Archive for Wind Power
November 19, 2011 at 11:36 pm · Filed under DIY Projects, Green Tech, Off Grid, Wind Power
Windows are a mixed blessing. No doubt they are great for admitting light and making your home – be it condo , house , apartment bright and cheery while admitting light, providing a view of the out-of-doors as well as collecting some solar energy during day light daytime hours they are not good – indeed horrible – insulators against nighttime heat losses. In fact , in the heating and windows trades it is both well known and held as a truism that single pane glass acts as a heat exchanger to the outdoors – allowing about 10 times as much heat loss per a square foot area than an insulated wall would.
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October 18, 2011 at 6:51 am · Filed under Bio Fuel, DIY Projects, Green Tech, Off Grid, Solar, Wind Power
Add-on solar systems are another possibility as an auxiliary source of heating energy. Air heaters, to provide at least a portion of the needed winter space heat, built along south facing walls can be constructed of relatively inexpensive materials Solar water heaters can take much of the load off of conventional water heaters – on a year round – winter , summer , fall, springtime basis.
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September 19, 2011 at 1:04 am · Filed under Activism, Bio Fuel, Green Tech, hybrids, Solar, Wind Power
Is there an energy shortage, are energy shortages looming or is it just a case of us being wasteful and using more than our fair share? Experts in the energy and energy conservation fields have stated time and time again that “Our trouble is not just one of being a simple shortage and shortfall of energy”. The same can be said for an alcoholic in that one drink is neither enough nor one thousand.
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July 19, 2011 at 12:18 pm · Filed under Climate, Green Tech, Wind Power
Scotland has become one of the world leaders in renewable energy production, and in the last few years the country has taken huge strides towards maximising the potential of its huge natural resource base. Concerns over climate change and peak oil production (essentially the time when global petroleum extraction reaches the maximum level before going into terminal decline) have pushed the subject of renewable energy to the upper levels of the political agenda, and the ambitious target set by the government in 2007 to have 31% of the country’s power generation produced from renewable sources by 2011 have already been exceeded. The long term aim is to have the share grow to between 50-80% by 2020, again an ambitious target but one which Scotland is already well on track to accomplish with a number of Scottish electric companies investing heavily in the new technology. 
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July 17, 2011 at 10:09 pm · Filed under Bio Fuel, Green Tech, Solar, Wind Power
It would seem the nations of the world are seeing the writing on the wall when it comes to energy and the depletion of limited resources from whence we acquire our power. Consequently, there are countless inventors, scientists and investors who are pouring countless resources into finding the next killer app in the energy field. Where there is pain (and there certainly is or will be), there can be great opportunity. Investing in the future of renewable energy resources will certainly prove necessary for mankind’s continued survival, but which solution will prove the most soluble in the long run? Read the rest of this entry »
February 2, 2011 at 5:44 pm · Filed under Green Tech, Wind Power
The World Bank has in the end of November 2010 praised China for its determination to reach a goal of 15 percent of its energy must come from non-fossil energy sources by 2020. It is very much its massive bets on hydropower, which increase the global share of renewable energy, and a new 12-year plan to further accelerate the trend. Success of the plan, the entire 18 percent of the country’s ravenous appetite for energy to be covered by water power alone in 2020 and in 2030 the proportion staying up the entire 24 percent.
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June 19, 2007 at 4:39 pm · Filed under Bio Fuel, Green Tech, hybrids, On Grid, Video, Wind Power
Google.org – the philanthropic arm of Google – yesterday lauched an exciting project that offers a glimpse of a smarter energy future: cars that plug into an electric grid powered by solar energy. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles can quadruple the fuel economy of the average car on the road today. As Google.org demonstrated at yesterday’s event, plug-in hybrids can sell power back to the electric grid when it’s needed most through vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology
Google.org’s core missions is to address climate change. In the U.S., transportation contributes about one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions –- with more than 60 percent of those emissions coming from personal vehicles. By accelerating the adoption of plug-in hybrids and vehicle-to-grid (“V2G”) technologies, this new project, RechargeIT.org, aims to reduce emissions and dependence on oil while promoting clean energy technologies and increasing consumer choice. Linking the U.S. transportation system to the electricity grid maximizes the efficiency of our energy system. From these efforts, we believe the environment will benefit – and consumers will have more choices to fuel their cars.
