Welcome to Wind-Works

An on-line archive of articles and commentary primarily--but not solely--on wind energy, Feed-in Tariffs, and Advanced Renewable Tariffs.

What's New

May 7, 2008

• North American Endorsements of Advanced Renewable Tariffs, Feed Laws, and Standard Offer Contracts (Updated to April 19, 2008)

  ---

  If you would like to join our growing list in support of Electricity Feed Laws in North America, post a message to Paul Gipe.

  ---

• Will RECs Create An Unhealthy Solar Market (Letter to Governor Crist from 28 Florida Solar Companies Calling for Feed-in Payments and Cautioning Against a REC Market
• International Solar Energy Society Calls for Feed-in Tariffs
• A proper solar feed-in tariff in Victoria - 10 Reasons Why by Markus Lambert
• U.S. State Solar Debate: Will SRECs Create Unhealthy Market Concentration? by Stephen Lacey, Renewable Energy World
• ARTs ASES Solar 2008.pdf Presentation by Paul Gipe at Solar Power 2008 Conference in San Diego
• Representative Kathleen Law's Feed-in Tariff Web Site: feedintariff.us
• The German FIT for Renewable Energy -- A Bargain! by Marcus Maedl, Applied Technologies
• Certificate Trading and Feed-in Tariffs by Volkmar Lauber (2008)
• Comments on New Brunswick's Community Wind Initiative by Paul Gipe
• Feed-In Tariffs: A Redistribution of Power? by former CEC Commissioner John Geesman

What Can Be Found on This Site

This site contains information about my books, an archive of my articles, and descriptions of my workshops on wind energy. This site also contains an extensive collection of articles and technical reports on electricity feed laws or renewable energy tariffs and a series of reports on tests of small wind turbines at the Wulf Field.

Ontario's ARTs Campaign

In 2004 I worked with the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association in Toronto as the Acting Executive Director. OSEA promotes the development of small, community-owned renewable energy projects in the Canadian province of Ontario. OSEA was successful in an ambitious campaign to bring electricity feed laws to North America.

On March 21, 2006, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty announced the implementation of Standard Offer Contracts for projects less than 10 MW. To learn more about this groundbreaking program see Ontario and the Campaign for Advanced Renewable Tariffs.

Photography

My photos are stocked by Still Pictures in London. For more on my photography and for photo tours of several wind farms as well as a sampling of wind energy icons, see the photos section of this site.

Small Turbine Testing

From 1997 to 2003 I measured the performance of small wind turbines at the Wulf Test Field in the Tehachapi Pass. I also measured the noise emissions from these same wind turbines. For more information on this work, visit Wulf Test Field.

Previous Web Sites

My web pages have previously been hosted on the Chelsea Green web site and by the Workgroup Wind Turbines at TU-Berlin. My thanks to Michael and Sienna Potts, and to Klaus Kaiser, for their help posting my pages in the past.

Origin of Wind-Works

Since 1981, following a trip to Denmark, I've stressed the theme that wind energy does indeed work, makes economic and environmental sense, and is here to stay. Even then Denmark was a model of how successful wind energy could become--when given the opportunity. In North America at the time, there were few wind turbines and only a few of those operated well. Most simply didn't work. My slogan was as much a statement of what could be as it was a statement of fact. Today, wind turbines are commonplace throughout the world and "wind works", once a bold statement, now elicits a "What? Of course it does. Everyone knows that." And that's the way it should be.--Paul Gipe