This is an archive of articles and news on both large and small wind turbines, wind energy & the environment, and links to topics on the history of wind energy.
I've been working with wind energy since 1976 and my professional experience in the subject runs the gamut from wind resource assessment to installing and testing small wind turbines. I continue to follow the industry and analyze its growth and increasing contribution to renewable electricity generation worldwide.
The pocket bilingual dictionary is published by OffTEC, a leading provider of training courses for onshore and offshore wind industries. The dictionary is designed for trainee wind turbine service...[more]
The big waste comes with the nuclear investment. The problem with the ability of the electricity system to absorb more variable wind power supplies lies with the inability, and unwillingness, of...
I first heard of the East 11th Street windmill in hushed voices, over cafe con leches at a Cuban restaurant on Avenue C.
Instead Forest has spent over $500,000 of its taxpayers’ money to fight close to $600,000 in annual increases in local wealth. Does anyone really think that the citizens of Forest were fully informed...
Stephen Ambrose and Robert Rand are US acousticians who believe that wind turbine noise is somehow uniquely making people sick. In 2011, they were contracted by Bruce McPherson, a Falmouth...
Densely populated Japan is home to a mind-boggling number of golf courses. With so much land set aside for golf, how much wind power could be produced from the land area covered by golf courses in...
"The highest percentage believing [claims about wind turbine syndrome] (21 percent) was in Wisconsin, a state which has far fewer wind farms and where some political leaders have in recent years been...
California parents are deciding against vaccinating their kindergarten-age children at twice the rate they did seven years ago, a fact public health experts said is contributing to the reemergence of...
In other words, since 2006 we have witnessed a stabilization of Germany’s impressively reliable grid even as some 35 gigawatts of solar and 35 gigawatts of wind were installed on a grid with peak...
This is what feed-in tariffs do, fundamentally, by setting a fixed price for wind production which is high enough to reassure producers on their initial investment, and low enough to provide a hedge...
That is the point of feed-in tariffs, which provide stable, predictable revenue to wind producers, and ensure that their maximum production is injected into the system at all times, which influences...
Wind health impacts have been dismissed in courts across the globe. This Energy and Policy Institute report assesses legal cases in five English-speaking countries pertaining to wind energy. The...
. . . suggest that these wind turbines have not significantly impacted nearby property values. Thus, these results do not corroborate the concerns raised by residents regarding potential negative...
. . . support for onshore wind among the public is 67 per cent, with just 11 per cent opposed. Solar power is the most popular renewable fuel (82 per cent support) with offshore wind a bit ahead of...
According to the FT, National Grid said the closures should not affect the UK’s energy supply. “Demand is low at this time of year, and a lot of wind power is being generated right now,” it said.
Il est par contre possible d'expliquer ce que sont véritablement ces vapeurs de condensation qui se forment dans le sillage des avions, les contrails, étudiées par les scientifiques depuis les années...
The denial of deduction and causation is a necessary component in the concrete acceptance of extremely weak hypotheses, such as those underlying homeopathy, anti-vaccination fear-mongering,...
In the short to medium term the fossil fuel interests and their supporters – both witting and unwitting — are fighting the battle of their corporate lives to preserve the privileged position they’ve...
The conclusion is that the symptoms reported for people living near wind turbines identified by the WCO survey are not significantly different than those experienced by the general population, i.e....
My paper concluded that the claim was a factoid promoted by wind farm opponents for dramatic, rhetorical impact. The claim sits alongside other contestable claims made by wind farm opponents,...
The report stated that 'some 80,000 ha of national park were destroyed by a wildfire ignited by the turbine debris' and gave an Australian Broadcasting Commission report as a reference. In fact, the...
With thanks to the long-lasting science Crackpot Index, this Wind Crank Index is intended to provide a simple way to figure out how you should invest your time: helping the person understand more...
The energy payback period for the two turbine models are found to be 5.2 and 6.4 months, respectively.
Germany’s leading economics institute DIW has published a 36-page report in English on how the amendments to the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) will impact the cost of capital for wind power investors....
Sheerwind makes radically inappropriate comparisons between their long-disproven approach to wind generation and actually useful wind generation. The numbers show that they are likely about eighteen...
Even if Denmark had its own 'wind turbine syndrome' organisation, I strongly suspect the phenomenon wouldn't take hold. The Middelgrunden Wind Farm happens to be half-owned by Middelgrunden Wind...
Eurogate wants to make seven million kWh available with the wind power farm and also its newly constructed combined heat and power plant (CHP). Eurogate also generates power from photovoltaic...
Interestingly, Ireland recently saw its share of wind power peak at 50 percent of power demand, an issue that went largely unreported (why is everyone so focused on Germany?).
Nicely done map portraying the growth of wind energy worldwide from 1980 to the present sorted by country.
Smart people reinvent variations of these things fairly often. People get enthused about them, get people to invest, build prototypes which don’t work as hoped. The prototypes get abandoned and...
