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Renewable Energy World has a report on a new Scottish wind farm - Europe's Largest Onshore Wind Farm Is Switched on in Scotland. Today, the final phase of Europe's largest onshore wind farm is being turned on in Scotland. The 322-megawatt (MW), 140-turbine Whitelee wind farm was built by ScottishPower Renewables, which is part of the Spanish power business Iberdrola. In Spain and internationally, the Iberdrola Group, is the world's largest developer of wind power, with nearly 9700 MW of installed capacity. The wind farm uses Siemens 2.3-MW machines. Positioned 370 meters (1200 feet) above sea level, 15 kilometers (9 miles) outside of Scotland's largest city, Glasgow, the new wind farm has over half a million people living within a 30-km radius of it. It's one of the first large-scale wind farms to be constructed close to a large population center. The first phase of the wind farm started feeding power into the grid in January 2008.

At the recently held EWEC 2009 wind energy conference and exhibition most exhibitors agreed that while there has been a substantial business slowdown due to problems linked to obtaining wind project financing, an upturn in demand during the second half of 2009 is beginning to play out, at least in the U.S. Other exhibitors, on the other hand, were a bit more cautious pointing out that substantial numbers of unsold turbines from framework contracts failing to secure project finance are now floating on the wind market. Most interesting from a wind technology point of view is the V112-3.0MW switch away from a compact V90-3.0MW integrated gearbox and main bearing assembly to a 3-point gearbox support. The application of a permanent magnet (PM) type generator with full converter system in the V112-3.0MW is new for Vestas but not for the wind industry. New Technology Trends In what many wind industry insiders consider a major development trend, French aerospace companies EADS Astrium & EADS Composite Aquitaine announced their formal entrance into the wind industry. The French companies offer the wind industry advanced composite materials engineering, manufacturing and related know-how as well as rotor-blade manufacturing capacity.

An aide to Obama said Friday that the administration plans to add 20 gigawatts (GW) or more of wind power and 4 GW of geothermal and solar power by 2012 through loan guarantees and fast tracked national renewable energy requirements, like the Renewable Portfolio Standard. Last May the U.S. Energy Department estimated wind power could provide almost a quarter of U.S. electricity. Trade groups from the U.S. wind and solar industries were happy with the news, considering that the current economic environment for commercial credit has lowered all boats as it were, with all investment now endangered - not just investment in risky financial instruments, but even those investments in renewable energy that are essential to growing a stable economy. 4 votesBuzz up! No other country, in any single year, has added the volume of wind capacity that was added to the US electrical grid in 2007 with both wind and solar growing well over 40%, but with the credit crunch affecting all sectors of the economy, new projects could drop by as much as 50%, without help from the Federal government.

"A new study by the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has revealed that U.S. wind resources are far greater than previously believed. The study, a collaborative project between NREL and AWS Truewind, LLC, of Albany, New York, created resource maps and wind potential tables for 48 states. The recent study is the first comprehensive update of the wind energy potential by state since 1993. The resource maps for the contiguous United States, and separately for each state, show the predicted mean annual wind speeds at 80-meter height. They are derived from 200-meter resolution maps developed by AWS Truewind for the windNavigator system. Areas with annual average wind speeds around 6.5 m/s and greater at 80-meter height are generally considered to have suitable wind resources for wind development"

TreeHugger has a post on the large volume of offshore wind power projects planned for Scotland - 6.4 Gigawatts of Offshore Wind Farms Slated for Scotland. A couple months back it was announced that the UK's Crown Estate would be helping out with financing pre-construction costs for offshore wind farms . Now comes word that The Crown Estate-which owns development rights in UK waters out to 200 miles-has offered exclusive agreements to nine companies for the development of offshore wind farms in Scottish waters totaling more than 6 GW of power. There are 10 plans on the table under these agreements: The largest is the Argyll Array at 1,500 MW, to be developed by Scottish Power Renewables. Airtricity Holdings has a sites amounting to 2,678 MW (Kintyre, 378 MW; Islay, 680 MW; Beatrice 920 MW; Bell Rock 700 MW). Inch Cape will see 905 MW of wind power developed by NPower Renewables. Fred Olsen Renewables will develop 415 MW at the Forth Array.

