4Nov

Wind Energy & Wind Turbine Market Booming Globally (1,750,000 MW Projected by 2030)

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Wind energy is growing in use across the U.S., both small and large wind turbines are getting installed at record rates. And the trend is similar across the world. A new report by Transparency Market Research, ”Global Wind Energy & Wind Turbine Market (2011 – 2016),” finds that there’s been a Compound Average Growth Rate (CAGR) of 25% over the last 5 years.

As previously reported, total installed wind power around the world reached 197, 039 MW by the end of 2010. That is expected to reach a tremendous 1,750,000 MW by 2030. The wind turbine market is projected to reach $93.1 billion by 2016.

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30Sep

SeaTwirl puts a new spin on offshore wind turbines

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SeaTwirl puts a new spin on offshore wind turbines 2

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One of the main drawbacks of wind turbines is the fact that for maximum efficiency, the power that they generate must be fed into the grid right as the wind is blowing and their blades are spinning. While that power can be stored in batteries for later use, some of it will always be lost in the process. Sweden’s experimental new SeaTwirl system, however, is designed to kinetically store wind energy until it’s required – it’s basically a seagoing flywheel.

The top of a SeaTwirl system consists of a vertical wind turbine, with a hollow torus ring attached to the bottom. This is the only part of the system that is located above the surface of the water.

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12Aug

Offshore wind farms are good for wildlife, say researchers

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Offshore wind farms are good for wildlife, say researchers

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It is the evidence proponents of offshore wind farms have been waiting for: a Dutch study has found that offshore wind turbines have “hardly any negative effects” on wildlife, and may even benefit animals living beneath the waves.

The researchers reached their conclusions after studying a wind farm near Windpark Egmond aan Zee, the first large-scale offshore wind farm built off the Dutch North Sea coast.

Anti-wind farm campaigners have often argued that wind farms can have a negative impact on bird populations, while some critics have voiced concerns that offshore wind farms could prove disruptive to marine life.

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4Aug

Offshore Wind Power: ABB Takes Down $1 Billion North Sea Contract

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Offshore Wind Power ABB Takes Down $1 Billion North Sea Contract

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Swiss engineering group ABB closed the largest power transmission order in its long history, a $1 billion contract to connect planned offshore North Sea wind farms to the German electricity grid. Upon expected completion in 2015, transmission lines will deliver enough clean, renewable electrical power to supply more than 1.5 million households, while avoiding more than 3 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, according to an ABB press release.

“Offshore wind power is emerging as a major source of large-scale renewable energy in Europe to help meet emission targets and lower environmental impact,” said Peter Leupp, head of ABB’s Power Systems division. ”ABB is uniquely positioned with in-house manufacturing capability of converter stations, cables and semiconductors, the essential components of HVDC systems, and has invested significantly in these technologies.”

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3Aug

Demand for Wind Power, Wind Turbines Rises with German Nuclear Power Shutdown

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Demand for Wind Power, Wind Turbines Rises with German Nuclear Power Shutdown

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The German plan to completely phase out nuclear power by 2022 announced May 30 by Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Christian Democratic Union-led political alliance is boosting demand across the alternative and renewable power value chain.

As a result, the EU’s largest member nation will add 1,800 megawatts (MW) worth of new wind turbines this year, 16% more than the 1,551 MW total for 2010, according to BWE, the German Wind Energy Association. Installed wind power capacity totaled 27,214 MW in Germany last year, up 5.6% from 25,777 in 2009, according to the European Wind Energy Association.

European offshore wind power capacity has grown 4.5% in the first half of 2011, as 101 new offshore wind turbines with a total 348 MW capacity were connected to power grids in Germany, Norway and the UK. Another 2,844 MW are currently under construction, the EWEA reported recently.

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29Jul

UK sails ahead in offshore wind power generation

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The UK has sailed ahead in offshore wind power generation in the past six months, building more offshore windfarms than any other country in the world, and accounting for almost all of the turbines erected in European waters this year.

Of only 108 offshore turbines built around Europe’s coastline from January to June, a whopping 101 were built around the UK, with only six built in Germany, and a single one in Norway, according to estimates published on Wednesday by the trade body European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).

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26Jul

Financing Offshore Wind Farms in the U.S.

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Financing Offshore Wind Farms in the U.S.

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As most readers are aware, the first major U.S. offshore wind farm to begin development was the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts. The project has been in the development phase for over a decade. The major barriers to development have been public opposition as well as the lack of an established regulatory framework with which to manage offshore energy development in the U.S.

In April, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar signed off on Cape Wind’s construction and operations plan. Construction, however, has not yet begun. As of this writing, Cape Wind still needed to sign a power purchase agreement (PPA) for 50 percent of the project’s output. A signed PPA will likely be needed to obtain financing. Even with signed PPAs for 100 percent of the power, obtaining financing will not be an easy process due to the offshore-specific risks involved with the project and the prospect of being a first-mover.

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19Jul

$14 Billion Giant Wind Project To Be Launched By France

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Last week, the French government announced the launch of a $14.26 billion tender to build five different offshore wind farms. The goal is to reduce the country’s longstanding reliance on atomic power and to boost its renewable-energy industry.

As the French ecology and industry ministries said, the wind farms that have a total of around 1,200 wind turbines off the north and west coasts of France, will be capable to generate 3.5% of the country’s electricity. The wind farms are expected to go online between 2015 and 2020.

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16Jul

A Second Wave of Interest In U.S. Offshore Wind

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While offshore wind power is a reality across much of the world, U.S. developments are in a race of sorts to see which project will be the first to hit the water in what could become one of the globe’s hottest markets.

“Right now we’re still waiting for some wet steel — the first project in water,” said Fara Courtney, executive director of the U.S. Offshore Wind Collaborative. “That’s an important marker for the industry.”

There are numerous plans in various stages, but they are mostly small demonstration-sized projects in Rhode Island, New Jersey, Ohio and beyond. The big one, though, has always been Cape Wind, a commercial-sized development that has received its permitting, and is now working on its financing. It’s the project that first got states thinking that they, too, may be able to tap into the East Coast’s vast wind resources.

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12Jul

Bold target set for offshore wind power but sceptics see hidden nuclear subsidy

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The government will lay out plans on Tuesday to create a huge offshore wind industry in the UK, with new targets going far further than even its own advisers have recommended.

Instead of the 13GW of offshore wind power by 2020 called for by the Committee on Climate Change – the statutory body that advises ministers on carbon emissions targets and how to meet them – the government wants the UK to have as much as 18GW by the same date.

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