The former East German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern became the first German state to generate more electricity with renewable energy than its own domestic consumption. In 2013 the state on the...[more]
Based on the findings and scientific merit of the available studies, the weight of evidence suggests that when sited properly, wind turbines are not related to adverse health. Stemming from this...
The tariff for small wind between 20 and 200kW for all the connected turbines in 2014 and 2015 will remain 0.268 €/kWh
Sponsored by the Rotary Club of Kingston Environmental Committee in collaboration with Tourism Kingston and Tourism Wolfe Island.
Citizens of Greensburg live so close to wind turbines it is a bit astonishing. The local hospital’s turbine is just across the driveway, only twenty yards or so from the building. The local Best...
Logical fallacies are everywhere. Flick open the newspaper and hear the latest assertion from your politician-of-choice, and you'll see one being used to advocate a course of action, framed in...
Looks like the Wind Turbines won! Overall, supporters of renewable energy landed almost 70% of the vote, and the PC's, who made a big campaign issue of killing off renewable energy via the Green...
Vote Compass users overall say wind energy should be a significant source of Ontario’s electricity supply mix - but that view is not shared by respondents who identified as supporters of the...
A German startup launches a crowdfunding campaign tomorrow for its “wind kites,” and it is doing so by bad-mouthing the wonderful stuff we have. These folks resort to crowdfunding because people who...
If we allow ourselves to be deceived by the fossil-fuel industry and their fabricated worries about birds, then we will be refusing to look the future squarely in the face. We must end our addiction...
Half of respondents to national survey would welcome a new wind farm within five miles of their home
The government is considering increasing the capacity allocation for wind power projects under the feed-in tariff (FiT) program.
In an interview last September with CBC News, Studzienny said he refused treatment to certain councillors on M'Chigeeng and Little Current councils because he is opposed to wind turbines and was...
Evance have an innovative new windmill design 90% of the way through development and nearing the production stage, following the manufacture and supply of almost 2,000 of smaller windmills –between...
Windpower Ownership in Sweden: Business models and motives, the new book by Tore Wizelius helps English-speakers understand how Swedes have taken a sizable ownership of wind energy in spite of their...[more]
Basilio Brazao, a 19-year-old Brazilian construction worker, was working inside the turbine at the Earlsburn wind farm near Fintry, Stirlingshire on May 22, 2007 when he fell.
Quiet Revolution, the one-time manufacturer of an architecturally dramatic helical wind turbine, filed for bankruptcy on 15 April in London. Note: The following is adapted from the forthcoming...[more]
As detailed below, the Government's survey shows that the public is much more supportive of onshore wind - the technology they are determined to curb - compared to the technologies to which they want...
The college installed 80 miniature wind turbines on the roof of the nine-story building last week. . . for $240,000 . . .
A small airplane heading back to South Dakota after a Texas cattle sale crashed into a wind farm in foggy weather, killing the pilot and three passengers.
In the spring of 2014, Urban Green Energy (UGE) announced with much fanfare that they had completed third-party performance testing on a new product, the VisionAIR wind turbine. As press releases for...[more]
The urgent need for rapid decarbonisation of our electricity system means we have to research, build, test and deploy a raft of new technologies, all in a short time period. As new technology...
We can't prove negatives. If I tell you that there's a teapot orbiting Earth, and you can't provide evidence that there isn't, it doesn't mean that I'm right, or that there's a 50/50 chance that I'm...
In general, wind energy proposals were started by wind developers and firms who saw clearly that there was massive social license for wind farms in every survey and poll ever done. They typically...
Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) continue to get attention, press and R&D funding. Antagonists of mainstream wind generation continually point at them as if they were a superior technology. People...
I think windmills are beautiful. They harness the wind's power to supply us with heat and light. They provide local jobs. They help clean air and reduce climate change.
Daniel Wetzel at WELT reports on a new nationwide anti-wind organization recently founded in Germany. The name of the new lobby group is “Vernunftkraft” (reason power). I am not linking to them, but...
The world market for small wind has continued to grow: As of the end of 2012, a cumulative total of at least 806’000 small wind turbines were installed all over the world. This is an increase of 10 %...
Recently, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) released a comprehensive position statement on the curiously invulnerable issue of 'wind turbine syndrome'. One phrase from the statement caught my...
A proposed wind turbine installation near Camp Perry in Northwestern Ohio has recently been halted (see article) by environmental groups that turn out to have connections to the oil, gas and tourism...
The available Australian and international evidence does not support the view that the infrasound or low frequency sound generated by wind farms, as they are currently regulated in Australia, causes...
Tehachapi’s Windmill-Wildflower Hike is one of the longest-running annual walks among wind turbines worldwide. More than 800 people, from children to octogenarians, have taken the six-mile walk...[more]
GE's enclosed-lattice, five-legged space frame prototype, sited at the company's Tehachapi, California facility, is 97 meters tall . . .
