Wind Energy // Current TV

US wind: R&D crucial as competition cranks up

The future of the federal production tax credit (PTC) hangs in the balance, but... more

Danbethrach
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Why aren't UFOs drawn to renewable energy sites? Or are they?

Witnesses says they've seen them near nuclear facilities, oil rigs and even... more

Danbethrach
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3 months ago
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Production Tax Credit: Lifeline to US wind frays

With anti-government zeal in America high and US lawmakers unable to reach a consensus... more

Danbethrach
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6 months ago
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Germany Plans Renewable Energy Superhighway

Think of it as the Autobahn of wind power. To retain their position as leaders in... more

bethbot
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1 year ago
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Minnesota's still chasing wind

Minnesota, one of the first states to embrace wind power, has more projects in the... more

ptr23
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1 year ago
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Facts about Wind Energy

A short, educational video that deals with the Fact on Wind Energy. Source: Vestas... more

ptr23
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1 year ago
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Weekly Mulch: Obama Lacks Vision on Energy, Stomach to Defend EPA

by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger President Obama made an energy speech... more

MediaConsortium
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1 year ago
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What Does a Wind Farm Look Like?

Have you ever seen a wind farm up close? From up in the air? John Fischer uses... more

MPGomatic
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1 year ago
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Weekly Mulch: Want to Combat Climate Change? Ignore Congress.

by Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger Congress comes back into session next... more

MediaConsortium
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Energy Department Blocks Disclosure of Road Map to Relieve Critical U.S. Energy-Water Choke Points

A far-reaching federal program of research and analysis, funded by Congress and... more

JanforGore
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1 year ago
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Making the Global Shift to Renewable Energy

As fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about climate... more

GoldenHeart
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Wind power empowers SD Indian tribe

Winds average 18 mph across the great plains of South Dakota and one Indian tribe has... more

schroederlisa
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2 years ago
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America’s first offshore wind farm approved

And the award for the ‘Best Producer of April 2010’s Weirdest News’ goes to: Planet Earth. In his poem “The Waste Land”, T.S. Eliot wrote, “April is the cruelest month.”

April 2010 saw ice on fire in Iceland as a volcano thrust Western Europe under a cloud of ashen spew, while sundry earthquakes and extreme weather in diverse place were so numerous that they often only got second billing and brief sound bites. Humans were perhaps trying to trump the planet’s mayhem by creating a monstrous oil blob of oil in the Gulf of Mexico, that was, for a brief time, aflame. However, the month ended with one bright spot: The approval of the long embattled Cape Wind offshore wind farm near Cape Cod, Massachusetts — America’s first offshore wind farm.

I wrote an in depth article for my website about this project and the fight to stop it when that fight began in 2003. The article focused on how General Electric, a company with a poor environmental record, was getting into the renewable energy business. The article was entitled: “Green Change or Hot Wind at GE?” Here’s a reposting of that article to give you a history of our first offshore wind farm and how it came to be:

GE’s wind power division is helping to make the U.S. a world leader in wind electricity generation. Is the wind division a P.R. move to outshine the company’s less than stellar environmental history or a sign of things to come from one of the world’s biggest and oldest corporations? Or, is it just plain greenwash?

When I first began to research a series of articles on the topic of renewable energy technologies I did not expect to be writing about major corporations like GE in any favorable light. I expected to be writing human-interest stories about “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” types fighting to get major corporations to shift to renewable fuel sources and clean up their acts with respect to pollution. While researching such a story, I came across a large amount of data that I could not ignore, mostly because I was surprised to find it.

My research revealed that an increasing number of companies are beginning to implement environmentally friendly business practices. It would be nice to report that this shift is based on a new respect for our shared biosphere, but it is more accurate (and perhaps more promising for both our citizenry and our economy) to be reporting otherwise. What some companies are discovering is that keeping informed of advances in renewable resource technologies may help them recognize and corner new markets. Additionally, implementing green business practices can make good fiscal sense in that they can yield a competitive advantage by helping a company become more energy efficient and maintain a happier, more productive employee base.

So, rather than a new trend in environmental altruism, the environmentally beneficial changes in most companies I am following are rooted in careful intra-corporate study of the bottom line and research of strategies that will keep the business profitable well into the future. The upside for the rest of us is that these shifts could also offer a healthier planet to cohabitate without the added costs associated with funding government programs to legislate environmental change in the corporate world. History has shown that legislative environmentalism has often failed and been costly to tax payers in the congressional process (costs associated with researching and enacting new laws at the State and Federal level) as well as the costs of enforcement. Historically, there have been additional costs absorbed in getting resistant corporations to conform to new legal standards.

Presently, several technologies are finally allowing an economically feasible realization of ideas that have existed among environmentalists for decades. What corporate scientific study and bean counting is finding is that environmentalism and capitalism may no longer be mutually exclusive terms.

Prime examples of a new trend in natural capitalism are the developments over the course of 2003 within General Electric. GE is currently becoming a world leader in the wind power generation business. One question that initially came to my mind was whether the company is engaging in this business to help offset public image problems with respect to their environmental record. Also of note is the legal battle being joined in Cape Cod between the energy companies vying to build what would become America’s first, and the world’s largest, offshore wind facility off the coast of Cape Cod against a citizens’ group trying to stop them. GE designed and is manufacturing the new offshore wind turbines that would populate Cape wind project.