We’ve been working with Google engineers and Hymotion/A123Systems to build a small fleet of plug-in hybrids, adding an external plug and additional batteries to a regular hybrid car so that it runs on electricity with gasoline (or even better, biofuels) to extend the driving range for longer trips. Here’s what it looks like:
[youtube]oDjSbWTJbdo[/youtube]
May 22, 2007 at 7:29 am · Filed under Green Tech, Video, Wind Power
Residents of Dubai may one day experience a unique and constantly changing skyline thanks to Dynamic Architecture’s wind powered rotating skyscraper. The main idea behind their concept involves a central concrete core surrounded by 59 independently rotating levels. The skyscraper would generate its own electricity from the massive horizontal wind turbines that would be stacked in between each floor. This idea may seem outlandish or impossibly expensive, but the oil price boom in Dubai has already funded many other similarly massive and complex architectural projects. If oil prices continue to increase these rotating wonders may be seen on Dubai’s horizon within the next few years. Thanks Alt-e-news!
Each turbine can produce 0.3 megawatt of electricity, compared to 1-1.5 megawatt generated by a normal vertical turbine (windmill). Considering that Dubai gets 4,000 wind hours annually, the turbines incorporated into the building can generate 1,200,000 kilowatt-hour of energy. As average annual power consumption of a family is estimated to be 24,000 kilowatt-hours, each turbine can supply energy for about 50 families. The Dynamic Architecture tower in Dubai will be having 200 apartments and hence four turbines can take care of their energy needs. The surplus clean energy produced by the remaining 44 turbines can light up the neighborhood of the building. However, taking into consideration that the average wind speed in Dubai is of only 16 km/h the architects may need to double the number of turbines to light up the building to eight. Still there will be 40 free turbines, good enough to supply power for five skyscrapers of the same size. Read the rest of this entry »
April 14, 2007 at 12:31 pm · Filed under Green Tech, Wind Power
The Economist has an interesting article about different proposals to harvest wind energy from the jet stream (elevation: 10km). A San Diego, CA company called Sky WindPower wants to send giant kite-turbines into the jet stream to generate power.
“Mr Shepard’s flying generator looks like a cross between a kite and a helicopter. It has four rotors at the points of an H-shaped frame that is tethered to the ground by a long cable. The rotors act like the surface of a kite, providing the lift needed to keep the platform in the air. As they do so, they also turn dynamos that generate electricity. This power is transmitted to the ground through aluminium cables. Should there be a lull in the wind, the dynamos can be used in reverse as electric motors, to keep the generator airborne.”
March 22, 2007 at 5:35 pm · Filed under Wind Power
The rapid growth of wind power in the United States has resulted in two new factories to manufacture wind turbine blades. Knight & Carver opened its wind blade manufacturing and repair facility in Howard, South Dakota, on March 6th. The new facility will serve as the wind blade headquarters for Knight & Carver, which was previously better known for building yachts. The 26,000-square-foot facility will employ as many as 25 full-time employees in 2007, with plans to expand to a 25-person workforce within two years.Meanwhile, Vestas announced on March 20th that it has decided to build a wind blade factory in Windsor, Colorado. The new $60 million facility, located between Fort Collins and Greeley, will have a production capacity of 1,200 blades per year and will employ about 400 people. The Danish company bills itself as the leading supplier of wind power technology in the world, and has already installed more than 9,300 wind turbines in the United States. In early March, Vestas received an order for eight of its 3-megawatt wind turbines, which will be installed at the Tehachapi Pass in Southern California as part of an effort to install 1,500 megawatts of wind power there. Construction on the new blade factory will begin soon, and the factory will start producing wind turbine blades in early 2008.
March 13, 2007 at 1:58 pm · Filed under DIY Projects, Green Tech, Wind Power
Last night I came a bit further with my research into the world of micro wind turbines. My setup will be made from these parts:
1 Vind Generator Air X Land – 24V. (US build with integrated chargecontroller)
10 meters of special cable.
1 24 boiler to fit in my 220 liter hot water tank
2 12 Volt deep cycle batteries, Solar SP 200, 120Ah. 22 kg each !