Natural News isn't an easy website to browse. If you're conscious of the impact of the anti-vaccination movement, the content on the website quickly goes from mildly-entertaining weirdness to real,...
In China, wind power is leaving nuclear behind. Electricity output from China’s wind farms exceeded that from its nuclear plants for the first time in 2012, by a narrow margin. Then in 2013, wind...
Our analysis of the raw house price data for transactions completed within the vicinity of the wind farms yielded no evidence that prices had been affected by either the announcement, construction or...
Japan hasn’t seen an appreciable increase in wind power in the past few years despite the start of the feed-in tariff system designed to boost renewable energy, but it still has potential and the...
NIMBY — Not In My Back Yard — is a nice crisp acronym and gets bandied about a lot when discussing opposition to wind energy and other renewables. But it is inadequate as a categorization of the...
Creation Care merges faith with proactive solutions to protect God’s creation. Next week, the season of Lent begins for millions of faithful people around the world. To mirror the 40 days of Lent,...
Australia’s peak health research body has again found there is no reliable evidence that windfarms harm human health, but the Abbott government is promising to commission further “comprehensive”...
The draft Information Paper provides a summary of the available scientific evidence. Based on the evidence, the paper concludes that “there is no reliable or consistent evidence that wind farms...
This report takes the number of reviews published on the issue since 2003 to 20. And all have reached the same broad conclusions.
Since 1998 there have been 45 hearings held under rules of legal evidence in at least five English-speaking countries and four types of courts regarding wind energy, noise and health. Forty-four...
In a new study, researchers from Imperial College Business School carried out a comprehensive nationwide analysis of the UK fleet of wind turbines, using local wind speed data from NASA. They showed...
In solidarity with BWE, I’ve endorsed their campaign by taking the small step of including one of their themes in the banner of my web site. I’ve posted one banner in the original German and one...[more]
In a new study, researchers carried out an analysis using local wind speed data from NASA, and showed that the turbines will last their full life of about 25 years before they need to be upgraded.
Over the past few months, an interesting wrinkle on the vertical-axis-wind-turbines-are-better mythology has surfaced: that they are superior offshore and that many countries are investing heavily in...
It was an odd call. An ACE hardware store deep in Michigan called with a request for parts to the infamous Honeywell Windtronics “wind turbine”. Naturally I was curious why an ACE hardware store was...[more]
A wind energy firms' claims it will revolutionise wind power have been questioned by critics following a US$55 million investment in it by the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.
The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Wind Energy for the Rest of Us. It is provided here in the public interest because of recent controversy surrounding FloDesign and...[more]
Feed-in tariffs only pay for power produced, which depends on the weather – and no one can guarantee that.
But today, 5 out of 16 of the nuclear plants are off line (source: Sygration ). That is 27% of our nuclear capacity, or 3400 MW. The nuclear units that are off line are 50% more than the total...
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has finally approved the Feed in Tariff (FIT) Disbursement and Collections Guidelines, which will pave the way for an additional 320 megawatts of much needed...
The UBA study found 13.8% of land area suitable for wind energy; 49,000 km2, and that with contemporary wind turbines there is the astonishing 1,200,000 MW capable of generating 2,900 TWh/yr. This is...[more]
Of the wind turbines installed in 2012, only 28% were installed on green field sites in Niedersachsen and only 20% in Schleswig-Holstein. The rest were installed as replacements for existing turbines...[more]
Over the past five years, a few anti-wind campaigners with credentials unrelated to wind energy and its purported effects on humans have attempted to bootstrap themselves into the role of expert...
German wind power organization Deutsche WindGuard has published its estimates for newly installed wind power capacity for the previous year, and the results are better than expected. 2013 turns out...
More than 80 percent of Icelanders support the construction of wind turbines for energy production, as indicated in a recent survey carried out by Capacent Gallup on behalf of Landsvirkjun, the...
Never before has Energinet.dk incorporated so much wind power in the Danish power system as in 2013, and never before did the wind turbines generate what corresponds to more than 50 per cent of the...
Wind power was the main source of energy in Spain last year for the first time ever and also for the first time ever in any country, according to the industry association AEE.
These are real fears of unreal things. They are strongly promoted by anti-wind advocacy groups. It is strongly arguable that anti-wind advocates drive down property prices in the run up to wind farms...
As blogger Ketan Joshi has observed, unlike any other disease “wind turbine syndrome” seems to be a health problem that occurs mainly in English-speaking countries.
This summary reflects my view at the time. Key participants were acknowledging the technical failure of Vortec 7, but they couched their failure in arcane technical language at arcane conferences. [more]
In a surprising finding, a joint study by the University of Connecticut andLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center concluded that property values increased...[more]
An analysis of more than 122,000 Massachusetts home sales between 1998 and 2012 found no statistically-significant evidence that proximity to a wind turbine affects home values.
