Wind Energy and renewable energy blog

Nuclear Power Station Proposals Threaten Wind Farm

German utility giant RWE caused a stir yesterday by threatening to move a UK community wind farm. The company may want to move the wind turbines to make way for its new nuclear power station at Kirkstanton in Cumbria, England.

Wave Energy is Born

As OPEC proclaimed yesterday that low oil prices are unlikely to last long, Scottish wave energy company Aquamarine Power announced what they dubbed “the birth” of the wave industry.

The announcement followed the successful production and export of renewable electricity from its wave energy converter ‘Oyster‘ to the grid.

Wind Energy Project Denied Consent Due to Horse Riders

The UK government has signed up to legally binding targets for reducing carbon emissions and says it wants to increase renewable sources of energy on a dramatic scale. Wind energy is expected to form the bulk of new renewable energy.

Just a few weeks ago climate change secretary Ed Miliband said opposing onshore wind energy projects should become socially taboo- so why is it that the UK Planning Inspectorate is rejecting wind energy proposals so readily?

Community Renewable Energy

With both the US and UK governments making serious investments in small scale renewable energy, community projects are likely to attract keen interest over the next few years.

A range of technologies are available to both existing and new communities including wind energy, solar energy, biomass or combined heat and power and hydro- electric power.

Green Energy Web Conferences are holding a series of webconferences to exchange information about green energy solutions. The first is a 2-day community wind energy webconference comprising live presentations by more than 25 community wind specialists.

UK Budget 2009 – Consumers To Pay the Price for Offshore Wind Energy

The UK Chancellor – Alistair Darling announced today the budget report for 2009.

The Chancellor – claimed “there will be help now to get people back into work quickly, and support businesses and homeowners facing problems.

Secondly, there will be measures to support investment in the growth and green industries of the future – while, as the recovery takes hold, ensure our public finances are sustainable.”

Moving onto offshore wind energy – “We must build on Britain’s status as the world leader in offshore wind power generation.

Will Gordon Brown Kick Start the Green Economy?

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, along with other western country leaders wants to create a green collar economy to help us on the road to economic recovery by creating thousands of new renewable energy jobs.

The PM wants to attract manufacturing business like the wind turbine plant recently set up in Detroit, US creating 250 jobs. The credit crunch, however, has pushed up the cost of financing UK renewable energy and energy efficient projects, while the appetite of investors to back new, risky technologies has slowed considerably.

31% Evangelists Don’t Believe in Climate Change

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently announced results of a survey about people’s opinions on climate change.

The survey carried out last year among 1,502 American adults asked people if they believed there is solid evidence that the average temperature on Earth has been getting warmer over the past few decades. The survey showed the white evangelical protestants are the biggest non-believers in climate change with 31% saying that they believe there is no solid evidence.

Stealth Wind Turbine Blade Closer to Reality

Aviation constraints are currently restricting the expansion of wind energy in the UK – even offshore environments where radar of a different type plays an essential role in marine navigation. However new technology developments are progressing and offer potential future solutions.

Qinetiq, in partnership with Vestas have been in the R&D stage of a “stealth blade” for a number of years. The technology is being developed to solve issues of wind turbine blade returns appearing as “clutter” on radar screens, which some radar users find distracting.

New Home Wind Turbine Energy Savings Calculator

Do you live in the UK and want to find out how much you could save on your electricity bill by installing a wind turbine?

The Carbon Trust has just launched a new Wind Yield Estimation Tool to help people thinking about installing their own wind turbine. The tool allows you to work out how much power a home wind turbine could generate, together with the cost and carbon savings.

Xcel Wind Energy Battery Results

Alternative proposals to maximise the potential of wind energy have recently been prominent in the news. The people of El Hierro propose to use excess power from wind energy to run a hydro project which will in turn generate electricity when there is no wind energy available.

Xcel Energy is the biggest purchaser of wind generated electricity in the US and has chosen to investigate the possibilities of energy storage. It has installed a 1 MW sodium-sulphur battery within the Minwind wind farm in Minnesota with the aim of managing excess energy more flexibly.

Climate Change Reminders

This climate change campaign ad makes us reflect how easy it is to go about our daily lives, buffered from the potential impacts of climate change.

Invest in Your Local Wind Energy Project

Community owned wind energy projects have started to appear in England, Scotland and Germany over the last few years. Many wind energy companies are starting to run schemes where local people can invest in their local wind energy project and in some cases individual wind energy operators are selling 100% of the shares to community investors.

How I Made My First Wind Turbine – Age 14

William Kamkwamba from Tanzania made his first wind turbine at age 14. This TED interview explains how he did it using spare parts and a library book. William’s next wind energy project is a larger turbine to power an irrigation system in his village.

BWEA Calls for Government Action to Reach UK Renewable Energy Target

The British Wind Energy Association told the UK Government today that it has to intervene if the UK renewable energy target is to be met.

Talking about its written submission prior to next week’s budget, BWEA Chief Exec Maria McCaffery said:

“Large scale wind deployment is vital to reaching the UK’s goal of generating up to 40% of our electricity from renewables by 2020.

The current economic climate has caused a number of developers to put projects on hold, threatening the UK’s targets, and leaving the country exposed to volatile fossil fuel prices. Building a clean energy sector in the UK is an important part of our economic recovery, and we need to maximize the opportunities to develop sustainable energy projects which would otherwise be delayed by the recession.

Biomass News

New Energy finance today reported that during the week beginning 31 March and ending 6 April, the best energy performer in terms of share prices was the biofuels and biomass sector with NYSE-listed Chinese biodiesel producer Gushan Environmental Energy enjoying rising share prices of 49% as it commissioned the expansion phase of a biodiesel plant in Beijing, which will double its annual capacity.

Salazar Holds First Offshore Energy Public Meeting

Secretary Salazar believes that US offshore wind energy resources could lead America’s Clean Energy Revolution. Today he held the first of a series of public meetings to consult on a new offshore energy plan.

At a previous meeting with 25x’25 America’s Energy Future – a group seeking to reduce America’s carbon emissions – he said “More than three-fourths of the nation’s electricity demand comes from coastal states and the wind potential off the coasts of the lower 48 states actually exceeds our entire US electricity demand“.

Climate Change Still Not Global Priority

Environmental groups were disappointed by the vagueness of World leaders commitment to tackling climate change at the G20 summit in London yesterday.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was encouraged that the G20 leaders recognized “the inextricable links between addressing the economic crisis and addressing food security and climate change”. However green groups and the wider press criticised a lack of action.

Wind Energy Companies to Pool Funding for Aviation Remedy

Key players in the UK wind energy market have pooled £3.2m ($4.7m US) to fund attempts to find a technical remedy for airport “radar clutter” caused by wind turbines.

The Aviation Investment Fund Company Ltd (AIFC) has been set up to specifically to fund the progression of possible solutions to the perceived problem of the visibility of wind turbines on radar screens.

The potential effects of wind turbines on airport and air defence radars is currently one of the key barriers to the roll out of wind energy projects in the UK.

Offshore Wind Energy Projects Storm Ahead in the UK

DONG Energy installed its first wind turbine at Gunfleet Sands, off the Essex coast this morning.

The wind turbine is the UK’s first in the second round or “Round 2″ of constructing offshore wind farms as laid out and licensed by The Crown Estate in 2003. The project will have a capacity of 172 MW using 48 turbines at 3.6 MW each, and is due for completion by 2010.

Neils Bergh-Hansen, Executive Vice President at DONG Energy said: