Group items tagged

REpower Systems AG has successfully installed the first of six wind energy turbines for the Belgian offshore wind farm Thornton Bank. The project, located about 30 kilometers off the coast, is the first Belgian offshore wind farm. For the first of three construction phases, REpower is providing six 5-megawatt (MW) offshore turbines, adding up to a total capacity of 30 MW. Gravity based foundations were erected and carried out to sea to form the foundation for the six wind turbines in Thornton Bank. All work at sea is performed in a water depth of approximately 25 meters using jack-up drilling platforms. The 5-MW turbine which has just been erected in Belgium is the twelfth of the model installed by REpower.

The global wind turbine market has seen rapid shifts in scale and product sophistication on the back of booming demand for wind power globally. Effective wind turbine pricing is a major challenge for all manufacturers as they strive to keep pace with higher volume and more complex demand. Suppliers are expanding their sales and production globally. Turbine prices and cost of installations are increasing as multiple players move on 2 MW turbines and above.

"Donald Sadoway: The missing link to renewable energy Tweet this talk! (we'll add the headline and the URL) Post to: Share on Twitter Email This Favorite Download inShare Share on StumbleUpon Share on Reddit Share on Facebook TED Conversations Got an idea, question, or debate inspired by this talk? Start a TED Conversation, or join one of these: Green Home Energy=Hydrogen Generators-alternative sources Started by Kathleen Gilligan-Smith 1 Comment What is the real missing link in renewable energy? Started by Enrico Petrucco 8 Comments Comment on this Talk 60 total comments Sign in to add comments or Join (It's free and fast!) Sort By: smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Nice smily raichel 0 Reply Less than 5 minutes ago: Good David Mackey 0 Reply 3 hours ago: Superb invention, but I would suggest one more standard mantra that they should move on from and that is the idea of power being supplied by a centralised grid. This technology seems to me to be much more beneficial on a local scale, what if every home had its own battery, then home power generation becomes economically more viable for everyone. If you could show that a system like this could pay for itself in say 5 years then every home would want one. Plus for this to be implemented on a large scale requires massive investment that could be decades away. Share the technology and lets get it in homes by next year. Great ted talk. Jon Senior 0 Reply 1 hour ago: I agree 100%. Localised energy production would also make energy consumers more conscious of their consumption and encourage efforts to reduce it. We can invent and invent all we want, but the fast solution to allowing renewable energies to take centre stage is to reduce the base energy draw. With lower baseline consumption, smaller "always on" generators are required to keep the grid operational. Town and house-l

A Norweigan company, SWAY A/S, is developing a deepwater wind turbine system. It seems that this system may offer a technical solution to two issues which are related to wind.  These  issues are that turbines are an eyesore for some and that of positioning turbines to receive a consistent wind flow. By enabling turbines to be placed far out to sea SWAY theoretically overcomes the eyesore issue. Also, wind flow may be more consistent in the open ocean and therefore a more approporiate environment to harvest consistent wind.
 

EDF Energies Nouvelles has signed an agreement with Clipper Windpower for the supply of 67.5 MW of wind turbines. Clipper Turbine Works, a subsidiary of Clipper Windpower, will supply 27 wind turbines, each with a 2.5 MW capacity, to build the first phase of the La Ventosa wind farm in Mexico.

China will begin subsidizing the production of wind power turbines, according to an announcement made last Friday. The subsidy will only be available to Chinese majority-owned turbine manufacturers, who will be eligible to receive $88 per kilowatt for the first 50 units capable of generating at least 1.5 megawatts of power. In addition, the subsidy can only be used for research and development. This is the first Chinese subsidy specifically focusing on the wind power industry and it is meant to make Chinese companies more competitive with turbine makers like GE (NYSE: GE) in the U.S., Vestas Wind Systems (VWS.CO) in the Netherlands and India's Suzlon (SUZL.BO).

The world's first commercial-scale tidal power turbine has delivered electricity into the British grid for the first time in preparation for full-scale operation, Marine Current Turbines announced yesterday. "SeaGen is the world's first commercial-scale tidal stream generating system by a large margin. It is more than four times as powerful as the world's second most powerful tidal current system, which is our own 300kW SeaFlow, installed off Lynmouth on the north Devon coast more than five years ago." Secretary of State for Energy, John Hutton said: "This kind of world first technology and innovation is key to helping the UK reduce its dependency on fossil fuels and secure its future energy supplies" Marine Current Turbines' next project, announced in February 2008, is a joint initiative with npower renewables to take forward a 10.5MW project using several SeaGen devices off the coast of Anglesey, north Wales. It is hoped the tidal farm will be commissioned in 2011 or 2012. The company is also investigating the potential for tidal energy schemes in other parts of the UK, and in North America.

