. The text is not credited here:

Progress never comes without complaint. Everybody wants perfect cell phone service — there are more than 4 billion cell phones worldwide, two for every three people — but nobody wants a cell tower near them. Earlier this month in rural Maryland, neighbors turned out to protest the zoning variance needed to put a cell tower on farmland, even though most would barely see the top of the tower if it went up. “We will be fighting it every step of the way,” one said. Of course they will. People still fight cell towers, just as they fight skateboard parks, mosques, research centers, halfway houses — almost anything new and nearby. They no longer complain about streetlights — but they once did. More about that later. Not in my ocean. Naturally, the rich folk living on Cape Cod opposed the idea of a wind farm off Nantucket. When gazing out to sea, reflecting on the splendor of their lives, they might see the turbines and be vexed. So it is a minor miracle that the federal government decided to go ahead with Cape Wind anyway, after only nine years of study and discussion. “This is the final decision of the United States of America,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced this week. Needless to say, that was “Gentlemen, start your lawsuits,” to those aghast at the idea of seeing 130 giant white turbines on the horizon.Instead of discussing the nation’s overdependence on foreign oil, and the bad things that flow from it — from increased terrorism to global warming — I will tip my hand: I think wind turbines are beautiful. I first saw some, unexpectedly, out an airplane window while landing in Copenhagen a few years back — the Middelgrunden Wind Park, 20 turbines in the sound between Denmark and Sweden. It was a stunning sight, and even more stunning to learn that they provide 4 percent of the electricity consumed by Copenhagen. Denmark derives 20 percent of its electrical power from the wind. Meanwhile, the United States, once a world leader in technology and not without windy places, generates only about 0.8 percent of its electricity from wind power. Last summer, driving through Minnesota, the boys and I were surprised and delighted by the huge wind turbines flanking the highway. Yes, passing by something is not the same as living next to it. But if what people wanted next door were the deciding factor in history, we’d still be churning butter with a stick (you might think, “Yes, I’d love that!” but then you aren’t considering that half your children eating that butter would have died of whooping cough before age 2 — you can’t reject progress for its ills while thoughtlessly accepting all the good). Denmark, Minnesota and Cape Cod are windy places. Chicago is also a windy place, and to our credit, Mayor Daley at least says he is open to the idea of turbines in Lake Michigan. Evanston is considering them as well. Heck, why not — we already have to look at Gary on a clear day.’Cold, unlovely, blinding star’Once upon a time people believed in the future. Their lives were hard, and they accepted inconveniences if they thought things might improve in the long run. That didn’t mean they weren’t frightened or they didn’t complain.When opponents of Cape Wind worry that the wind turbines will kill migrating birds, destroy tourism, imperil navigation, whatever, we have to remember that every technological development in the history of the world has been met by a chorus of concern. Take the simplest advance — gas lamps on public streets — something we look upon now with only nostalgia and affection. Not so when new.” An attempt to interfere with the divine plan of the world, which has preordained darkness during the night-time,” a newspaper in Cologne fretted in 1816, after that city installed gaslight. Electric lighting brought even more revulsion.” Horrible, unearthly, obnoxious to the human eye,” Robert Louis Stevenson wrote of London’s new electric light. “A lamp for a nightmare!” . Casting illumination upon a city’s nighttime doings would be, he said, “a horror to heighten horror.”Arc lighting at Paddington Station moved the St. James Gazette to protest in verse: Twinkle, twinkly little arc,Sickly, blue uncertain spark; Up above my head you swing, Ugly, strange expensive thing! In America, we despaired at what the unleashing of all this electricity might mean. The constant electric light would cause blindness, or “photo-electric ophthalmia. ” The demon of electricity surging around helter-skelter would change the weather. “All the floods, hurricanes, cyclones and other atmospheric disturbances taking place in the heavens and upon earth are due to the work of electric lighting companies,” a Southern minister announced.  Incredibly, the telephone was even more ominous than electricity. The social order would crumble. The constant ringing would drive men insane. There was also the peril of disease being spread over telephone lines. “Well, I suppose I must risk it,” a “wealthy well-educated and fashionable” Chicago matron decided, telephoning a household where there was scarlet fever, first having a servant makes sure “the sick children aren’t in the room where the telephone is.” Although, looking over past dire predictions about technology, I have to admit: sometimes they’re accurate. One of the big fears about the telephone was that it would make our intimate details become public knowledge.”We shall soon be nothing but transparent heaps of jelly to each other,” a British writer speculated in 1897.It wasn’t “soon” — it took 110 years. But yeah, that sounds about right.

