Wind

Lithium ion battery maker A123 Systems today said it will supply an energy storage system attached to a wind turbine in a test that could lead to further grid business in China.

Power equipment manufacturer Dongfang Electric will install a 500-kilowatt battery bank attached to a 1.5-megawatt wind turbine and diesel generator to evaluate how well the batteries can smooth out dips in power production from wind. The system, which can store 125 kilowatt-hours, is scheduled to be installed by the end of the year.

Wind power has boomed in China over the past few years, driven by government … Read more

Typically, cost is the driving concern when choosing one renewable energy technology over another. But a pair of studies that consider land use give the edge to niche forms of solar and wind power generation.

Caltech researcher John Dabiri, a professor of aeronautics and bioengineering, this week presented results of a test that found that vertical-axis wind turbines have the potential to generate more power per square meter than the propeller-like, three-blade wind turbines. The key is that vertical-axis turbines can be placed close together without creating the type of wind disturbances that would sap performance of traditional turbines.

Dabiri … Read more

Chip giant Intel procured over 1,493 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy in 2010.

That's according to a survey of over 1,000 companies that was conducted by Bloomberg New Energy Finance in conjunction with wind turbine giant Vestas Wind Systems.

The index developed from this new survey is called the Corporate Renewable Energy Index (CREX). (For a PDF of the white paper on the survey, click here.) For its inaugural release the CREX released rankings of companies based on the amount of renewable energy they procured both in 2009 and 2010.

For 2010, the top five companies with the largest renewable electricity procurement were: Intel, clothing retailer Kohl's, Hong Kong electric company CLP Holdings, supermarket chain Whole Foods Market, and the Dutch telecom Koninklijke KPN.

For 2009, the ranking was Deutsche Telekom, Intel, PepsiCo, BT Group, and clothing retailer Kohl's.

Keep in mind that no one is suggesting these companies are gleaning electricity directly from local solar or wind farms. While some companies do directly support renewable-energy projects, over 80 percent of the renewable electricity procured by the companies surveyed was purchased in the form of renewable electricity credits (RECs).

And while Intel procured the most renewable electricity in 2010 at over 1,493 gigawatt-hours, on a percentage basis it's actually Kohl's that wins. In 2010 the retailer purchased so many RECs, it statistically can say it garnered 100.4 percent of its energy from renewable sources.

In conjunction with the CREX, Vestas also had TNS/Gallup conduct a survey on wind energy procurement in particular.

When it comes to wind, Whole Foods tops the list. The supermarket chain gets 100 percent of its electricity from wind energy, followed by North American bank Toronto-Dominion Bank at 78 percent, and software giant Adobe Systems at 65 percent, according to the Global Consumer Wind Study 2011.

More statistics and rankings of companies by industry can be found in Appendix D (page 30) of the CREX white paper (PDF) released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and Vestas.… Read more

The U.S. wind energy market took a hit in 2010 with a decrease in investment compared with 2008 and 2009.

That's according to the Department of Energy's "2010 Wind Technologies Market Report" (PDF) released yesterday.

The report measures investment in terms of how much wind energy capacity was built and connected to the national electric grid. About 5 gigawatts' worth of wind energy farms were installed in the U.S. in 2010, representing an $11 billion investment, according to the Department of Energy report. That represents a decrease in wind energy installations overall when compared … Read more

Renewable energy and green technology companies are poised to crash, a recently released Foreign Affairs article argues. Despite the provocative title, the authors offer relatively familiar solutions for speeding energy innovation, such as boosting government funding for research and development.

The July/August edition of Foreign Affairs features "The Crisis in Clean Energy--Stark Realities of the Renewables Craze," which offers a grim outlook for solar, wind, and other green technologies--a crisis that will make it tougher for the U.S. to address energy security, the trade deficit, and global warming. Another piece by Devon Swezey of the Breakthrough Institute, teeing off the Foreign Affairs article, calls it "The Coming Cleantech Crash."

With government spending under intense scrutiny around the world, policies to subsidize renewable energy have become "politically unsustainable" in the U.S. and Europe, according to David Victor, a professor a the School of International Relations at the University of California San Diego, and Kassia Yanosek, founding principal at consulting and investment company Tana Energy Capital. Scaling back subsidies for solar and wind are already causing slowing growth rates, they argue.

"The root cause of today's troubles is a boom-and-bust cycle of policies that have encouraged investors to flock to clean-energy projects that are quick and easy to build rather than invest in more innovative technologies that could stand a better chance of competing with conventional energy sources over the long haul. Indeed, nearly seven-eighths of all clean-energy investment worldwide now goes to deploying existing technologies, most of which are not competitive without the help of government subsidies. Only a tiny share of the investment focuses on innovation," they write. … Read more

Wind turbines that do not interfere with radar systems used by aircraft may soon become a commercially viable option for the wind energy industry, Danish turbine manufacturer Vestas said today.

"Our testing has demonstrated that we have successfully adapted military stealth technology to make Vestas wind turbines viable for placement in many locations that have been restricted by radar concerns," Vestas Technology R&D President Finn Strom Madsen said in a statement.

Vestas said it successfully tested in Britain a full-scale "stealth" rotor on a turbine, paving the way for wind power plants to be … Read more

Google is putting $102 million into the large wind farm in California using a financial model it hopes will attract more money into wind projects.

In a company blog today, Google said its latest investment in the Alta Wind Energy Center follows the $55 million it put into the same facility last month and brings Google's total investment in renewable energy to $780 million.

Google and Citibank are investing in Alta V, an extension to the Alta Wind Energy Center, which is expected to have a generating capacity of 1,550 megawatts when completed. It also will have a dedicated transmission line built, the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project.

"We've now invested $157 million in 270 megawatts of clean, wind energy generation at AWEC. That brings our total invested to more than $780 million, with approximately $700 million invested this year alone," said Rick Needham, director of green business operations. "All in projects that not only provide us attractive financial returns but also help to accelerate the deployment of over 1.7 gigawatts of clean renewable energy."

By investing in the project, Google will benefit from the federal tax credits available to investors in renewable energy projects. Google and Citibank will own the Alta V wind farm but then lease it to Terra-Gen Power, which will manage and operate the project under a long-term contract.

Google's push into renewable energy, which started in 2007, has shaken up the world of renewable energy financing by showing that corporations other than banks can make money in these types of projects. Google hopes the leverage lease model it is using at the Alta Wind Energy Center will encourage new types of investors to consider wind, Needham said. … Read more

Home Depot will begin to offer small wind turbines and installation services from Southwest Windpower, both companies announced today.

Southwest Windpower makes a small wind turbine called the Skystream 3.7 Personal Wind Turbine.

The turbine is rated at 2.4 kilowatts and produces about 400 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month when operating at a minimal wind speed of 12 miles per hour, according to the turbine manufacturer.

Not all Home Depot stores will be carrying the turbines immediately. The wind turbines are initially being offering only at some stores in particularly windy states including California, Idaho, Nevada, Texas, Utah, … Read more

Call it a "wind-win" opportunity: there's a new push on for a "WindMade" certification label for U.S. companies, services, and products.

The announcement yesterday (on Global Wind Day) in New York by a group of organizations marks the start of a two-month development period. But the first draft of the standard allowing the use of the WindMade label requires that a company source at least 25 percent of its electricity from wind in order to qualify.

The idea for a WindMade label was originally proposed in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos … Read more