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Alternative energy giant Horizon Wind Energy wants to trap the immense potential of wind energy. They are planning to open an Indianapolis office for developing up to four new wind farms in Indiana. It will cost them more than $2 billion. Indiana wind farms will be the largest of the Horizon's farms and the proposed site will be at Meadow Lake in White County. The company will install up to 660 turbines spread over 100,000 acres. When the project is fully operational it could produce more than 1,000 megawatts per year - enough to power 300,000 houses.

A British company is poised to construct the world's first floating wind turbine, in a move that could herald a new generation of cheaper, less problematic wind energy. Blue H, a firm registered in the UK but based in Holland, aims to anchor its prototype device 12 miles off the coast of southern Italy later this month.

From Holland, the country famous for its windmills, comes a new design for home wind power. Looking like an eggbeater, it spins quieter and at lower wind speeds than a lot of traditional propeller-type turbines. It's now standard for big wind turbines to have propeller blades. Much of the turning force is generated at the tips, which slice perpendicularly through the air, causing a swooshing noise that some residents nearby have said they find unnerving.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), US wind producers enjoyed another record year of growth in 2008-the third in a row. The country now has an installed wind power capacity well in excess of 21,000 megawatts (MW), enough to supply electricity to over 5.5 million American homes. According to Randall Swisher, AWEA Executive DIrector, "Wind energy installations are well ahead of the curve for contributing 20% of the U.S. electric power supply by 2030 as envisioned by the U.S. Department of Energy."

"The world's southernmost wind farm, in Antarctica, is now operational. The Ross Island wind farm will supply about 11 percent of the power to New Zealand's Scott Base and the American McMurdo Station. Previously, the two sites relied on diesel-powered generators for electricity. The wind farm will cut diesel consumption by about 463,000 liters a year and reduce carbon dioxide output by 1,370 tons annually, according to New Zealand-based Meridian Energy, the project's developer. The three turbines, each 37 meters tall and 33 meters wide, are generating 330 kilowatts of power."

SHANGHAI is rich in clean green wind power and the city is constructing more and more windmills as part of a sustainable energy plan. Zhang Qian flips the switch. The sails of hundred-meter-high windmills rotate in the wind in the mudflats of suburban Shanghai. Row upon row of turbines with huge vanes are generating new clean electricity. Shanghai is rich in sustainable wind resources and is increasing its wind energy capacity as part of an overall plan to reduce pollution and develop clean energy.

Wind power, which is one of the most renewable energy sources known to man, is harnessed through wind turbines in wind farms.

As gas prices climb and electricity prices follow, people looking for alternatives are turning to the wind. The popularity of wind energy is growing, but the turbines themselves are shrinking in size and cost, making affordable, personal wind power a reality.

Let us look at a powerful wind generator. This all new air breezer has a lot of features which makes it the most preferred and powerful one in the category.

The trip from Salt Lake City to southern Utah's red-rock playground-thousands of us make the drive to Moab during a typical year-will never be the same. There, where U.S. Highway 6 starts its cut through Spanish Fork Canyon, stand nine breathtaking, milk-white giants-the busily whirring turbines of the Spanish Fork Wind Project. The windmills are 405 feet high, and their blades, which from ground level look deceptively slow moving, spin at 170 mph, says Spanish Fork Mayor Joe Thomas. He should know. Shortly before the official ribbon cutting at the wind farm in early October, Thomas got the chance to climb to the top of a turbine.

Wind turbines do not drive birds from surrounding areas, British researchers said on Wednesday, in findings which could make it easier to build more wind farms. Conservation groups have raised fears that large birds could get caught in the turbines and that the structures could disturb other species. But scientists fou

Most people who work in this field would do engineering and mechanical tasks from the prior installation of wind turbines, its proper operation including the safety measures and precautionary alternatives that every consumer must follow, the maintenance and repair of such installations.