American Electric Power (AEP) is doubling its goal of adding 1,000 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy to 2,000 MW by the end of 2011. This would bring the company's total renewable energy portfolio to more than 2,600 MW by the end of 2011. AEP has added 903 MW of wind generation since 2007, when the company committed to its original goal of adding 1,000 MW. AEP also set a new energy efficiency goal in 2009 to reduce consumption by 2.25 million megawatt-hours by the end of 2012. "Continuing to diversify our fuel mix with more renewable resources will allow us to meet our customers' energy needs and reduce our carbon footprint," said Michael Morris, AEP's chairman, president and CEO. "We can support development of a lower-carbon energy future through a combination of increasing renewable energy; driving the development of a new, interstate extra-high voltage transmission system to bring that renewable energy to market; promoting energy efficiency; and further developing advanced coal technologies such as carbon capture and storage."

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) have released a white paper titled "Green Power Superhighways: Building a Path to America's Clean Energy Future," detailing current inadequacies of the U.S. electric transmission infrastructure and offering policy solutions to address them. Inadequate transmission capacity is a significant barrier to renewable energy development in the U.S. The release of the paper comes at a critical time. President Obama and Congress have made strong commitments to renewable energy as a driver for jobs creation and economic growth, but the nation's renewable energy resources can not reach their full potential without renewed investment in the country's transmission infrastructure.

The Next100 blog has a post on expanding wind power in California and how advances in mapping wind resources are helping the industry grow - Let It Blow. Solar power is, if you'll pardon the pun, easily the hottest sector of the electric generation market today in terms of public interest. But if California is going to achieve the widely proposed goal of acquring a third of its electrical energy from renewable sources by 2020, wind energy will almost certainly be the flagship carrier of the renewable power industry. Forecasts indicate that achieving the 33% renewable goal would require ramping up wind energy from 2,100 megawatts in 2006 to at least 12,500 MW by 2020. Solar, by contrast, would likely grow from 330 MW in 2006 to 6,000 MW in 2020.

At the end of May, Renewable Energy World's Eize de Vries was invited to Belgium to view the construction of a wind farm that may be providing a view of the future. And a genuine wind industry innovation, Eize de Vries reports, is that the advanced E-126 built-in power electronics will actively contribute towards stabilizing the transmission grid voltage within the entire region. WindFarm Estinnes S.A. is an onshore wind farm that will comprise eleven of the latest generation of Enercon's E-126 direct drive wind turbines, a machine currently rated at 6 megawatts. Each E-126 has a 127-metre rotor diameter - combined with the 135-metre the turbine has a total 198.5 metre installation height. WindVision's Estinnes is expected to generate at least 187,000 MWh per year. And a genuine wind industry innovation, Eize de Vries reports, is that the advanced E-126 built-in power electronics will actively contribute towards stabilizing the transmission grid voltage within the entire region.

In an ongoing effort to expand domestic renewable energy, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced plans to provide $93 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support further development of wind energy in the United States during a visit to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory today. Secretary Chu also announced more than $100 million in funding from the Recovery Act for NREL facility and infrastructure improvements. The funding will leverage the Department of Energy's national laboratories, universities, and the private sector to help improve reliability and overcome key technical challenges for the wind industry. These projects will create green jobs, promote economic recovery, and provide the investments needed to increase renewable energy generation. "Wind energy will be one of the most important contributors to meeting President Obama's target of generating 10 percent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2012," said Secretary Chu

Scientists at The Nature Conservancy in Montana have completed the first analysis of where wind generation facilities can be located with minimal risk to the state's wildlife and the environment. Wind provides great promise for a clean and renewable source of energy, but each year wind generation facilities kill tens of thousands of birds and important pollinators such as bats. . And yet, wind energy development has moved forward with very little science-based analysis that might help prevent this kind of environmental harm. The impacts of wind generation are greater than just the immediate airspace. Most turbines take up 40-100 acres of land, so large-scale wind farms can span thousands of acres. Each facility also requires roads and transmission corridors.

The U.S. market for small wind turbines grew 78% last year, highlighting heightened interest in, demand for, and use of distributed alternative and renewable power systems. A total 17.3 megawatts worth of new small wind turbines--defined as wind turbines with generation capacities of 100 kilowatts and less--was installed in 2009, according to a report by the American Wind Energy Association released May 28. "Consumers are looking for affordable ways to improve their energy security and reduce their personal carbon footprint," said Ron Stimmel, AWEA's Small Wind Advocate. "Small wind technology can be an answer to that search. As government policies have caught up with consumer interest, we're seeing people all across the U.S. take advantage of this abundant, domestic natural resource and U.S. manufacturers have been able to meet this increasing demand."