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I do not normally put up the whole text of something but in this case I had no choice. More tomorrow.

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Energy Neutral Homes Are Not That Hard To Create – Here is one step

To Think At One Time: I did not even think I would get requests for guest posts. Then: I questioned whether to allow guest posts. Now I am getting a request about every month for someone to share this space…And you know what I love it.

It’s not necessary to become a nerd to find out how wind power works

Wind is the result of the uneven heating of the Earth by the sun and the fact that temperatures will always be attempting to reach an equilibrium (heat is always moving to a cooler area). With the rising price of energy and the damage to the environment from classic fuels, it is increasingly equitable to harvest this renewable resource.

The benefits of wind energy are that it’s virtually free (after you purchase the equipment) and there’s no pollution. The disadvantages include the fact it is not a constant source (the speed varies and many times it is insufficient to make electricity) and it typically requires about one acre of land.

How Wind Energy Works

The volume of power that can be found varies by wind speed. The amount available is named it’s power density which is measured in watts per square meter. Due to this, the U.S. Department of Energy has separated wind energy into classes from 1 to 7. The typical wind speed for class 1 is 9.8 mph or less while the average for a class 7 is 21.1 or more. For effective power production, class 2 winds (11.5 mph average speed) are usually required.

In general, wind speeds increase as you get higher above the Earth. Due to this, the typical wind mill comes with a tower no less than 30 feet above obstructions. That there are two basic different types of towers employed for residential wind power systems (free standing and guyed). Free standing towers are self supporting and are usually heavier which means they take special equipment (cranes) to erect them. Guyed towers are supported on a concrete base and anchored by wires for support. They typically are not as heavy and most manufacturer’s produce tilt down models which may be easily raised and lowered for maintenance.

The kinetic (moving energy) from the winds is harnessed by a device called a turbine. This turbine contains airfoils (blades) that capture the energy of the wind and use it to turn the shaft of an alternator (like you have on a car only bigger).

There are two basic types of blades (drag style and lifting style). We all have seen pictures of old-fashioned windmills with the large flat blades which are an example of the drag style of airfoil. Lifting style blades are twisted instead of flat and resemble the propellor of a small airplane.

A turbine is classified as to whether it is built to be installed with the rotor in a horizontal or vertical position and whether the wind strikes the blades or the tower first. A vertical turbine typically requires less land for it’s installation and is a better option for the more urban areas of the world. An upwind turbine is designed for the wind to impact the airfoils before it does the tower.

http://www.residentialwindturbines.org/residential-wind-turbine.jpg

These units ordinarily have a tail on the turbine which is needed to keep the unit pointed into the wind. A downwind turbine doesn’t need a tail as the wind acting on the blades tends to maintain it oriented properly.

These turbine systems would be damaged if they were to be permitted to turn at excessive speeds. Therefore, units will need to have automatic over-speed governing systems. Some systems use electrical braking systems although some use mechanical type brakes.

The output electricity from the alternator is sent to a controller which conditions it for use in the home. The use of residential wind power systems requires the home to either remain linked with the utility grid or store electricity in a battery for use when the wind doesn’t blow sufficiently.

When the home is tied to the grid, the surplus electricity that is produced by the residential wind power system can be sold to the utility company to lower and sometimes even eliminate your electric bill. During times with not enough wind, the home is supplied power from the utility company.

http://www.residentialwindturbines.org/wind-scheme-grid-tied.gif

The Cost of Wind Energy

Small residential wind power turbines can be an attractive alternative, or addition, to those people needing over 100-200 watts of power for their home, business, or remote facility. Unlike PV’s, which stay at basically the same cost per watt independent of array size, wind turbines get more affordable with increasing system size. At the 50 watt size level, for instance, a small residential power turbine would cost about $8.00/watt in comparison to approximately $6.00/watt for a PV module.