1 Controller to secure the batteries from running dry.
I have asked for a price for all the parts from one dealer just 50 km. from here and he will answer me later this week.
More about my wind project: Finding the right wind generator
March 12, 2007 at 4:46 pm · Filed under DIY Projects, Wind Power
The wind is always blowing here and my coming DIY project is setting up a mini windmill. I have considered a lot of different setups from the Calorius mill that produces hot water directly in the tower (no generator) to a grid-connected setup. The mini generator market is so small that it is impossible to find the right setup as a standard package, and I am not a genius when it comes to calculating inverters.
The hot water mill, Calorius, was too expensive. On-grid setup – also very expensive, the inverter would cost more than the mill and since I am looking for a less than 2 diameter mill (mills less than 2 meters can be installed without applying for it) there would be nothing but expenses.
Instead I am going for a 24 Volt mill that only will be used for the boiler in our hot water tank. The tank is already connected to solar panels and a wood stove/oilburner. This is working great but in the summer when we do not need hot water for anything but the how showers it would be nice to avoid burning wood or oil on (partly) cloudy days.
So what I need is a mill, a battery, a charger and boiler.
The mill above is from www.procure.dk. It is a 600 Watt, 24 Volt mill, that seems inexpensive. (a bit more than 1.000 euro) It comes complete with chargecontroller. It is made in China and it worries me a bit compared to:
The other one I consider is the American build Air X One from South West Windpower. Link. It is smaller and cheaper than
the other but can also do 400 Watt at 12,5 m/s. Download video here: link. It has a build-in chargecontroller in the mill-head.
Finding the right boiler has been hard, but I think this guy can help:
http://www.wind2watts.co.uk/index_files/Page841.htm
I will make up my mind this week, so stay tuned :-)
February 18, 2007 at 12:55 pm · Filed under Wind Power
The booming wind energy markets around the world exceeded expectations in 2006, with the sector experiencing yet another record year. On the day of the publication of the 4th Assessment Report on Climate Change by the IPCC, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) released its annual figures for 2006. These figures, which include wind energy developments in more than 70 countries around the world, show that the year saw the installation of 15,197 megawatts (MW), taking the total installed wind energy capacity to 74,223 MW, up from 59,091 MW in 2005.
The countries with the highest total installed capacity are Germany (20,621 MW), Spain (11,615 MW), the USA (11,603 MW), India (6,270 MW) and Denmark (3,136). Thirteen countries around the world can now be counted among those with over 1000 MW of wind capacity, with France and Canada reaching this threshold in 2006.
In terms of new installed capacity in 2006, the US continued to lead with 2,454 MW, followed by Germany (2,233 MW), India (1,840 MW), Spain (1,587 MW), China (1,347 MW) and France (810 MW). This development shows that new players such as France and China are gaining ground.
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December 4, 2006 at 1:27 pm · Filed under Green Tech, Off Grid, Wind Power
Off the grid blog writes:
“I found a fantastic government resource [PDF], with documentation on what you need to consider when going off the electrical grid either as a new home builder, or home renovator. There are pages and pages of detailed suggestions, and steps for planning an ideal off-grid home, so browse or delve right in. You can’t help but learn something by reading just a page of it. Here are a few interesting points and definitions from the document:
Off-grid homes have shortened the [electricity delivery] line and have the electricity generating equipment in their backyards [instead of hundreds of kilometers away]. Their electricity comes from a photovoltaic array (solar panel), wind turbine, micro-hydro turbine and/or a fossil-fueled generator. Collectively, the other parts of the system equipment are known as the balance of system (BOS) and include low-voltage (12 volt) direct current (DC) electrical storage (batteries) and regulating equipment (controller, inverter, battery charger, DC disconnect and monitor) right in the house. Instead of paying for someone else to look after the supply of electricity, people living off-grid need to be their own power managers.”
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November 14, 2006 at 11:29 am · Filed under Wind Power
The Statue of Liberty and the entire Ellis Island are now completely lit up by wind power, the NewsChannel 4 reports. Windmills in Pennsylvania are powering both. The windmill-produce electricity is fed into the nation’s electrical grid. And this in turn, supplies power to lit the floodlights shining on the statue’s torch, the NewsChannel 4 says.
The Statue turned “green and environment-friendly” during its announcement on its 120th anniversary.
