Wind Energy and renewable energy blog

It’s official – wind generates “substantially” more electricity

The latest Government figures on the amount of electricity generated by wind power have been welcomed by RenewableUK, the country’s largest renewable energy trade association, as proof of the increasingly significant contribution wind energy makes to UK households.

Statistics for the third quarter of 2011, released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, show that renewable sources generated 9 per cent of the UK’s electricity from July to September. That represents an increase of nearly 1 per cent on the same quarter last year.

The UK now has enough installed capacity to supply more than 3,300,000 homes from wind energy.

Britain Hits 5 Gigawatts of Wind Power

British Renewable Energy trade association Renewable UK announced this week that the UK has reached the milestone of 5 Gigawatts of installed wind power.

The announcement comes as another offshore wind farm is commissioned in UK waters off the coast of Kent.

Thanet wind farm comprises 100 Vestas wind turbines each rated at 3 Megawatts. Thanet owner and operator Vattenfall say it is the largest operational wind farm in the world.

New UK Wind Energy Record Set

National Grid confirmed that a record was set this week for the amount of electricity generated by wind turbines in the UK.

Graham McQuarrie at the National Grid’s press office said that at 8.30pm on Monday 6 September that 1860 Megawatts was being generated from wind energy mainly from Scotland – accounting for 4.7 per cent of total generation at the time.

Over the 24 hours for the day between midnight and midnight, wind generated 5 % of all electricity – 40GWh out of a total 809GWh.

Europe Picks up Pace on Offshore Wind

118 new offshore wind turbines were connected to the electricity grid network in the first half of 2010 according to The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) today.

The new offshore wind farms across Europe total 333 Megawatts (MW) indicating that 2010 is set to be a more progressive year than 2009 which delivered 577 MW at the end of the full year. 151 additional wind turbines have been built but not connected to the grid taking the total installed to 440 MW.

According to EWEA figures there are now 43 operational offshore wind farms in Europe with a total capacity of 2,396 MW.

Duputy PM’s Wife Joins Spanish Renewable Energy Giant

The Times, The Telegraph and the Daily Mail have this week all reported on Miriam Gonzalez, the wife of the UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg joining the board of renewable energy giant Acciona.

Spanish born lawyer Miriam Gonzalez has been invited to provide independent advice to the company’s board. According to cabinet sources, discussions progressed with Acciona prior to the general election.

Spanish infrastructure giant Acciona both manufactures wind turbines and constructs wind farms throughout the globe.

Wind Powered Rum

Bacardi have installed 2 wind turbines at their factory in Puerto Rico according to a report by BerNews this week.

The two 250 kW wind turbines owned by Aspenall Energies are expected to provide 7 percent of the Bacardi distillery’s needs and offset over 900 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.

Ministry of Defence Withdraws Objection to UK Offshore Wind Farms

Ministry of Defence (MOD) objections to over 3 GW of UK offshore wind farms have been resolved further to years of discussion and new funding.

The 5 offshore wind farms off the east coast of England in the Greater Wash were considered to pose a conflict with air defence due to the potential for wind turbines to show up on the MOD’s radar screens. However cash has been stumped up by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, and the wind industry to buy a new TPS77 radar which has the ability to screen out the wind turbines.

3rd Round of UK Offshore Wind Farms Announced

The Crown Estate has today announced the 3rd round of UK offshore wind farms. It comes as no surprise that the big winners are giant consortiums made up of globally operating utilities and companies with offshore experience. The winners will be taking on unprecedented challenges with sites up to 195km offshore and water depths of up to 80 metres.

The largest zones at Doggerbank (9000 Megawatts) and Norfolk (7200 MW) go to consortia giants Forewind and East Anglia Offshore Wind. Forewind is made up of RWE renewables, Scottish and Southern Energy, Statoil and Statkraft. East Anglia Offshore Wind is Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall Vindkraft.

Eddie O’Connor’s Mainstream Renewables and Siemans bagged the 4000 MW Hornsea zone, whilst SeaGreen Wind Energy Ltd equally owned by SSE Renewables and Fluor, won the Firth of Forth Zone.

Eon and Dutch utility Eneco were left with the smaller south of England coast sites off Brighton and the Isle of Wight.