This is the reason, all things being equal, Photo voltaic is less expensive for very small loads. As the system size gets larger, however, this “rule-of-thumb” reverses itself.

At 300 watts the wind generator costs are down to $2.50/watt, while the PV costs are still at $6.00/watt. For a 1,500 watt wind system the cost is down to $2.00/watt and at 10,000 watts the price of a wind generator (excluding electronics) is down to $1.50/watt.

The author – Mary Jones writes for the

http://www.residentialwindturbines.org/”>residential wind generators

website, her personal hobby blog centered on ways to reduce CO2 and lower energy costs using alternative power sources.

If you wish to read my complete Bio:

http://www.residentialwindturbines.org/about

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More tomorrow

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City Water Light And Power – Energy Efficiency in Springfield Illinois

I forget to give them the credit they deserve. We have a local utility that has invested in wind power and early Energy Conservation Programs. And it was created by a socialist.

http://www.cwlp.com/

Welcome to the home page of City Water, Light & Power (CWLP), the municipal electric and water utility for Springfield, Illinois. CWLP also owns and manages Lake Springfield, the primary source of drinking water for Springfield and one of Central Illinois’ premier recreational resources.

City Water, Light & Power’s general offices are located on the fourth floor of Municipal Center East, 800 East Monroe, Springfield, IL 62757. Contact information for the General Office and other utility offices can be found on the Contact Information page in the About CWLP section.

For more information about the utility or its various divisions, select one of the main topics or subtopics in the left-hand column of this page.

Top l CWLP Home l CWLP Contact Info l Search l City of Springfield

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These guys are the best.

http://www.cwlp.com/energy_services/energy_services.htm

The CWLP Energy Services Office offers a variety of services designed to help our residential and commercial customers increase personal comfort and convenience while reducing energy and water costs. The office is staffed by a team of  Energy Experts who work diligently to keep abreast of the latest developments in energy-related technologies. They share their knowledge with CWLP’s residential and business customers via several avenues, including advertising; free publications produced specifically with our customers’ needs in mind; bill inserts; informational videos; home energy audits; and Low-Cost/No-Cost Efficiency Workshops and other community involvement programs. The Energy Services Office also administers CWLP’s efficiency rebate programs.

The  Energy Services Office is in downtown Springfield on the northwest corner of Monroe and S. 6th Streets. We invite customers to stop in and visit us, view our energy-efficient lighting displays and water conservation exhibit, pick up free efficiency literature, or talk with the Energy Experts. We also welcome questions or requests for information that come through the mail, by phone or FAX, or via email.

Reach us at: 2nd Floor
231 S. 6th St.
Springfield, IL 62701
Phone: (217) 789-2070
FAX: (217) 789-2210
email: nrgxprts@cwlp.com

For more information about CWLP’s Energy Services Office or about how you can make your home or business more energy efficient, select any of the topics or subtopics listed in the left-hand column of this page.

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See you at jam band friday…

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St. John’s Hospital Is Building Green – But how green is that?

http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-7175-getting-bigger-going-green.html

Thursday, April 8,2010

Getting bigger, going green

St. John’s expansion will be environmentally friendly

By Patrick Yeagle

As St. John’s Hospital is preparing to renovate its downtown campus, the 135-year-old Springfield institution is paying special attention to minimizing the project’s environmental footprint and maximizing local economic benefits.

On March 31, hospital officials announced a $162 million proposal to demolish certain old structures on the hospital’s campus and replace them with more modern surgery, pharmacy and patient areas.

Dave Olejniczak, chief operating officer at St. John’s, says the project will incorporate several cost-saving, environmentally friendly designs, such as paints, stains and adhesives with low toxin levels, energy-efficient light fixtures and natural lighting whenever possible.

“A little bit of it is an investment up front, but the majority of it is going to be a cost savings down the road, in particular when we focus on the glass elements around the facility itself,” he says. “With having the natural light, it’s going to reduce the amount of artificial light we have to generate.”

