Wind Power
Local Solar/Wind Power Generation Works
In Palo Alto, CA, a medical foundation is putting their power where the need is. They are putting up a wind turbine from a new start-up company, and it will be installed at the foundation itself, which means it could be a money-maker for the foundation, and will certainly be a huge money-saver.
Solar panels are… »
A Wind Power White Paper
At the University of Massachusetts Amherst Campus, wind power research has been going on for a long time, on campus, and with a test project on a nearby mountain top. In 2002, members of the Renewable Energy Research Lab and the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering published a white paper detailing their studies of… »
Wind Turbine Quiet
In order to get the opposition position out here quickly, today I’m offering a video, again from UK, in which footage is taken of an older generation wind turbine that generates no apparent noise. You’ll hear the narrator talking, you’ll hear a car in the background, but you won’t hear the turbine.
When trying to assess… »
More Wind Controversy
Sorry, but this issue does keep coming up. The problems that accompany industrial wind farm installations won’t go away quietly, and more areas are regretting ever letting big wind into their midst. The problems aren’t trivial. They range from a completely changed landscape to noise that keeps people awake a mile away when the generating… »
The Vertical Wind Turbine
A couple of days ago I had a post about large vs small wind turbine research. Today I have a video of one of the more well-engineered smaller-scale designs, the Helix Wind Turbine. As you can see the blades are vertical on their shaft and shaped to make the most of a little wind. They… »
Smart Wind Turbines
Going along with yesterday’s post where I talked about XCel Energy’s unique turbine control design and how it’s being used with large battery systems, today’s Wall Street Journal has an article that ties in one more company, GridPoint, Inc., who specializes in software platforms for the power grid. The combination will be working together at… »
Better Batteries Bring Bigger Benefits
The photo at left is of a 1-Megawatt sodium-sulfur battery system which can power 500 homes for 7 hours. It’s part of a 11.5-Megawatt wind farm in Luverne, Minnesota. The company, MinWind Energy, is owned by 360 local investors from this mostly agricultural area, and everything they’ve done has been to forward the efficiency and… »
Another Mass. Wind Power Project
Kudos to another town in Massachusetts. Fred Hanson in the Patriot Ledger tells how the Milton, MA select board has received a recommendation from the town’s wind energy committee, detailing the potential use of the town’s former landfill. This makes sense from so many perspectives that it’s hard to list them all. (1) The land… »
Predicting the Future Of Wind Power – 10 Seconds at a Time
The bulk of discussion of wind turbines centers on blade design, turbine efficiency, and above all, siting constraints. Engineering that reduces objectionable low-frequency wind noise is making great strides, notably the Skystream and Swift designs, offer great incentive for community- and home-based wind systems by overcoming the most common objections.
Once the turbine is up and… »
Locally Generated Wind And Solar Power
In the past, I’ve been bothered by plans being developed in shoreline communities, particularly here in Massachusetts, for wind systems in the Berkshires 100 miles inland. It has seemed odd that these towns wouldn’t want to generate wind-based power nearer to home, where they could site the generators on town property and save a great… »