Archivists at the York County Heritage Trust have uncovered a treasure trove of records from the 1.25 MW Smith-Putnam turbine of the early 1940s. The museum archives records of the S. Morgan Smith...[more]
I am an advocate of the rapid development of massive amounts of renewable energy. I don’t see kites in that anytime soon. . .[more]
Eric Gillespie, anti-wind lawyer, received a great amount more of legal fees to fail yet again in this extensive appeal. You would think that the people who keep paying him would eventually realize...
Tired of hearing these comments about renewable power, but don't know how to reply? Saskatoon Community Wind has come up with a list of common wind power myths along with snappy responses.
Between 1 and 2 PM, December 31 2013, the last coal fired generating station in Ontario stopped producing power. No more coal will be burned in Ontario to produce power. The coal shutdown is the...
If you’re going to join the public debate on our climate and energy future, should you have to disclose who you work for? Or should you be allowed to create a front group out of thin air to attack...
It's hard to believe, but the tempest over wind energy may be losing speed. . . But now, in at least some parts of the province, particularly around Lake Erie, the statistics appear to show people...
You can find here wind-power generation forecasts, real-time estimates of actual wind-power generation, and historical wind-power generation data.
People have been living with utility-scale wind turbines for 50 years. Now they have great video cameras on their iPhones and access to YouTube and Vimeo. Here are a great bunch of videos where...
A new survey finds that the wind turbines in Freiburg, Germany, are once again very popular after a brief concern over the impact on bats. The strangest thing was the timing of the bat issue.
Highest Wind Prices in Europe—But Are They Too High?[more]
The knowledge from Faust’s book was translated into an active solar building program in the 1820s through the 1850s in Lower Bavaria, Hessen and Prussia. . . Faust’s ideas were implemented in...
Grand Jury for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Southern Division indictment of James Alan Rowan of Mag-Wind, Enviro-Energies.[more]
The tribunal found the current state of scientific opinion was that there was no causal link of a physiological nature between adverse health effects and wind turbines. It was given no evidence at...
What links the phenomena of allegedly stressed emus, dancing cattle and disoriented echidnas? Nothing but the ill-founded trend to blame anything and everything on wind farms
The most interesting places on Earth are the subduction zones where tectonic plates of science and emotion scrape relentlessly. Buried in these dynamic boundaries we find the most telling insights...
It’s been a long time since I’ve had anything to say about the American Wind Energy Association. To my surprise AWEA published a few photos from my collection in their recent calendar. One is of a...[more]
I’d already marked up my version of Matthias Willenbacher’s book My Indecent Offer to the Chancellor in the faint hope of some day posting a review from the German—it’s difficult and time consuming...[more]
Thank you for your critique on the CBC article. I do not expect to get praise or support from anyone in the wind industry for the efforts that I have made, but I do wish you and others, would keep an...[more]
Presentation on the growth of wind energy worldwide, philosophy of feed-in tariff policies, feed-in tariff design, and feed-in tariffs for offshore wind and examples of near shore and offshore...
A new study reveals that more than three quarters of those surveyed in Switzerland support wind power, and roughly the same number say there is "no" or "only a minor" affect on people in surrounding...
International energy policy consultant Bernard Chabot's detailed briefing on how to define a targeted fair and sufficiently attractive profitability for investors through Feed-in Tariffs using the...[more]
It must be a slow news week out on the Canadian Prairies. No big city mayor smoking crack or threatening to kill someone in Saskatchewan to grab attention. Instead they’re touting another—yes...[more]
The old canard of 14,000 abandoned wind turbines in California came up again recently in Australia of all places. A rabid anti-wind blogger—seems the Aussies have a good crop of them downunder—posted...[more]
Sky Windpower’s proposed high-altitude wind generation solution raises major concerns. . .
Makani has a long way to go before operation of an offshore wind farm of these devices is shown to be cheaper per unit of electricity than an equivalent HAWT farm. . . And they still have to get...
Over the years I’ve noted more than once the observation that most major environmental groups in Germany give a full-throated endorsement of renewable energy, the energiewende, and wind energy in...[more]
Ed Davey's excuse for limiting wind power contracts to 15 years whilst Hinkley C gets a whopping 35 year contract is blown away by some elementary history checking. Lots of wind turbines in Altamont...
I've added several new categories of cultural icons featuring wind turbines and updated some others. I've added categories for Book and Magazine Covers, Organic Chicken, Toys & Model Railroads, Pop...[more]
Even at 30% penetration, results indicate that the PJM system can handle the additional renewable integration with sufficient reserves and transmission build out.
United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that on October 18, 2013, a federal grand jury in Raleigh, North Carolina returned a two-count indictment charging JAMES ALAN ROWAN with securities...[more]
A dramatic fall in income, coupled with rising energy costs, is seeing increasing number of farmers turning to wind turbines as an additional source of revenue ahead of looming energy regulator...