Recycling is a big part of the design as well. From the carpet made of recycled fibers to the reuse of scrap materials such as steel and wood, Olejniczak says the project will uphold the hospital’s “stewardship values.”

“Envitronmental stewardship, from a Fransiscan perspective, is ensuring that we’re using the resources that we’re currently given to the best of our ability, and to take what we have and reuse it or recycle it,” Olejniczak said.

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To which I said:

Editor

Illinois Times

1320 S. State Street

PO Box 5256

Springfield, IL  62705

Emailed: 4/12/10

editor@illinoistimes.com

Dear Editor:

I am writing to you regarding your brief article about St. John Hospital’s future building plans. It is laudable that they plan on making that building locally built and green. However I did not hear “state-of-the-art” speak included in that admittedly short article. First and foremost I hope the Hospital will perform a green tear down. We should be wasting as little as possible these days. Putting perfectly good materials in the landfill is no longer acceptable.

Second I hope they also perform a green rebuild so that everything in the new Hospital wing will be recycled. Finally I hope that the new wing will generate its own energy and be super efficient in its energy usage. If they use windows, please use windows that generate electricity. If they have a roof I hope that it has wind turbines on top and plenty of plants to absorb the water that lands there. I hope that they put in geothermal heating and cooling systems. This is after all about people’s health. If St. Johns becomes a beacon of how we can lead our lives without pollutants then they will be contributing to the over all health of our community.

As the article pointed out it is also about health care costs. Industry estimates are that if the medical community used energy efficiently they could cut our medical cost by 10 to 15%. That would be a huge benefit to us all.

Doug Nicodemus

948 E. Adams

Riverton, Il  62561

day) 6297031

email dougnic55@yahoo.com

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If you want to read more about healthcare you might look here:

http://mastersofpublichealth.org/top-50-public-health-blogs.html

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An Energy Audit Leads Directly To Wind Generation – People get the bug

It is true. Not everyone will get the bug. Where you stop after your energy audit could many times be with good thoughts. A liberal bastion such as Boulder, has to hire people to go door to door to install Compact Flourescent Lighbulbs.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748704320104575015920992845334.html

Even Boulder Finds It Isn’t Easy Going Green

By STEPHANIE SIMON

BOULDER, Colo.—This spring, city contractors will fan out across this well-to-do college town to unscrew light bulbs in thousands of homes and replace them with more energy-efficient models, at taxpayer expense.

City officials never dreamed they’d have to play nanny when they set out in 2006 to make Boulder a role model in the fight against global warming. The cause seemed like a natural fit in a place where residents tend to be politically liberal and passionate about the great outdoors.

Instead, as Congress considers how to encourage Americans to conserve more energy, Boulder stands as a cautionary tale about the limits of good intentions.

“What we’ve found is that for the vast majority of people, it’s exceedingly difficult to get them to do much of anything,” says Kevin Doran, a senior research fellow at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

President Barack Obama has set ambitious goals for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions, in part by improving energy efficiency. Last year’s stimulus bill set aside billions to weatherize buildings. The president has also called for a “cash for caulkers” rebate for Americans who weatherize their homes.

But Boulder has found that financial incentives and an intense publicity campaign aren’t enough to spur most homeowners to action, even in a city so environmentally conscious that the college football stadium won’t sell potato chips because the packaging isn’t recyclable.

Take George Karakehian. He considers himself quite green: He drives a hybrid, recycles, uses energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. But he refuses to practice the most basic of conservation measures: Shutting the doors to his downtown art gallery when his heating or air conditioning is running.

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NONETHELESS

Many people get the bug to the point where they want to make their own which ain’t very hard to do. Ed Beagley Jr. makes his with a bicycle generator.

http://www.magnet4less.com/index.php?cPath=8&gclid=CMT6sKTjqaACFQTyDAod6i0xeg

Residential & Home Wind Turbines
WindMax is the Exclusive Distributor in the US for HYenergy wind turbines. HYEnergy Residential-Home Wind Turbines feature High performance, high efficiency, high reliability and superior workmanship. Patented, twisted high efficiency blades with extremely efficient aerodynamics design, brushless generator, electromagnetic overspeed control and aerodynamic blade speed limitation make the whole system maintenance free, fully automatic and providing higher energy output. HYenergy wind turbine patent was awarded in March of 2004. CE certification was awarded in July of 2005.