Prime Minister, Gordon Brown MP said: “Our policies in support of offshore wind energy have already put us ahead of every other country in the world. This new round of licences provides a substantial new platform for investing in UK industrial capacity. The offshore wind industry is at the heart of the UK economy’s shift to low carbon and could be worth £75 billion and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020.”

New Study Reveals No Health Effects From Wind Turbine Sound

The British Wind Energy Association has welcomed the findings of a further study demonstrating that there is no evidence of health effects from wind turbines.

The joint AWEA / CanWEA report on Wind Turbine Sound and Health Effects was put together by a multidisciplinary panel who conducted the most extensive study of its kind to date. The seven-member panel included experts in the fields of medicine, audiology, acoustics, environmental and public health from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Denmark.

The report is based on a review of a large body of scientific literature on sound and health effects, and specifically with regard to sound produced by wind turbines. After extensive review, analysis and discussion, the panel concluded that sounds or vibrations emitted from wind turbines have no adverse effect on human health.

CanWEA president Robert Hornung said: ‘’The Canadian Wind Energy Association supports the responsible and sustainable development of wind energy in Canada. This study will go a long way in addressing people’s concerns and answering their questions about the effects of wind turbines. Canada’s wind energy industry will continue to take a proactive role in ensuring wind energy developments are good neighbours to the communities that have embraced wind energy.’

New Study says Wind Farms have no Measurable Effect on House Prices

A new study released by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reveals that the view of wind farms does not appear to have a significant effect on the sale of houses.

The study investigated the sales of 7,500 homes between 1996 and 2007 located within 10 miles of 24 operational wind farms. These sales included homes within a mile of wind farms. Specifically, neither the view of the wind farm facilities nor the distance of the home to those facilities is found to have any consistent, measurable and statistically significant effect on home sales.

The study concludes that ‘although the analysis cannot dismiss the possibility that individual homes have been or could be negatively impacted, it finds that if these impacts do exist, they are either too small and too infrequent to result in any widespread observable impact’.

Clipper Windpower Share Price Rise

Wind turbine manufacturer Clipper has sold its Maryland wind energy project together with wind turbines for the 70 megawatt capacity project to Constellation Energy.

The sale of the ‘Criterion wind energy project’ included 28, Clipper ‘Liberty 2.5MW’ wind turbines for at total of $140m. Constellation is a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Maryland.

As a result the wind turbine company Clipper, moved higher on the Aim list yesterday with shares rising by 3.8 per cent to 148p. President and CEO of Clipper Windpower said;

Planning Rules Change for Small -Scale Renewables

Should people need planning consent for small scale renewable energy? This is a question the UK government has been contemplating for several years.

In 2008, the Town and Country Planning Order was amended to grant permitted development rights to domestic properties for solar panels, ground source heat pumps and water source heat pumps, but not to wind turbines and air source heat pumps.

A new consultation was kicked off yesterday on Government proposals to introduce permitted development rights for small scale renewable energy and low carbon technologies for both householders and businesses. It is also looking for feedback on permitted development rights and advertisement consent for electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Cambridge Wind Farm Given Green Light

The Wadlow wind farm proposal in Cambridgeshire, England has been given the go-ahead by the Secretary of State.

The proposal for 13 wind turbines was objected to by the local authority – South Cambridgeshire District Council, local residents and horse riders.

It was South Cambs’ case that this was not the ‘right location for a wind farm’ of this size. However Planning Inspector David Lavender found that the wind farm company involved; RES ‘did not need to exhaust sequentially all other better locations’ to show that the wind farm site is needed against renewable energy targets.

Objections related to wind turbines scaring horses however appear to have backfired … as Lavender concluded that horse riding seemed to be a very dangerous activity whether there were turbines there or not.

Do Wind Turbines Work?

Numerous reports have now been published saying wind turbines work and can make an important contribution towards the UK’s energy needs.

Prominant energy analyst David Milborrow published a new report back in June which the wind energy industry hoped would put to bed the question of whether wind turbines work.

The report confirms that wind energy can substitute for thermal plant and enable the British power system to operate with the same level of reliability. According to Milborrow, Utilities worldwide generally agree there is no fundamental technical reason why “high proportions of wind cannot be assimilated without the lights going out”.

Contrary to what is sometimes banded about in the mainstream media, the findings demonstrate that widespread use of wind power leads to a significant reduction in carbon emissions. In addition variability in wind energy does not mean costs will be substantially higher.

