Hywind Scotland will begin building what will become the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm. The initial pilot project will consist of five turbines generating 30 MW, capable of powering nearly 20,000 homes.The wind farm will be 12 miles offshore,…
The United States still has no offshore wind, mostly due to pointlessly complicated permitting regulations coupled with NIMBYs who think renewable energy is just a wonderful idea so long as they don’t have to look at it. However, the very…
Intel has installed 58 small wind turbines on the roof of their Santa Clara headquarters to help power the building and to test renewables. The turbines are manufactured by JLM Energy, 6-7 feet tall, weigh 30 lbs., and sited on the…
Total worldwide wind power capacity is now 370 GW. 50 GW was installed in 2014. China led the way with 23 GW of new wind power, and has 31% of total world wind power, followed by the US at 18%.…
Google X will soon be testing a 84-foot version of their Makani airborne wind turbine. It flies at 1,500 feet altitude, where wind speeds are much faster, and is tethered to the ground. Wind at altitude is also considerably more variable…
The usual motley assortment of rich NIMBYs, traditional energy companies, and regulatory hurdles have mostly managed to stop offshore wind farms here in the US. Considering all the bleating from DC and Important People about how we need to go…
Little bitty wind turbines appear virtuous, creating green power so everyone can feel good about them. In reality, they generally way underperform their specs due to turbulence on the ground and bad design. For reliable wind power, ginormous turbines, especially…
Wealthy, Republicans and Democrats alike in Cape Cod and Nantucket, have succeeded in killing the Cape Wind project, which would have delivered green energy to Massachusetts and been the first offshore wind project in the US. These deep pocket elitists,…
There are still no offshore wind turbines in the U.S. because of course it’s so much easier to argue for decades about installing them than actually do anything constructive. The rest of the planet though, is happily installing offshore wind…
Previous studies on avian deaths by wind turbines generalized from studies done at Altamont Pass CA, which have ancient, more dangerous turbines. Modern wind turbines are much larger, slower, do not have latticing, are out of hunting range of raptors,…