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Wind Turbine Generators with Inverters


Wind Turbine Generators with Inverters
Wind Turbine system with inverter included. WindMax wind turbines have high performance, high efficiency, high reliability and superior workmanship, designed to work from low to high wind speeds.: High performance, high efficiency, high reliability and superior workmanship, designed to work from low to high wind speeds.We also are the leading manufacturer of top quality, excellent performing, and long lasting wind turbine blades.

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Hybrid Wind Turbines w/Solar Panels


Hybrid Wind Turbines w/Solar Panels
The advanced wind-solar hybrid system generates electricity using both solar panels modules and WindMax wind turbines at the same time at all conditions. The hybrid system features high efficiency, high reliability, and high sustainability. It is light weight, easy to install and has electromagnetic over-speed control which more reliable than traditional furling system.

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Just think one day everyone might have one

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Renewable Energy To Replace Coal And Oil – If they keep going like this they will

They are starting to build steam – oh what a mixed metaphor. But first I must say…

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Community Energy Systems is a nonprofit 501c3 organization chartered in Illinois in Sangamon County. As such we are dependent on public donations for our continued existence. We also use Adsense as a fundraiser. Please click on the ads that you see on this page, on our main page and on our Bulletin Board (Refrigerator Magnets) and you will be raising money for CES. We say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who do.

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http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14050919

World’s largest solar project prompts environmental debate

 

Updated: 12/23/2009 07:24:46 AM P

Panoche Valley is known mostly for cattle and barbed wire, a treeless landscape in eastern San Benito County that turns green every spring but for much of the year looks like rural Nevada.

A posse of lawmen gunned down the famous Gold Rush bandit Joaquin Murrieta, an inspiration for the fictional character Zorro, near here in 1853. Nothing that exciting has happened since.

But now the remote valley 25 miles south of Hollister is finding itself at the center of a new showdown. A Silicon Valley company is proposing to build here what would be the world’s largest solar farm — 1.2 million solar panels spread across an area roughly the size of 3,500 football fields.

“This is renewable energy. It doesn’t

 

cause pollution, it doesn’t use coal or foreign oil, and it emits no greenhouse gases,” said Mike Peterson, CEO of Solargen Energy, the Cupertino company behind the $1.8 billion project.But critics — including some environmentalists — say green energy isn’t always green. In a refrain being heard increasingly across California, they contend the plan to cover this ranch land with a huge solar project would harm a unique landscape and its wildlife.

From the Bay Area to the Mojave Desert, green energy supporters are frustrated that a state that wants to lead the green revolution is facing roadblocks.

Peterson, a former vice president of Goldman Sachs, looked across the Panoche Valley last week and noted its attributes.

t sits 20 miles from the nearest town. It has 90 percent of the solar intensity of the Mojave Desert. Five willing sellers, mostly longtime ranching families, have signed options to sell his company 18,000 acres. And huge transmission lines run through the site, negating the need to build the kind of costly and controversial new power lines that have stalled similar projects.”From our standpoint, this is a perfect place,” he said. “If not here, where?”

Opposition mounts

The project would produce 420 megawatts of electricity, roughly the same as a medium-sized natural gas power plant, and enough to power 315,000 homes.

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Wind made huge strides too.

http://www.evwind.es/noticias.php?id_not=3012

Wind Energy Industry Highlights of 2009

23 de diciembre de 2009

Reflecting on a year that opened with high expectations for renewable energy from the new Obama Administration and was buffeted by economic storms, AWEA identified the wind industry’s top accomplishments in 2009.

Wind Energy Industry Highlights of 2009

“Wind power is a symbol of hope in our economy and supports thousands of jobs, but U.S. wind turbine manufacturing is lagging at the very time that the global clean energy race is heating up,” said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. “One of the most urgent measures that our government can enact is a national Renewable Electricity Standard, which will unleash in the U.S. a wave of manufacturing investment that will otherwise go overseas. Many companies are eager to enter or ramp up their activities in this sector, as this year’s highlights show, but all need to see a long-term commitment with hard targets to renewable energy in order to be able to invest.”