Lib Dems MP Stands up For Wind Turbines

Cheltenham Lib Dem MP Martin Horwood stood up for wind energy this week, opposing a bill for a new rule dictating wind turbines should be 2km from houses.

The bill introduced by a few anti wind energy MP’s could bring an overnight halt to the UK’s renewable energy progress if passed.

Horwood explained the problem with an example close to his home; “Cheltenham’s first wind turbine is planned in the Springbank area of Cheltenham. Planning permission is being applied for. It will not be big—a bit less than 18 metres tall, to the tip of the highest blade. It will generate 9,500 kWh of electricity a year, and save more than 4 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year.”

MP Says We Don’t Want Wind Turbines Near our Homes

An English MP wants a new rule to say wind turbines can’t be built within 1.5 miles of homes. This would mean saying goodbye to new wind farms in the English countryside.

Peter Luff MP will tomorrow table a ten minute rule bill asking for an arbritrary 2km buffer zone between wind turbines and homes. This would mean a halt to new wind farms in England which is struggling to meet its renewable energy targets, and many parts of Scotland and Wales.

Ten minute rule bills are often used by MPs to provoke a debate and although unlikely to be successful- an arbritrary 2 km limit would bring about a collapse in the entire English onshore wind industry. This in turn would also probably cause some damage to the offshore wind energy sector as England is seen increasingly by wind turbine manufacturers (like Vestas on the Isle of Wight) as anti-wind. Attempts to kick off small or community led renewable energy projects would be much harder without the support of a healthy renewables industry.

Bird and Bat Radar Detection For Wind Farms

With many people and organisations concerned about potential bird and bat kills from wind turbines, could radar be the answer?

Radar specialist company DeTect has developed and manufactured a new Avian Radar System ‘Merlin‘ which is aimed at protecting birds and bats from colliding with wind turbines.

The company believes the technology can provide ‘real-time risk mitigation’ and already have over 50 systems operating worldwide. DeTect say the system can be used at operating wind farms to provide an “early warning system of bird activity that presents mortality risk, automatically engaging response mitigation actions up to and including idling of turbines until the risk passes.”

Will the Conservatives Introduce County Renewable Energy Targets?

With the proposed Conservative abolition of regional planning, many renewable energy developers have been asking the question; if the Conservatives get into power next year, who will be responsible for setting renewable energy targets?

Planning Magazine reported last week that the Tories are looking at a return to county structure plans. Most UK development companies, whether they be building houses or wind turbines believe that area development plans should provide for the needs of its area or else the provision of adequate housing and essential infrastructure is at risk. These companies and the people responsible for providing the decision making framework i.e. the planners are therefore concerned that any changes are managed smoothly and effectively.

Mainstream Kick off 1st South Africa Project

Mainstream and joint venture partner Geneses Eco-Energy kicked off public consultation on their Jeffrey’s Bay wind energy project at the weekend.

Displays showing details of the 100 Megawatt project were on display at the town’s ’shell festival’ over the weekend.

The Jeffreys Bay Wind Farm is one of a number of proposals in South Africa hoping to be in the first tranch to secure a fixed rate tariff from the Government.

Mainstream Renewable Power SA Director Leila Mahomed-Weidman said ‘people have been very positive about the project with many asking how quickly can you get the wind turbines up’.

Last of the Round 1 Offshore Wind Farms Heads for 2009 Completion

It will have taken nearly 10 years to get the first round of UK offshore wind energy projects up and running by the time the last Round 1 offshore wind farm is completed at Rhyl Flats later this year.

Back in April 2001, following a pre-qualification process, 18 companies were selected by the Crown Estate to progress projects in the first round of offshore wind farm sites on the UK seabed. This represented an unprecedented step by the then Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in pushing forward offshore wind farms. Under the agreements, the companies were given a three-year period in which to secure the required consents for a full lease to be granted by the Crown Estate.

npower renewables built the first commercial scale offshore wind farm in UK waters in 2003 between Rhyl and Prestatyn off the north coast of Wales. This 30 turbine wind farm known as North Hoyle was built with help from capital grants and now generates enough green electricity for the annual average needs of 40,000 homes.

Over 6 years later npower has purchased the rights for the development of sister project “Rhyll Flats” from Celtic Offshore Wind Limited (COWL). The site is located to the west of North Hoyle 5 miles from shore.