DONG Energy, E.ON and Masdar have announced that they will invest EUR 2.2 billion (US $3 billion) in building the first 630-megawatt (MW) phase of the London Array offshore wind farm in England's Thames Estuary. The wind farm is set to be build the world's largest offshore wind farm. The consortium hopes the first phase of 630 MW will be completed and generating in 2012. The first phase will consist of 175 turbines. The announcement comes after the UK Government's recent proposal to increase its support for offshore wind power. The partners are satisfied that the project is now financially viable and are now keen to push ahead with construction and to produce the first renewable power in 2012. Onshore work is now due to start in the summer, with offshore work due to start in early 2011.

The Guardian has an article on plans to expand micro-hydro generation in Britain - Canals and rivers to lead micro-hydropower revolution Britain's canals and rivers have already been heralded as a low-carbon way to tranport Tesco groceries, a test-bed for hydrogen boats and a opportunity to build more wind turbines. Now they're being billed as a chance for micro hydropower to flourish under new plans unveiled today by British Waterways, which maintains 2,200 miles of the country's canals and rivers. In partnership with The Small Hydro Company, British Waterways said it intended to build 25 small-scale hydro-electric schemes with a capacity of 40MW, enough to power 40,000 homes. While far smaller in capacity than offshore wind farms switched on in 2008, the hydro initiative hopes to raise £120m in private capital over the next three years, create 150 construction jobs and reduce CO2 emissions by 110,000 tonnes annually. Underwater turbines will be installed next to existing weirs and will not affect the navigation of canals and rivers. Larger waterways such as the Trent and Severn rivers will be used for the first hydro power projects, with many of the installations likely to be located in the East Midlands and Yorkshire. It is hoped the first of the 25 hydro installations will be generating renewable electricity by 2010.

Something that has long been a dream of mine looks like it will be a reality soon. I have always wanted to see a solar powered solar panel factory, or a wind powered wind turbine factory. Basically you use a little fossil fuels to get started, then the first however many turbines/panels off the line power the factory, from then on in it's all carbon neutral.

A MAJOR criticism of wind farms is that they are intermittent. Wind does not blow consistently and, as a result they do not provide a continuous supply of power, but must be backed up by conventional fossil fuel plants. However, a renewables firm believes it has hit on a solution, and is hoping to use it in Scotland. A hydrogen plant would store energy from the wind farm, creating a reserve that could be dipped into on demand, so that even when the wind was not blowing, an electricity supply would be available.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for up to $6 million over two years (FY09-FY10), subject to annual appropriations, to address wind development technical challenges and market acceptance barriers as outlined in the "20% Wind Energy by 2030" report published in July 2008. The announcement will address six topic areas: (1) turbine research, development and testing; (2) distributed wind technologies; (3) market acceptance efforts; (4) environmental research and sitting strategies; (5) transmission analysis, planning and assessments; and (6) workforce development.

WASHINGTON (AP) - An Energy Department report concludes that wind turbines can produce a fifth of the nation's annual electricity needs within about two decades. That is about the same share of electricity produced today by nuclear power. Wind energy today accounts for only about 1 percent of the nation's electricity. The government report to be released Monday said by 2030 wind energy could account for 300,000 megawatts of power, or about 20 percent of the total electricity generated.

Working in Haiti, Shawn Frayne, a 28-year-old inventor based in Mountain View, Calif., saw the need for small-scale wind power to juice LED lamps and radios in the homes of the poor. Conventional wind turbines don't scale down well-there's too much friction in the gearbox and other components. "With rotary power, there's nothing out there that generates under 50 watts," Frayne says. So he took a new tack, studying the way vibrations caused by the wind led to the collapse in 1940 of Washington's Tacoma Narrows Bridge (aka Galloping Gertie).

President Obama's proposed $9.9 billion Energy Department budget contains up to $28 million for a Pantex wind farm that would be designed to meet the nuclear weapons plant's energy needs. The Pantex Renewable Energy Project would be built on land in the vicinity of the plant and could generate surplus electrical power that could be sold to utilities, according to budget documents. Preliminary plans call for the wind farm to be built by 2012. The project's overall scope would depend on future funding, but plans call for enough wind turbines to generate up to 75 megawatts of electrical generating capacity. Initial funding would only support construction of a 10- to 15-megawatt system.