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wind

U.S. wind power growing fast but still lags

Reuters

Wind-generated electricity is growing rapidly in the United States but the pace still lags far behind that in China, the organizer of an industry conference in North Carolina said.

"With the right policies in place, we can see explosive growth...It's a global footrace," said Jeff Anthony, business development director of the American Wind Energy Association.

Although the United States has the largest amount of installed wind power capacity in the world, the wind power industry is "fighting to get on a level playing field" with other government-subsidized power providers, Anthony told a conference of … Read more

Sen. Reid helps win wind turbine plant for Nevada

Nevada is about to become home to one very large wind turbine plant.

A-Power Energy, U.S. Renewable Energy Group, and American Nevada Group announced Thursday a joint project to build a mega-factory in Nevada for producing wind turbines.

The factory will produce and assemble advanced wind energy turbines for supplying wind projects in North and South America, producing an estimated 1,110-megawatts worth of turbines per year.

The 320,000-square-foot facility when completed will ultimately employ over 1,000 people, in addition to the temporary jobs its development and construction will immediately create.

Apparently, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (… Read more

Utilities: Green tech good for planet, bad for business

More than 70 percent of U.S. electric utilities have implemented, or have plans to implement, wind and solar projects within the next three to five years, despite concerns about when they will pay off, according to the results of a survey released this week by Black & Veatch.

About 79 percent of survey participants said their utility had a wind power project already in development or planned within the next three to five years, while 73 percent said the same of solar projects.

The investment choice makes sense, given the fact that wind energy ranked second as the technology … Read more

Devices under testing at NASA may save trucking billions

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--The American trucking industry could save as much as $10 billion, or 3.4 billion gallons of diesel fuel, a year if devices being tested in a joint public-private initiative at the world's-largest wind tunnel here are rolled out nationally.

Over the last few weeks, a partnership between the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, the U.S. Air Force, the NASA Ames Research Center, and the conglomerate, Navistar, has been conducting tests on the aerodynamics of tractor-trailer trucks. The findings indicate that new devices could be added onto the nation's thousands of trucks that could increase … Read more

'Stealth' wind turbine blade may end radar problem

Reuters

The development of a "stealth" turbine blade, based on military technology, may help overcome the problem of wind farms interfering with aviation radar systems, its developers said.

The issue of turbine blades confusing radar operators accounts for around half the objections to wind farm planning applications in Britain.

Now, Vestas Wind Systems is experimenting with stealth technology, developed to help warplanes escape notice, to reduce a turbine blade's radar signature--the size of the blip it makes on an air traffic controller's radar screen.

"These tips of the blades travel at about the same speed as … Read more

MSI Wind U135 Netbook joins Pine Trail party

Acer has a prime competitor in the ultra-affordable Netbook market, and that's MSI. The just-announced MSI Wind U135 doesn't add much that's new to the Netbook equation, swapping out the previous Atom N270 processor for a next-generation battery life-extending N450, nicknamed Pine Trail. Starting at $309.99, the Wind U135 comes with a 160GB or 250GB hard drive, plus 1GB of RAM.

The very Netbook-looking Netbook comes in charcoal, silver, ruby, or sapphire, aka black, silver, red, or blue, with a film-printed shiny coating. New to the Wind U135 is a raised chiclet keyboard, so that the … Read more

U.S. wind power capacity up in 2009

Reuters

WASHINGTON--U.S. wind power capacity soared 39 percent last year but job growth stalled as uncertainty about renewable-energy policies and the recession slowed manufacturing, an industry group said.

The combined power-generating capacity of new U.S. wind turbines installed last year hit more than 9,900 megawatts, up from a gain of over 8,400 MW in the previous year. Total capacity hit more than 35,000 MW, or about enough to power 9.7 million homes, the American Wind Energy Association said.

Total U.S. jobs associated with wind energy, stalled at 85,000, about flat from the previous … Read more

Bankers warming up to offshore wind

Offshore wind capacity in Europe is expected to grow from 1.3 megawatts in 2008 to 18.8 megawatts by 2015, according to estimates from research group Frost & Sullivan.

The change will come from an increased interest from the banking industry in offshore wind project investment.

Previously, there was a high risk associated with offshore wind farms because of a relatively untested permitting process, the expensive initial layout for turbines and equipment, and the difficulty of installing offshore wind farms in comparison to onshore wind farms.

But as the U.K. and German governments began offering more support to … Read more

U.S. says wind could power 20 percent of eastern grid

Reuters

Wind energy could generate 20 percent of the electricity needed by households and businesses in the eastern half of the United States by 2024, but it would require up to $90 billion in investment, according to a government report released on Wednesday.

For the 20 percent wind scenario to work, billions must be spent on installing wind towers on land and sea and about 22,000 miles of new high-tech power lines to carry the electricity to cities, according to the study from the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

"Twenty percent wind is an ambitious goal," … Read more