Wind

Cape Wind gets key green light on state permitting

Developers of the Cape Wind project won a legal decision that brings the controversial offshore wind farm in Massachusetts closer to the start of construction.

In a 4-2 decision issued on Tuesday, the state supreme court upheld an earlier ruling that Cape Wind could get a "composite" of permits from the state to cut through the local permitting process.

Placement of the turbines would be in federal waters, but a transmission line connecting to the mainland on Cape Cod needs to be built. Local towns and the Cape Cod land planning agency denied the project a permit in … Read more

Idaho building its largest wind complex to date

Idaho is building what will be the state's largest wind project to date near land once traversed by Lewis and Clark, and Sacagawea.

As part of the groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday for the 183-megawatt Idaho Wind Partners project, Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter and others signed the giant blade of a wind turbine. Most of the land being used for the Idaho project consists of both active and idle farmland across Magic Valley, part of which is considered a piece of the iconic Oregon Trail.

"The renewable energy industry is breathing new life into the … Read more

Urban Green Energy pitches green chic of small-wind turbine

To Urban Green Energy CEO Nick Blitterswyk, small-wind turbines are becoming one of the many gadgets consumers crave.

The New York City-based company next month plans to make available a one-kilowatt version of its Eddy small-wind turbine, which will cost $6,600 before installation. With good wind conditions, the grid-connected turbine can generate at least 1,500 kilowatt-hours a year, offsetting most homes' total electricity use, Blitterswyk said.

Eddy is one of many vertical axis turbines vying for attention among consumers and businesses looking for on-site power options. Urban Green Energy's wind turbines have a design that makes them … Read more

Norway oil giant floats idea for bobbing windmills

A group of scientists and engineers in Norway are testing a flotation device that could support offshore wind turbines so that they don't have to be built on shoals.

StatoilHydro, a division of the oil giant Statoil, said Thursday its Hywind floating wind turbine installed about 10 kilometers off the coast of Karmoy, Norway, in June 2009 is a success.

As a result, the company is planning to test an entire farm of Hywind turbines in Norway, and is looking to install more test farms in rough-water areas like Scotland and Maine.

The Hywind turbine is not a completely … Read more

Behind the scenes at GE Global Research

NISKAYUNA, N.Y.--When you're listening to someone explain a new scientific method and just about the only thing that goes through your head is "This is going to win a Nobel Prize," you know you're in good company.

That was my experience recently while I was listening to Fiona Ginty, a project leader in computational biology in General Electric Global Research's biosciences group, explain her work. Ginty's project is all about finding new and better ways to spot cancer in a patient's body, ideally as early as possible. And as a member … Read more

Giant battery smooths out variable wind power

Utility Xcel Energy reports that a huge battery has worked effectively in smoothing out variable wind power, signaling how pockets of energy storage can help create a cleaner grid.

In 2008, Xcel started testing a 1-megawatt battery connected to an 11-megawatt Minnesota wind farm, the first direct wind-energy-storage project in the U.S.

The sulfur-sodium batteries from NGK Insulators of Japan are able store 7.2 megawatt-hours of electricity and, when fully charged, are able to power 500 homes for more than seven hours, according to Xcel. They weigh about 80 tons and are about the size of two semi … Read more

Cape Wind agrees to reduce cost of offshore wind

Striking a deal with the state's attorney general, the developers of Cape Wind have agreed to cut the price of electricity from the proposed offshore wind farm in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley on Friday said that her office had negotiated a 10 percent reduction in the price Cape Wind will charge to utility National Grid for electricity. Over the course of the proposed 15-year contract, the reduction will save $456 million, according to Coakley's office.

The deal highlights how cost remains a large barrier to building offshore wind farms in the U.S. Added construction expenditures … Read more

U.S. wind energy popular, but lacks investment

Despite public approval, U.S. wind energy investment is slowing down instead of growing, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

An overwhelming majority of Americans support a renewable electricity standard, and wind energy investment in particular, according to a poll of 600 likely voters conducted in March by Newhouse of Public Opinion Strategies and Bennett, Petts & Normington.

Specifically, 89 percent of Americans said increasing the amount of energy the U.S. gets from wind is a good idea. Broken down by ideology, 84 percent of Republicans, 93 percent of Democrats, and 88 percent of independents support increasing the … Read more

Massive Calif. wind farm gets $1.2 billion in financing

Terra-Gen Power announced Wednesday it's garnered $1.2 billion in financing to build what could be the largest wind energy project in the U.S.

The 3,000-megawatt Alta Wind Energy Center when completed would actually be a series of several massive wind farms located near Tehachapi, Calif., a city in Kern County about 116 miles north of Los Angeles.

Terra-Gen is a renewable-energy company that develops wind, solar, and geothermal projects for producing electricity. Its first phase of this Alta Wind Energy Center, called Alta Project I, already has financing. Its construction began in March and consists of … Read more