(Read more on the original post.)And the award for the ‘Best Producer of April 2010’s Weirdest News’... more

CLGreen
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2 years ago
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After Years of Debate, Cape Wind Project Approved

BOSTON--In a groundbreaking decision that some say will usher in a new era of clean energy, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved the nation's first offshore wind farm today off Cape Cod, a person briefed on the decision said this morning.

Salazar is expected to announced his decision at noon at a joint State House news conference with Governor Deval Patrick after nine years of controversy over the proposal.

Several other sources with knowledge of the wind farm project said they expected Salazar to announce approval of the project. The governor is to be briefed by the secretary at 11:30 a.m., a source said.

The decision has been delayed for almost a year because of two Wampanoag tribes’ complaints that the turbines, which would stand more than 400 feet above the ocean surface, would disturb spiritual sun greetings and possibly ancestral artifacts and burial grounds on the seabed, which was once exposed land before the sea level rose thousands of years ago.

Supporters have long said an approval would be a giant step forward for renewable energy efforts in the country, while opponents have said they would seek to kill the project through legal action. The project, if it is not held up by lawsuits, could begin construction within the year.

The project has undergone years of environmental review and political maneuvering, including opposition from the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, whose home overlooks Nantucket Sound. While opponents' main concern is aesthetics -- the turbines would be visible low on the horizon from the Cape and Islands -- the battle was fought by raising other issues, including possible effects on property values and harm to birds, fishing, aviation, and historic and cultural sites.

Horseshoe Shoals, the part of Nantucket Sound where the wind farm is proposed, is widely considered the best place along the East Coast to build a wind farm. That's in part because the site is in shallow, sheltered waters close to shore -- the nearest beach is five miles away. But it is also because it is in federal waters: Political will to build such a massive wind farm in state waters three miles from shore does not exist.

Cape Wind Associates said the wind farm could produce enough wind power to handle three-quarters of the electric needs of the Cape and Islands. The price of its electricity is expected to be higher than conventional power. The company is still in negotiations with National Grid, the utility, that has agreed to purchase some of the power the farm produces.

US Senator Scott Brown criticized Salazar's decision, saying it was "misguided."

"“With unemployment hovering near ten percent in Massachusetts, the Cape Wind project will jeopardize industries that are vital to the Cape’s economy, such as tourism and fishing, and will also impact aviation safety and the rights of the Native American tribes in the area. I am also skeptical about the cost-savings and job number predictions we have heard from proponents of the project," Brown said in a statement.

But George Bachrach, president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, hailed the decision, saying it was "a critical step toward ending our reliance on foreign oil and achieving energy independence. "

"Those who continue to resist and litigate are simply on the wrong side of history," he said.BOSTON--In a groundbreaking decision that some say will usher in a new era of clean... more

KevJ
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2 years ago
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4 comments

Chain of Offshore Wind Turbines Could Power Atlantic Seaboard

A 1,550-mile-long network of offshore wind stations could provide power from... more

WakeUpPeople
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2 years ago
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San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom Interviewed by Current Green

Gavin Newsom visited our offices last week to participate in an interview with questions submitted and voted on by you.

It was our very first live streaming interview, and a pleasure to have San Francisco's Mayor Gavin Newsom in the office speaking out San Francisco's leadership role in sustainable policy.

I asked our community to submit questions and vote to determine which questions were used to interview Mayor Newsom. The top 6 questions were picked, and I reached out to a few of our green blogger colleagues to pick a few extra questions for the Mayor from the bunch that were submitted.

The topics ranged from national issues such as solar energy, wind and wave power, to local issues such as the raise in fares on Muni, San Francisco's new recycling and composting law, the potential closing of 220 California State Parks, and the High Speed Rail and public transporation on the I-5.

The remaining questions focused on how to get the green message out, Mayor Newsom said it was all about reaching the kids and starting environmental education early, new sustainable technologies and ended with a question about the one thing they he can transform from beginning to end if he were elected Governor

It was our first time doing anything like this, and I have to say, there is something thrilling about producing a live streaming show. It brings me back to my days in the theater when anything could happen. In the words of one our people here, "the show didn't suck." Hind sight being 20/20, if I could go back and do it again, I would have taken more time to understand the political thinking behind moving forward on desalination. When in Hawaii a few weeks ago, I actually had a chance to drink some of their desalinized water, but once I started looking into it, the equation doesn't add up: the process of gathering fish kills an already stressed population, and it has a highly acidic byproduct. It feels like we are avoiding the elephant in the room: over population and over consumption. So I'll keep that in mind for next time: or perhaps I'll dedicate an entire show to the subject matter. What say you?

While this was our first live streaming web show, it certainly isn't our last. We'll soon be launching a weekly web show on Current Green that involves your participation to help steer the discussion. So, stay tuned for more info. You know that I am looking forward to your comments and feedback.Gavin Newsom visited our offices last week to participate in an interview with... more

leahl
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2 years ago
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Texas breaks wind - The U.S. wind energy generation record, that is

Last Friday, the Lone Start State broke wind – the US wind power generation... more

CLGreen
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2 years ago
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Wind Turbine Power Goes Portable with Foldable Wind Generator

The designers’ concepts behind the foldable wind generator are to be able to... more

BUILDUSMAXIMUS
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2 years ago
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The day offshore wind power came of age in the UK

Think of a big power station, a 1,000 megawatt job that can provide the electricity... more

ironicbliss
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2 years ago
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The wind blows in the right direction for Indiana

~y2009m12d3-The-wind-blows-in-the-right-direction-for-Indiana

mashoffner
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2 years ago
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