So I heard a TV news report about gunfire that shut down a wind turbine park in Michigan’s Thumb. And I went looking for more information on the Internet. It wasn’t an easy find, though. Seems shooting bullets at wind farms is nothing new. The Michigan incident is just the latest episode of upset people taking out their anger on defenseless nacelles, blades and, in this case, transformers.
There are more than 100 giant turbines in the Thanet wind farm.
Arranged in formation like an advancing army, this is the world’s biggest offshore wind farm. The array of more than 100 giant turbines towering over the North Sea will be switched on today off the coast of Kent.
Continue reading… “World’s Biggest Offshore Wind Farm to be Switched On”
Winning The Power Battle With Wind?
And you thought that 1,000 megawatt wind farm planned for Lake Erie was going to be huge. Terra-Gen Power recently secured a staggering $1.2 billion in construction financing, which it fully intends to use on 3D projectors, PlayStation 3 consoles and parts necessary to build America’s largest wind farm. Granted, only one of those points is actually true, but we suspect you’re hanging with us…
Wind farm
Wind power has emerged as a viable renewable energy source in recent years — one that proponents say could lessen the threat of global warming. Although the American Wind Energy Association estimates that only about 2 percent of U.S. electricity is currently generated from wind turbines, the U.S. Department of Energy has said that wind power could account for a fifth of the nation’s electricity supply by 2030.
Continue reading… “MIT Analysis Suggests Large-Scale Wind Farms Could Impact Climate”
A safer alternative for our fowl friends.
What do you do if you build a wind farm smack dab in the middle of a major bird migration route, and want to avert the anger of conservationists? Put up a radar system that’s designed to shut down the entire thing when it detects a mass of birds on the way. That’s what’s been done at the 202 MW Peñascal Wind Farm in Texas…
Continue reading… “Texas Wind Farm Uses NASA Radar to Prevent Bird Deaths”
A design that draws on jet engine technology could halve the cost of generating electricity from wind.
Continue reading… “Wind Power At Half The Cost”
GE Energy Financial Services has released a study estimating that the federal production tax credit (PTC) for wind power that is set to expire December 31, 2008 more than pays for itself through tax revenues from the projects’ income, vendors’ profits and individual workers’ wages.
Continue reading… “Study: Tax Revenues from Wind Farms Offset Tax Incentive”
Offshore wind-farm developers would love to build in deep water more than 32 kilometers from shore, where stronger and steadier winds prevail and complaints about marred scenery are less likely. But building foundations to support wind turbines in water deeper than 20 meters is prohibitively expensive. Now, technology developers are stepping up work in floating turbines to make such farms feasible. (w/pics)
Continue reading… “Floating Wind Farms Coming”