I haven’t paid much attention to Makani, just as I haven’t paid much attention to other kite designs. And yes, there are quite a few “kite wind turbines” besides Makani, either in the press, under...[more]
While the British government’s inexplicable decision to build two new nuclear reactors has dominated the headlines, Great Britain has meanwhile achieved two little-heralded milestones in renewable...[more]
Michigan now has nearly 900 wind turbines, and that lit a lightbulb in the entrepreneurial mind of retired teacher Gene Jorissen. Last summer, he started leading hour-long bus tours of the...
Small and medium wind turbine installations had a total generating capacity of over 102MW at the end of 2012. For the fourth year in a row, the biggest growth in installed capacity was observed in...
The growth of wind power, if undertaken with reasonable care, should pose no risk to any particular bird species in Canada, according to a new peer-reviewed study. The study also suggests that highly...
Since the Waubra wind farm started generating power in 2009, the town has acquired a dubious reputation: the so-called `Waubra Disease’ is now known internationally. But how much sense does it make? ...
For several years, a Portuguese research group has been touting the horrors of something they termed “vibroacoustic disease” or VAD, claiming that this was a physiological affliction due to extended...
Based on our best estimate, Germany managed to get 34 percent of its electricity from wind and solar over a 24-hour period on Sunday – measured in gigawatt-hours, not gigawatts. Prices on the...
In Scotland, the first 100 percent co-op-owned wind turbine is going up, and in Australia, a new video shows how much locals enjoy the wind turbines on their land.
Typically, we listen to experts, particularly when they're telling us about imminent danger. Yet, climate scientists have been burdened with an effective, angry and motivated crowd of climate...
Somewhat surprisingly, the oil and gas industry and wind turbines, which have both been blamed for causing bird deaths, didn't make it onto the list of top killers.
We estimated impacts on birds from the development and operation of wind turbines in Canada considering both mortality due to collisions and loss of nesting habitat. We estimated collision mortality...
Sustainable renewable energy (RE) policies must be based on a wise mix between technologies and applications. In the case of variable but predictable RE technologies such as wind power and solar PV,...
Peter Marra was responding to the deaths of an estimated 7,500 migrating songbirds at a gas plant in Saint John, New Brunswick over the weekend.
As each of anti-wind types’ arguments get shot down in flames, they usually resort to more and more outlandish claims. One of the most outlandish is that research on sonic or acoustic weapons is...
People who host wind turbines on their properties and derive rental income from wind energy companies have important stories to tell about living alongside turbines, but they’ve largely been absent...
Have you read an article or comment thread online that contains anti-wind myths and disinformation but didn’t have the resources at your fingertips to counter the spin? This post is intended to let...
I am posting a link to this article for its discourse on modern manias that could be compared to the panic caused in some communities by anti-wind energy activists, mostly in the English-speaking...
Most of the time, Esperance uses all the electricity the wind farms produce, and the power station makes up any shortfall so that a reliable supply of electricity is always available.
Updated with a photo of the 18 Venger V2 Savonius turbines on the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.[more]
moking-related diseases caused 14,900 deaths in 2004-05, there have been 4,700 deaths from mesothelioma since the 1980’s, and during the thalidomide crisis, 10,000 children were born with birth...
Wind Turbine Noise: Rumors, Gossip, Lies, and Stories-- is a lovely little book--56 pages—I’ve had on the shelf for some time with the intent of reviewing it for its insights on the nature of...[more]
More than 80 percent of Icelanders support the construction of wind turbines for energy production, as indicated in a recent survey carried out by Capacent Gallup on behalf of Landsvirkjun, the...
Sharing Course Materials via wind-works.org[more]
Commercial availability of the new IEC3A wind turbine models, which have been specifically designed for high productivity in low and light wind conditions, opens new opportunities for onshore wind...
Ten Mile Lagoon wind farm on the south coast of West Australia was commissioned 20-years ago. The pioneering wind-diesel system at the remote community of Esperance cost AUS$5.8 million in 1993 to...[more]
As sportsmen we support oil and gas producers who develop energy responsibly. And we should support renewable energy projects that will help reduce climate change and protect our hunting and fishing...
Berkeley Lab analyzed more than 50,000 home sales near 67 wind facilities in 27 counties across nine U.S. states. In summary, the research did not find any statistically identifiable impacts of wind...
The California Energy Commission (CEC) has published on August 1, 2013 the 2012 data for the whole California power system [1]. This analysis completes the preliminary analysis from the California...
Goldman Sachs says Spain is a good example of how increases in renewable energy production has to be offset by a lower average load among fossil fuel plants. “Rising generation from solar plants in...
In a previous article for The Conversation I reported on the initial results of computer simulations by a research team at the University of New South Wales that busted the myth that renewable energy...
Long awaited, low specific capacity-high specific area turbines are the kind of technology needed to make wind energy an essential low-cost component of moving society toward 100% renewable energy.[more]
The Waubra Foundation, Australia's key player in the spread of health fears around wind energy, have stepped up their efforts - a flashy new website has popped up, adorned with brazen statements in...