The top accomplishments and developments include:

* American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 Funds a Lifeline: The ARRA included several provisions to spur development of wind and other renewable energy industries along with the Treasury Grant Program, which by year end had supplied over $1.5 billion in crucial capital. Since the early July announcement to implement the stimulus bill, at least 37 different wind projects, using large and small turbines, have been recipients of the grant program, powering the equivalent of 800,000 homes and providing a lifeline for the industry and sustaining wind power as a bright spot in the economy.

* … But Manufacturing Still Lags: Wind turbine manufacturing, however, has fallen behind 2008 levels in both announcements and in production activity. While this is bad news, the good news is that a solution is readily available: A strong national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) will create the market certainty that manufacturers need in order to invest, enabling the U.S. to become a wind turbine manufacturing powerhouse creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.

* Strong Support for a National Renewable Electricity Standard (RES): An RES is included in the House version of climate legislation passed this spring and in pending Senate energy legislation. The wind industry, backed by popular support, continues to advocate for swift passage of a strong RES. A poll released by AWEA in May showed that over 75% of Americans, including 71% of independents and 62% of Republicans, support an RES requiring that 25% of the nation’s electricity be generated from renewable energy by 2025.

* COP15: AWEA sent a delegation to the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen this month. AWEA’s participation at the conference is another indication of America’s reengagement in the international climate change process and of the key role that wind power plays today in the transition to a clean energy economy.

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There is much more to the article please read it

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THAT’S Amazing

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Home Of Oil, Also The Home Of Wind – 736 Megs. come on line

It’s Jam Band Friday – hurray

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4KmbUCwkyE )

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioaMTqBpfb3mR-M1Vew-FC32oyqQD9B2FK880

Massive Texas wind farm operating

DALLAS — The world’s largest wind farm officially got up and running Thursday, with all 627 towering wind turbines churning out electricity across 100,000 acres of West Texas farmland.

The Roscoe Wind Complex, which began construction in 2007 and sprawls across four counties near Roscoe, is generating its full capacity of 781.5 megawatts, enough to power 230,000 homes, the German company E.ON Climate and Renewables North America said.

“This is truly sign milestone for us,” said Patrick Woodson, the company’s chief development officer. “In three years to be able to take this project from cotton fields to the biggest wind farm in the world is something we’re very proud of.”

The complex is about 220 miles west of Dallas and 300 miles south of the land where billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens had planned an even larger wind farm before he scrapped the idea in July.

Texas leads the nation in wind power production, and this wind farm tops the capacity record of 735.5 megawatts set by another West Texas farm southwest of Abilene.

Renewable energy makes up a small fraction of the electricity grid, but the wind and solar sectors were among the fastest growing in the U.S. before the recession. Wind power in Texas has grown again this year but has slowed from the 2008 rate.

“We are expecting ’09 to be a somewhat smaller year overall, but still a fairly solid year,” said Kathy Belyeu of the American Wind Energy Association.

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( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfU6kbgR1SY&NR=1  )

You can tell that wind is here to stay.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aTWyaCoFJz5s

FPL to Buy 3 Wind Power Farms From Babcock & Brown (Update2) 

By Katarzyna Klimasinska

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) — FPL Group Inc., the biggest U.S. producer of wind and solar power, agreed to buy three wind farms from Babcock & Brown for $352 million.

The turbines, located in Texas, Wisconsin and South Dakota, have combined capacity of 184.5 megawatts, FPL’s NextEra Energy Resources LLC subsidiary said today in a statement. More than 80 percent of the output is sold under long-term contracts.

Juno Beach, Florida-based FPL will need approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Justice Department to complete the transaction, which is scheduled to close by the end of this year. The wind farms will add to FPL’s 2010 earnings, according to the statement.

NextEra said the purchase includes a 79.5-megawatt wind farm in Carson County, Texas, northeast of Amarillo; a 54- megawatt development in Dodge County, Wisconsin, northwest of Milwaukee; and a 51-megawatt farm in Jerauld County, South Dakota, south of Wessington Springs.

