Alternative . Renewable . Energy

How wind farms work

Here's an interesting interactive page on the National Geographic site on how wind farms work.

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Wind power capacity growth strong in 2006

This post is brought to you by  Curt Rosengren ~ Passion Catalyst TM   "Love your work. Change your world."

Wind power grew by leaps and bounds last year, according to the Worldwatch Institute:

The 15,200 megawatts of new wind turbines installed worldwide last year will generate enough clean electricity annually to offset the carbon dioxide emissions of 23 average-sized U.S. coal-fired power plants, according to a new Vital Signs Update from the Worldwatch Institute. The 43 million tons of carbon dioxide displaced in 2006 is equivalent to the emissions of 7,200 megawatts of coal-fired power plants, or nearly 8 million passenger cars.

Global wind power capacity increased almost 26 percent in 2006, exceeding 74,200 megawatts by year’s end. Global investment in wind power was roughly $22 billion in 2006, and in Europe and North America, the power industry added more capacity in wind than it did in coal and nuclear combined. The global market for wind equipment has risen 74 percent in the past two years, leading to long backorders for wind turbine equipment in much of the world.

[via the CNET Tech news blog]

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32% growth in global wind market

Wind was still a big growth market in 2006...

The international wind energy market enjoyed another record year in 2006, increasing by 32%, and installing 15,197 MW of new wind power worldwide, according to figures released by the Global Wind Energy Council.

Here are the regions leading the charge:

• Europe: 7708 MW
• Asia: 3679 MW
• North America: 3230 MW

On a country by country basis, here's who led the growth:

The United States was once again the leading market with 2454 MW of new wind installed in 2006, followed by Germany on 2233 MW, India with 1840 MW and Spain with 1587 MW. China came next on 1347 MW, growing rapidly on the back of its new Renewable Energy Law, while France had a tremendous year, installing 810 MW of new wind generation. Indeed France installed more capacity in 2006 than previously existed in the entire country.

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Global wind energy growth

Wind energy has seen substantial growth over the last decade according to this article.

Global wind electricity-generating capacity increased by 24 per cent in 2005 to 59,100 megawatts. This represents a twelvefold increase from a decade ago, when world wind-generating capacity stood at less than 5,000 megawatts.

At the same time, the cost of wind energy has plummeted.

Overall, the cost of wind power has decreased by nearly 90 per cent since the 1980s to 4 US cents or less per kilowatt-hour in prime wind sites (See Figure). In some markets wind-generated electricity is cheaper than electricity from conventional energy sources. The cost of wind power has fallen due to advances in technology, declines in the costs of financing wind projects, and the economies of scale of turbine and component manufacturing and construction.

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China drives down wind turbine prices

The Chinese government is throwing its weight behind a push for alternative energy sources. Among those is wind. One global outcome of this is that wind turbine prices are falling.

Last month, authorities gave a massive kick-start to wind energy by raising the target for the overall share of renewable energy in the nation's power mix to 15 percent by 2020, up from 10 percent.

A significant chunk of that will come from wind farms. And as Chinese firms move in a big way to produce cheap wind turbines to satisfy domestic demand, they're forcing turbine prices down in other countries.

"With the development of wind turbine technology in China, the price is already falling worldwide. The price has come down about 20 percent," said Deng Yuanchang, deputy director of the Wind Resource Research Center at Sun Yat-sen University...

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Floating wind farms

The wind blows strongest out at sea, and there's little or no NIMBY effect (Not In My Back Yard), so why not tap into the energy potential out there? The Norwegian company Hydro is doing just that, developing floating wind turbines for use in offshore energy generation. From their website:

Hydro has developed a new concept for producing power at sea Hywind. Floating concrete construction technology developed for the North Sea oil industry will be applied to offshore windmills...

...“Hywind is a future-oriented project combining our offshore oil industry experiences with our knowledge of wind power to take advantage of wind resources where it blows most – at sea.

[via theWatt and Green Car Congress]

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Spain Proves Wind Power Works

Is wind actually the answer? It certainly has its share of critics, but some point to Spain and say, yes. As Justin on the treehugger blog points out...

Last year Spain reached a record level of wind power installations. Many people now cite Spain's use of wind power as proof that wind is a viable energy source. Corin Millais, CEO of the European Wind Energy Association says: "To dismiss wind energy as an expensive, niche green luxury, as many do, is to ignore what has happened in Spain, the world's number one wind market".

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Burgerville goes 100% wind power

I see a billboard saying "Next Burgerville 25,000 miles" (or some such number) every time I visit my parents in Oregon. This news makes me actually want to stop and eat there.

The Holland Inc. said Monday it will use renewable wind power produced in the Pacific Northwest to provide 100 percent of the electricity needs of all its Burgerville and Noodlin' restaurants, and at its local headquarters in Vancouver, Wash.

[via triplepundit]

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Wind power from passing cars?

Clean Break points to an interesting tidbit on a study that a group of Canadian students are doing on the potential of using wind created by passing cars as an energy source...

Some students at Toronto's Centennial College are measuring wind speeds along the 401 Highway -- Canada's busiest and largest highway stretch -- to find out if the wind from passing vehicles can be harnessed to spin turbines. The students refer to it as "wind tunnel power" created by the movement of a 16-lane highway.

"Collected data will be used to determine the amount of available wind energy so that the college and its partners can put up an appropriately sized wind turbine that will feed electricity into the local power grid," the school states.

If something like this works, it seems a bit poetic that passing cars in the process of using up the world's oil supply could be used to generate more energy (even if only incrementally more). I like it.

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Dutch study: wind turbines kill fewer birds

One of the criticisms of wind energy is the fact that wind turbines kill birds. A recent Dutch study claims that that happens far less than previously thought.

Wind turbines producing "green" energy kill many fewer birds than previously thought and pose less of a threat to avian life than cars, a study by the Dutch Bird Protection charity and power utility Nuon showed.

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