The question about what to do with wind turbines after they’ve reached the end of their useful lives is often raised out of fear that derelict wind turbines will litter the landscape. As I’ve...[more]
Because of a flood of misinformation about what it costs to dismantle wind turbines, I’ve chosen to post a section from my 1995 book on the topic. Note that this was written nearly two decades ago.[more]
There have been 17 reviews of the evidence about wind farms and health published internationally. Each of these reviews have concluded that wind turbines can annoy a minority of people who live near...
I am posting this data for its historical context and because the question of specific capacity has come to the fore as wind turbine manufacturers are now offering IEC Class IIIA turbines with very...[more]
In my 1995 book, Wind Energy Comes of Age, I discuss various measures of wind turbine productivity, including the misleading expression capacity factor. This discussion follows an explanation of how...[more]
The capacity or size of wind turbines and what that means relative to how much electricity they will generate often confuses journalists, renewable energy advocates, policymakers, and even...[more]
Jürgen Peters, Professor of Sustainable Development at Eberswalde College in Germany, found (PDF) that 32 percent of tourists and locals do not mind wind turbines at all, while only 9.2 percent do....
Jürgen Peters, Professor of Sustainable Development at Eberswalde College in Germany, found (PDF) that 32 percent of tourists and locals do not mind wind turbines at all, while only 9.2 percent do....
In an interesting study by an Australian consulting company, the acousticians found that complaints about noise were directly related to the attitude of receptors toward the perceived aesthetic...[more]
Addition of wind generation to a large power system does not require construction of back-up generating capacity.
A recent study by the Pembina Institute found that there have been only six complaints about wind energy in the province during the 12-year period surveyed.[more]
In a significant victory for the UK wind sector over anti-wind propagandists, the UK Advertising Standards Authority have banned a leaflet stating that a 5.4MW wind farm planned for Wiltshire would...
“It is erroneous to interpret the reasons as establishing a precedent for the degree of proof required to establish a decrease in property values in these circumstances,” wrote Justice Healey in her...
No other province in Canada has a longer history with wind energy than Alberta, which has 20 years of experience with utility-scale wind farms. Yet, unlike some parts of the country, we don’t tend to...
A group of landowners who unsuccessfully sued a wind power developer and the farm corporation that leased it land have been ordered to pay legal costs of $107,370.78. . . the proposed eight-turbine...
Following the latest round of coverage, Gizmag takes a deeper look at his concept, and wonders whether the idea of packing turbines into as tight a space as possible might overlook some wind energy...
Climate change is a debacle for the Australian right. Their tribal hatred of environmentalists has driven them to denounce any technology favoured by their enemies
Wind turbines tend to be overshadowed by solar power projects, which get most of the attention from the public and policymakers. . . Despite its second-class status, wind is a much bigger producer of...
Jamie Baxter from Western's Department of Geography and his team explore the conundrum that while a relatively strong majority of rural Ontarians actually living with turbines in their farming...
Researchers found 69% of residents surveyed in an area home to one of Ontario’s first large turbine projects support them, but support dropped to 25% in a community that didn’t have turbines, said...
Wind energy is growing in Indiana. Now there are some wind turbines in Upland on the Taylor University campus and there are two commercial-scale turbines Union City as well. Wind farms have also...[more]
The Genoa Township Board says the turbines are hazardous and have sent aluminum parts flying into surrounding areas on windy days.
In addition to the market price, Gaia-Wind turbine owners will now get a feed in tariff premium of øre250/kWh (approx. 0.35 EUR/kWh).
In short, the BBC journalist practiced "fair and balanced" journalism. If there are people who want wind power, there must be some who oppose it. In doing so, the BBC gave a tremendous voice to a...
A British diver has died during underwater construction work for the 108MW Riffgat wind park off the German island of Borkum, local police and utility EWE said.
Is this another example of Federal capital subsidies driving exceptionally overpriced "wind turbines"?[more]
One of the B-movie monsters of wind energy that hasn’t lurched out of the woodshed recently, the splitting maul still stuck in its thick skull, is the favoured meme that somehow the World Health...
Renowned for its development of geothermal energy, Iceland has longed downplayed the potential of wind energy on the windy island nation in the middle of the North Atlantic. Until now....[more]
WARNING: There’s an attempt to rebrand Diffuser-Augmented Wind Turbines (DAWT), also known as Shrouded Wind Turbines as Compact wind acceleration turbine. Why this is so isn’t clear. It is possible...[more]
In the past I’ve singled out what are variously called Diffuser Augmented Wind Turbines (DAWT) or Shrouded Rotors for derision. Wind turbine engineers, manufacturers of commercial wind turbines,...[more]
Just as power demand is peaking in the area, California is losing its nuclear plants. At the beginning of June, a decision was made not to reopen the troubled San Onofre nuclear plant, and just this...
The Small Wind Conference presented Paul Gipe with its first Lifetime Achievement Award on 19 June 2013 at its annual award ceremony in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.[more]
I was making the rounds to Upland, Indiana as part of a family reunion. We’d just stuffed ourselves on ice cream at Ivanhoe’s, an ice cream parlor worth the drive from our hometown of...[more]
The Senate today passed a motion by Greens Health Spokesperson, Dr Richard Di Natale, calling on the Australian Vaccination Network to disband and to cease its “harmful and unscientific scare...