FPL fell $1.48, or 2.7 percent, to $53.75 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock had climbed 9.7 percent this year before today:}

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( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxGpmp6URuk&feature=related )

I love that quote:

There is plenty of wind out there and plenty of energy to be tapped. It’s just like an oil field that doesn’t run out. Tom Gray, AWEA

Oh sorry I was busy boogying

http://www.seco.cpa.state.tx.us/re_wind.htm

For the past two years, Texas has been the top wind producer in the United States, with over 3,953 wind-generated megawatts (MW) installed. Texas is also the first state to achieve the milestone of one Gigawatt of wind installations in a single year (2007). The demand for additional wind power has grown so rapidly that the Texas electric transmission grid has a critical need for expansion. In July 2007, the Texas Public Utility Commission announced its approval for additional transmission lines that could deliver as much as 25,000 megawatts of wind energy from remote areas in the state to urban centers by 2012, depending on how many wind farms are built. New transmission infrastructure will allow all Texans to access the the state’s vast wind resources.

DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports that wind power is the fastest growing renewable energy technology, growing by 45% in 2006 due to strong demand, investment of private capital, and the support of federal and state governments. Electric utilities have shown an increased interest in wind project ownership, and wind industry sales to power marketers have become more common. Wind power has consistently remained at or below the average price of conventional electricity such as coal, nuclear, and natural gas.

AWEA has determined that two-thirds of the predicted growth of wind energy generation in the U.S. will occur in Texas, as three of the five largest wind farms in the nation are located in Texas. Texas already holds the record for the world’s largest wind farm, Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center, which was completed by FPL Energy, Inc. in late 2006. It also is the site for the nation’s second-largest wind farm, the 504.8-megawatt Sweetwater wind project, the fourth phase of which attained commercial operation in May, 2007.

The Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center in Texas remains the largest wind farm in the world with a total capacity of 735 megawatts (MW) spread across approximately 47,000 acres in Taylor and Nolan counties near Abilene in west central Texas.

The wind plant consists of 291 1.5-MW wind turbines from General Electric and 130 2.3-MW wind turbines from Siemens.

One MW is enough electricity to serve 250 to 300 homes on average each day

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( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=359QibQrD1Q&feature=related )

I  love it when a plan comes together.

http://www.infinitepower.org/projects.htm

Texas Renewable Energy Projects

This page presents information on notable renewable energy projects around the state, representing the major renewable energy technologies.

The following is a list of Texas State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) renewable energy projects:


Wind Power Projects
Delaware Mountain Wind Farm   A photo of wind turbines on a mesa in West Texas.
Owner:   American National Wind Power
Size:     30 MW
Location:    Culberson County, Texas
Installed: 1999
American National Wind Power is a subsidiary of National Wind Power. This wind farm is National Wind Power’s (NWP) first project in Texas and is located in Culberson County, northeast of the town of Van Horn in West Texas. The ranch on which it is built is used for raising cattle and deer and is also the site of the West Texas Wind Farm Power Project, described below.  Given the right legislative environment, NWP plan  to develop it to a full potential of 250MW. The power produced by the Delaware Mountain Wind Farm is purchased by the Lower Colorado River Authority (Austin, Texas) and Reliant Energy HL&P (Houston, Texas) for distribution to their customers.
Texas Wind Power Project

A photo of the LCRA's wind turbines in Delaware County, near Guadalupe peak.

Owner:   General Land Office & Lower Colorado River Authority
Size:     35 MW
Location:    Culberson County, Texas
Installed: 1995
The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) teamed with the General Land Office GLO) and private industry to develop this commercial wind power plant, the first in Texas.  The Texas Wind Power Project, located in Culberson County in West Texas, has 112 Kenetech 33M-VS wind turbines capable of generating 35 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 12,000 to 15,000 homes.  Since the ribbon-cutting for the Texas Wind Power Project in 1995, the Texas’ Permanent School Fund earned more than $750.000 from it. The project is expected to earn more than $3 million for the PSF and create $300 million in increased economic activity over the 25-year lease period.  For additional information see this GLO web page.

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God bless Texas and Ry Cooder

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXx0qrasdTE&feature=related )

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