Wind Power // Current TV

William Kamkwamba: How I harnessed the wind

Very inspiring and courageous speech. He built a wind mill from scraps to power... more

lookatmypix
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2 years ago
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1 comment

Mariah Power Celebrates 400th Windspire Wind Turbine Installation

Start-up wind technology company, Mariah Power , today announced the 400th... more

TwilightEarth
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2 years ago
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30 Billion for renewable energy.

The Green Revolution is thriving and growing stronger every day. Business,... more

bryanblack
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2 years ago
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The Weekly Carboholic: EPA Office of the Inspector General recommends EPA enforce Clean Water Act

Last week, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported that the EPA’s internal... more

angliss
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2 years ago
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Clean Energy FAIL

Helping with the climate crisis...I think not.

ProjectBat
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2 years ago
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Norway installs first major floating turbine

FAR out to sea, the wind blows faster than it does near the coast. A turbine placed there would thus generate more power than its inshore or onshore cousins. But attempts to build power plants in such places have foundered because the water is generally too deep to attach a traditional turbine’s tower to the seabed.

One way round this would be to put the turbine on a floating platform, tethered with cables to the seabed. And that is what StatoilHydro, a Norwegian energy company, and Siemens, a German engineering firm, have done. The first of their floating offshore turbines has just started a two-year test period generating about 1 megawatt of electricity—enough to supply 1,600 households.

The Hywind is the first large turbine to be deployed in water more than 30 metres deep. The depth at the prototype’s location, 10 kilometres (six miles) south-west of Karmoy, is 220 metres. But the turbine is designed to operate in water up to 700 metres deep, meaning it could be put anywhere in the North Sea. Three cables running to the seabed prevent it from floating away.

It is an impressive sight. Its three blades have a total span of 82 metres and, together with the tower that supports them, weigh 234 tonnes. That makes the Hywind about the same size as a large traditional offshore turbine.

Even though it is tethered, and sits on a conical steel buoy, the motion of the sea causes the tower to sway slowly from side to side. This swaying places stress on the structure, and that has to be compensated for by a computer system that tweaks the pitch of the rotor blades to keep them facing in the right direction as the tower rocks and rolls to the rhythm of the waves. That both improves power production and minimises the strain on the blades and the tower. The software which controls this process is able to measure the success of previous changes to the rotor angle and use that information to fine-tune future attempts to dampen wave-induced movement.

If all works well, the potential is huge. Henrik Stiesdal of Siemens’s windpower business unit reckons the whole of Europe could be powered using offshore wind, but that competition for space near the coast will make this difficult to achieve if only inshore sites are available. Siting turbines within view of coastlines causes conflicts with shipping, the armed forces, fishermen and conservationists. But floating turbines moored far out to sea could avoid such problems. That, plus the higher wind speeds which mean that a deep-water turbine could generate much more power than a shallow-water one, make the sort of technology that the Hywind is pioneering an attractive idea.FAR out to sea, the wind blows faster than it does near the coast. A turbine placed... more

JanforGore
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2 years ago
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4 comments

Big changes to the meat industry could save the planet today

Could we make big changes on our own? Can government incentive programs help the... more

brian_gillingham
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2 years ago
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2 comments

New Green Building Gets Four Rooftop Wind Turbines

Over the weekend, Hoffman Construction lifted four Southwest Windpower turbines into... more

dev41
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2 years ago
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2 comments

North Carolina Senate Bans Mountaintop Wind Turbines : TreeHugger

When news first broke that North Carolina's ban wind turbines from being... more

TheRealEdwin
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2 years ago
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2 comments

On-site energy generation leads to EPA recognition - Ars Technica

The EPA has published a list of what it considers some of the greenest organizations... more

BUILDUSMAXIMUS
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2 years ago
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Prairie grouse could hamper wind energy growth | Green Energy News

A little prairie grouse could give the wind energy industry big fits. Should the... more

dagloman
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2 years ago
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0 comments

Residents close to wind farms should receive energy bill discounts.

Residents should be offered discounts on their energy bills and free energy efficiency... more

dagloman
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2 years ago
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0 comments

China, now, wants to conquer sun and wind

Against any prevision China is trying to become leader in renewable sources. Now... more

bibabiba
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2 years ago
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14 comments

Ironically, Wind is a Problem When Building Wind Turbines

Too Bad We Can't Put Them Where There's No Wind... Green Inc had a short... more

pjacobs51
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2 years ago
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1 comment

Propeller Heads: The economic power of wind blocked by poor infrastrcuture

The scale at which the wind power industry seeks to dominate the energy market is... more

Greenpointer
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2 years ago
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6 comments

Feeling Windspired? Check out this Cool Eco Carwash!

WINDSPIRE® WIND TURBINE POWERS OKLAHOMA’S FIRST ECO EXPRESS CAR WASH

TwilightEarth
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2 years ago
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3 comments

Bird friendly wind turbines

Hey Green Scene viewers! Here's a topic that's near and dear to my heart -... more

GreenScreenCinema
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2 years ago
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1 comment

West Virginia redefines dirty energy as “alternative”

When you hear the phrase “alternative energy,” what comes to mind?... more

ToBeNowhere
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2 years ago
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8 comments

Third-World Wind Power: First Look

Here is an interesting non turbine wind power generator. I saw the idea for this in... more

ras_menelik
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2 years ago
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13 comments

Pickens abandons massive wind farm in Texas

HOUSTON – Plans for the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle... more

InformedTexan
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2 years ago
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46 comments

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