Expectations can make you ill. Fear can make you fragile. Understanding the nocebo effect may help prevent this painful phenomenon.
I’ve written a lot about the folly of “building integrated” wind turbines, or the corollary, roof top wind turbines. It’s a plague here in the US, Britain, and the Netherlands. To reiterate, the...[more]
As fewer favourable high-wind speed sites are available, interest in effectively exploiting regions with lower wind speeds is growing worldwide. But in order to optimise results at these locations,...
I've written before about what is real "urban wind" and in that article I've sited several examples. There are so many examples of functioning, productive "urban wind" worldwide that I don't bother...[more]
Hoosiers have definitely drunk the cool-aid. Worse, it's another example of architectural greenwashing. According local press reports the Nature Conservancy has installed the "crown jewel" of its...[more]
It’s a lovely thought, small wind turbines providing clean supplemental power at your home or in your community. But you don’t have to go far to find tales of small-wind woe, with newfangled...
Gerald Brock, the "inventor" of Windtamer is back at it with a new company using the same Windtamer design.
The Windtamer turbine was still being promoted on Arista Power's web site.
In the annals of greenwashing, no wind turbine company has done more to develop the technique to a fine art. It’s as if the company’s entire business model was built on finding participants who...[more]
The true tragedy of this sad saga is that anyone with a modicum of technical expertise would easily have seen that the entire edifice was built upon a fundamentally flawed design with a business...[more]
Assessing the quality of medical literature is challenging. Assessing the quality of wind energy and health related literature is easier, because the number of people publishing in the field is...
It is one of the most comprehensive collection of conspiracy theories I have seen in a while. The site itself offers a fascinating study of how conspiracy theorists operate - and, potentially, tells...
Solar and wind generation do not contribute to climate change, respiratory illness, brain damage or cancer.
An impressive line-up of speakers including the master debunker of the mythical “Wind Turbine Syndrome”, Professor Simon Chapman, attracted a large crowd of enthusiastic renewables supporters....
From January to May 2013, Germany weather was very different from other years, mainly with less sun than average. To assess if those exceptional conditions had an important impact on electricity...
The world's biggest wind turbine manufacturer is joining forces with environmental groups in a global campaign to rouse the "silent majority" of people who support renewable energy to fight back...
13.8% of Germany is suitable for wind energy. This land area could hold 1,190,000 MW and could generate 2,900 TWh/yr. New turbines could reduce the land area required by 3/4 and still produce 2,400...
There is a two-day public hearing underway on Ontario's Pickering nuclear power plant licence extension. Meanwhile, the public hearing on a proposed wind farm in Prince Edward County has been going...[more]
THE wind may be turning in the favour of building more wind farms to produce renewable energy in Australia. . . In an online survey conducted by Essential Research, 76 per cent of respondents...
Anti-wind groups will no doubt continue to disseminate hyperbolic misinformation through the veil of secretive front organisations, compensating for a lack of evidence with the assumed authority of a...
How do specific new wind energy innovations and products stack up? This post looks at nine technologies and companies that have been in the press recently and assesses whether they are good bets or...
This relatively new entrant scores an amazing nine out of thirteen red flags, yet recently was shortlisted for an African Innovation Award, and managed to convince TED to put them on stage in 2012.
The EWICON concept is a neat bit of research, but rates five red flags as a practical technology. Published research puts its net efficiency below that of Savonius wind turbines, which are the worst...
Anti-wind farm activists are blaming turbines for everything from herpes to doubling power prices
Password: mistralmetrodenizen2013--The aim of this framework document is that it can serve as guidance, as far as it is practical, to those seeking to navigate and obtain approval...
I've posted photos from the late 1980s of Germany's first wind farm as well as its failed experiment with Growian.
Voters soundly rejected a question on Tuesday's ballot that would have funded the removal of two town-owned wind turbines. . . The question was rejected 6,001 to 2,940, with 67 percent voting against...
I've posted archival photos of one-bladed wind turbines in Germany and Italy under the section Large Wind Turbines.
It has been 10 years since the Nine Mile Beach wind farm was commissioned and 20 years since the Ten Mile Lagoon wind farm was commissioned. . .
Though the researchers set out to show how irresponsible reports in the media can trigger a nocebo effect, they ended up showing how easy it is to make a person feel sick with just a a prop and a few...
Further study, as demanded by opponents of wind, will appropriately continue, and will take time. Given, however, the well-documented and peer-reviewed evidence thus far, there is no medical...
Despite the promise of a revolutionary new technology for small-scale wind energy, one local company has found the industry’s headwinds too stiff to stay in business. . . Even after receiving...