Brazilian wind farm buys 80 MW of Vestas wind turbines 13 May 2011 Galvao Energia has ordered 40 Vestas 2 MW wind turbines for a wind farm project in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. By Renewable Energy Focus staff The 80 MW Olho D'Agua, Sao Bento do Norte Farol wind farm will see the first delivers in the third quarter of 2012, with completion scheduled for December the same year.

According to a new technical market research report from BCC Research, the domestic market for wind turbine components and systems will be worth $60.9 billion in 2013. This represents an increase from the 2007 market value of $7.9 billion and the estimated 2008 market value of $11.2 billion. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2008 and 2013 is expected to be 40.0%. \n\nThe market is analyzed by state and includes the top ten spenders on wind turbine technology: Texas, California, Iowa, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New York, Kansas and Illinois. Texas has the largest statewide expenditure, exceeding $2.4 billion in 2007 and an estimated $3.0 billion in 2008. This should grow at a CAGR of 38.0% to reach $15.2 billion in 2013. \n

Siemens is expanding its global manufacturing network for wind turbine plants and is building a new production facility in Lingang New City in Shanghai. By establishing this new rotor blade and nacelle plant, the company is further strengthening its environmental portfolio. This new facility is scheduled to take up operation in the second half of 2010, initially with 400 employees. The wind turbine plants produced in Shanghai will be for the Chinese market and for export.

The SERC (State Electricity Regulatory Commission) has released stricter technical regulations, especially for LVRT (Low Voltage Ride Through) reformation. Additionally, 18 industry standards have been released in November 2011 by the National Bureau of Energy. There are two immediate effects of the regulatory changes. Adding a LVRT capability will increase the cost of the Chinese turbines. This, coupled with slower demand, will lead to a squeezing out of the marginal producers who won't be able to afford to fit new equipment. Thus, the domestic wind power manufacturing sector in China is poised for tough times, when consolidation may even change the positioning of the top five players.

It's been a long, challenging endeavor, but there are signs that the economic ecosystem built up around wave and tidal power generation is at long last gathering enough momentum to make the jump from R&D-driven to full-fledged commercial industry. Scotland, with its long stretches of west-facing coastlines, North Atlantic latitude and longstanding tradition of maritime engineering and commerce, is now at the leading edge of change when it comes to fostering development of marine renewables. Wavegen's Limpet 500 system has been pumping electricity from the western Scottish Isle of Islay shoreline since 2000 while the company and project developer npower renewables have continued to move forward with plans to develop the Siadar Wave Energy Project, potentially the first under the Scottish government's Marine Supply Obligation program. Marine Current Turbines is getting ready to flip the switch and fully commission a grid-connected 1.2-megawatt (MW) Seagen tidal turbine-based system in Northern Ireland's Strangford Narrow, while elsewhere in the EU, project developers and the marine renewables community await the much-anticipated commissioning of Pelamis's novel, serpent-like wave power system off the northern Portuguese coast.

Picture a kelp bed on the ocean floor swaying in the current. Done? Now picture an underwater field of bioWave turbines (pictured to your left) doing the same

A timely article to remind readers about the status of wind turbines in the US. No longer a marginal form of electrical generation, wind turbine installed capacity in the US is on the up. Apparently, wind already supplies about 1% American electricity, powering the equivalent of 4.5 million homes. However, in spite of advances in the wind field, electricity generated via wind turbines is at this time costlier than that generated from fossil fuels. Also, wind power has the disadvantage of being intermittent and unpredictable, but this matter may be overcome with battery storage in some cases.

Wood Mackenzie, a commodities consultancy, said that amongst weak copper consumption in Europe a bright spot is in the demand for wind turbines and the associated subsea cable. The consultancy believes that this sector uses 3.6 tonnes of copper per megawatt of generation capacity and estimates that 22,000t of copper will be consumed in wind turbines in Western Europe in 2012. A European directive for all countries to produce 20% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020 is said to be accelerating growth in green power. Germany are the largest producer of wind turbine sourced electricity, as renewable account for 25% of energy production and wind power is the largest component. Great Britain, the Nordic region and Spain are also expanding their wind power capacity, mainly through offshore wind parks.

Historically, wind technology has been seen on land and near offshore locations. Restrictions, such as prohibitively expensive offshore foundations to support wind turbines larger than 20 meters, may be viewed as stunting potential market growth. Now, new technology based on floating turbines may enable deeper offshore placement. The view mentioned with this news is that pushing turbines further out to sea will equalise the issue of aesthetics. However, the real issue here is can this technology deliver a useful and economic addition to the grid.