wind

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

The U.S. wind industry is growing again after taking a big step backward last year.

Yet turbine makers and wind farm developers are finding few reasons to celebrate as the clean energy source struggles to secure long-term government support while facing stiff competition from cheap natural gas.

Once the world's top wind market, the United States ceded that mantle to China last year as a weak economy halted its growth and cut new installations to half of the 10,000 megawatts of capacity built in 2009.

Since then, business has picked up, but not for the reasons the industry would like. Energy demand is still tepid due to a gurgling economic recovery, and the low cost of natural gas is keeping power prices low.

Pricing in long-term power sales contracts signed by wind developers has fallen 30 percent in the last two years and will fall further this year, according to IHS Emerging Energy Research.

Currently, the market is being shepherded by developers who are scrambling to put turbines in the ground ahead of a 2013 expiration of lucrative federal tax credits for wind. Beyond that date, the industry's fortunes are hazy. … Read more

At a Paris event on Wednesday, GE announced a new gas-fuelled power plant it says offers more flexibility and efficiency than many other options currently available.

The FlexEfficiency 50 Combined Cycle Power Plant is rated at 510 megawatts, has a base-load efficiency of more than 60 percent, and, when fully operational, can provide enough energy to power more than 600,000 European homes, according to GE. The plant is built to incorporate fluctuating power sources like wind and solar, as well as a main source of natural gas, the company said.

"The FlexEfficiency 50 plant is engineered for flexible operation by integrating a next-generation 9FB gas turbine that operates at 50Hz, which is the power frequency that is most used in countries around the world; a 109D-14 steam turbine, which runs on the waste heat produced by the gas turbine; GE's advanced W28 generator; a Mark VIe integrated control system that links all of the technologies; and a heat recovery steam generator," GE said in a statement.

GE says the plant also conforms to the EU's strict plant emissions standards for NOx and CO2.

The plant represents $500 million in research and development and came out of GE's Ecomagination program to develop clean-energy projects. GE announced in June 2010 that it planned to invest $10 billion over five years in green-focused research and development.… Read more

Google and its partners cleared the first major hurdle with U.S. regulators today to build a $5 billion transmission line that would transport electricity from wind farms off the Atlantic coast.

The companies backing the project can earn a 12.59 percent return on their equity investment in the proposed power line, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled.

The project, which consists of two parallel transmission lines stretching from northern New Jersey to southern Virginia, could transport up to 6,000 megawatts of electricity that would provide power to 1.9 million households.

The transmission lines would each extend 250 miles along the mid-Atlantic coast. The electricity carried by the lines would connect with the main electric grid at onshore sites in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.

The project still needs approval from the Interior Department, several state agencies, and the regional power grid operator, PJM. The project's backers are Google, Good Energies, a private firm, and Japan's Marubeni Corp.

The companies hope to have the first phase of the transmission line operating in 2016.

The transmission line project will help the mid-Atlantic states meet their goals to… Read more

Policy promoting green technology may be on the rise, but does that translate into well-developed technology--and, most importantly, more capital--for the states promoting it?

The results of an extensive study released Wednesday by consulting firm Clean Edge offers some answers.

The survey used more than 3,500 data points and 70 major indicators drawing from both municipal and private data sources to evaluate all 50 states in the U.S. for how well they did on policy, technology, and capital when it came to green tech.… Read more

Boston is now home to the world's largest commercial wind-blade testing site, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Wind Technology Testing Center officially opened yesterday inside what looks like a massive airplane hangar in Boston's port.

The seemingly minor ceremonial event is actually quite significant for the U.S. wind industry and could improve the timeline for wind turbine technology development in the U.S.

In the past, large-scale wind blades under development in the U.S. had to be shipped out of the country for testing, usually to Europe, because the U.S. had … Read more

- Audi plans to use wind power as a source of clean energy for its upcoming electric and natural gas vehicles. The combination of clean power and zero- and low-emissions vehicles is a first step by the manufacturer toward making its entire lineup carbon-neutral.

To make its carbon-neutral goal a reality, the carmaker is financing the construction of four wind turbines off the North Sea that will generate annually up to 53 GWh of electricity. Wind-generated electricity will be fed to the public power grid, and Audi plans to use a portion of the wind power to charge its electric … Read more