Our Renewable Nation is possibly the most adorable project ever conceived to advocate renewable energy. It's an eco-video project helmed by the McCullough family, who are traveling across the country in a vegetable oil powered VW Beetle. They're visiting wind farms, solar installations, talking to companies developing sustainable technologies, and documenting all their interviews and travels on video. Each of the videos stars 9-year old Carrick McCollough, the cutest kid to campaign in the name of renewable energy. And it's effective. Don't believe me? Just watch the video after the jump, where Carrick implores grownups to not blow it for him and his generation. How can we say no to this?

New York City, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com] Close to US $155 billion was invested in 2008 in renewable energy companies and projects worldwide, not including large hydro. Of this $13.5 billion of new private investment went into companies developing and scaling-up new technologies alongside $117 billion of investment in renewable energy projects from geothermal and wind to solar and biofuels. The 2008 investment is more than a four-fold increase since 2004 according to Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2009, prepared for the UN Environment Programme's (UNEP) Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative by global information provider New Energy Finance. Of the $155 billion, $105 billion was spent directly developing 40 GW of power generating capacity from wind, solar, small-hydro, biomass and geothermal sources. A further $35 billion was spent on developing 25 GW of large hydropower, according to the report.

The LA Times has an article on a new report noting that wind power could meet the entire electricity demand in the US - Wind turbines could more than meet U.S. electricity needs, report says. Wind turbines off U.S. coastlines could potentially supply more than enough electricity to meet the nation's current demand, the Interior Department reported Thursday. Simply harnessing the wind in relatively shallow waters -- the most accessible and technically feasible sites for offshore turbines -- could produce at least 20% of the power demand for most coastal states, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said, unveiling a report by the Minerals Management Service that details the potential for oil, gas and renewable development on the outer continental shelf. The biggest wind potential lies off the nation's Atlantic coast, which the Interior report estimates could produce 1,000 gigawatts of electricity -- enough to meet a quarter of the national demand.

Formerly a region of high-unemployment, the German port of Bremerhaven has experienced a remarkable economic upturn, transforming into a major offshore wind power know-how centre and more. At least four of Germany's North Sea and Baltic Sea major ports have been transformed into the country's main wind industry logistical centres and/or equipment manufacturing/supply bases during the past few years. 'Of the €500 million invested for offshore wind power development along the German North Sea coastal region during the past years, about half came to Bremerhaven.' -- Jan Rispens, Managing Director, Windenergie Agentur Bremerhaven/Bremen (WAB) Emden serves as a main export harbour for Enercon wind turbines, and the German market leader operates a large concrete tower manufacturing plant within Emden's boundaries. BARD Engineering chose Emden as its offshore wind turbine assembly and rotor blade manufacturing location, while part of BARD's Tripile offshore foundations are being manufactured by a subsidiary company in Cuxhaven. Both BARD and Enercon have, in addition, built a foundry in the region, aimed at providing at least part of their individual demand for heavy-cast components.

A new public opinion poll shows strong bipartisan support for a national Renewable Energy Standard requiring utilities to generate at least 25 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025. The poll was released Tuesday as the wind energy industry gathered in the Windy City for the American Wind Energy Association's WINDPOWER 2009 Conference and Exhibition. For these 18,000 attendees and 1,200 exhibitors renewable energy means wind.

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu today announced selection of 53 new wind energy projects for up to $8.5 million in total DOE funding. These projects will help begin to address market and deployment challenges identified in DOE's 2008 report: "20% Wind Energy by 2030." Increasing wind energy generation will be a critical factor in achieving the Obama Administration's goals for clean energy, while also supporting new green jobs. Secretary Chu made the announcement by video at the WindPower 2009 Conference in Chicago this week. "Wind energy is one of our most promising renewable energy sources," said Secretary Chu. That's why I'm pleased to make this announcement today. By continuing to make investments in renewable energy we can cut our dependence on foreign oil and invest in a clean energy agenda that creates jobs and puts money back into the pockets of consumers."