I've posted photos of small wind turbines from my archives, including photos of Aircon, Aeroman, Bergey, Easywind, Endurance, Enertech-AOC, Fayette, Gaia, Grumman, Jacobs, Mehrkam, Northern Power,...
The wind industry isn’t going to be disrupted by someone with an idea and a Powerpoint pitch. If someone is approaching you with a great investment opportunity based on a ‘new’ wind generation...
If wind turbines were as “bad” for you as windbaggers in the US would like you to believe, there should be a lot of body bags piling up in places like Germany, Denmark, and, well, Iowa – places that...
Capacity factor is an indicator of how many hours a year a power generator runs. Today, guest author Bernard Chabot talks about how surprisingly high capacity factors are for wind turbines in areas...
Want to get a sense of what Germans think of all this talk--in English--about wind turbines making people sick? Then take a look at this little video. Germany has more wind turbines close to people...
Practice your German and learn what Germans think of all those wind turbines spinning away on their landscape.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the peak national body for research in Australia, issued a Public Statement: Wind Turbines and Health - July 2010 that there was no published...
However, the available evidence does not support claims that inaudible sounds can have direct physiological effects. Physiological effects on humans have only been detected at levels that are...
Theologian, popular author, renewables activist, TV personality, Franz Alt is something of a phenomenon in Germany. Unfortunately for us Anglophones, Alt writes only in German. So it was a pleasant...[more]
Update: The most current database for the number of fatal accidents in the wind industry. Below is a summary table from the spreadsheet. Note that there are four other tabs not reproduced here. . . [more]
18 years ago, a skeptic of wind power reviewed a German book on the history of wind power in the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ). The journalist still publishes for the paper. His comments...
The helical rotor design is reputed to reduce or eliminate the torque ripple encountered in traditional two-blade Darrieus or eggbeater turbines.[more]
FloWind’s development of the Extended Height-to-Diameter (EHD) Vertical Axis Wind Turbine was the last gasp of Darrieus wind turbine development in the US.[more]
Wine labels often celebrate the local landscape, the paysage in French. So it is fitting that vineyards add scenes depicting landscapes with wind turbines to their wine labels. . .
Ducted or shrouded wind turbines have been invented and reinvented throughout the 20th century. Ducted turbines are often wrapped in mysterious, technical babble, such as diffuser augmentation, that...
While many misconstrue "urban" wind turbines as those mounted atop or integrated into buildings, true urban wind turbines are commercial-scale turbines placed in or near cities, towns, and villages....
The case of the increasingly vocal lobby groups against wind farms in populated areas is based on the idea that widely accepted scientific principles are wrong. . .
Of the wind turbines shown here, only the turbines atop 12W in Portland, Oregon were probably in service. I doubt that the Windspire turbines on the side of the San Francisco Public Utility...
I've added photos of historical interest to my web pages on Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) and Darrieus turbines of various designs. . .[more]
Consistency is important. When you are faced with a severe deficiency of empirical evidence, you must turn to tactic. The anti-wind lobby uses one tactic with regularity - the generation of enormous...
Test case upholds complaint from RWE Npower Renewables that Milton Keynes Council acted unlawfully with turbine restrictions . . .
Wind turbines are culturally identified with environmental stewardship, and a green, healthy future. So it is fitting that the Postal Service is celebrating Earth Day 2013 with a postmark depicting...
These results fit in with a longer literature on what has come to be known as “motivated reasoning.” Other things being equal, people tend to believe what they want to believe, and to disbelieve new...
At 2030 technology costs and with excess electricity displacing natural gas, we find that the electric system can be powered 90%e99.9% of hours entirely on renewable electricity, at costs comparable...
Here we go again. Another windmill invention is stalking the Internet. This time it is the “bladeless” windmill, reintroduced. Atlantic Cities first published a glowing piece (Invention of the Day:...[more]
Research by Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber shows that there is no basis to the anti-wind activists claims of a ‘thirty to fifty percent drop’ in property values near wind farms. . .
Interesting paper for the possible connections between anti-science climate deniers and the anti-wind industry. Both are fond of conspiracy theories. . .
The results of {the study “NASA faked the moon landing — Therefore (Climate) Science is a Hoax”} implied that conspiratorial thinking is linked to climate denial, and hence might emerge in turn to...
There's naturally a push to stop further investment in renewables - but here's the second hard truth: the cat is out of the bag: once renewable energy reaches a critical mass, its impact on power...
Public concern about new technology infrastructure like mobile phone masts has been shown to trigger reports of ill health… and recently even the new ‘green’ technology of wind turbines has been...
There are now several measured power curves of the Mariah Windspire publicly available. This is one of the very few contemporary household-size (small) Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) to complete...[more]
Danes are consuming more renewable energy and less fossil fuels and emitting less CO2, 2012 energy statistics show. . .
Public concern about new technology infrastructure like mobile phone masts has been shown to trigger reports of ill health… and recently even the new 'green' technology of wind turbines has been...
The total number of small wind turbines installed all over the world reached 730'000 units as of the end of 2011 after 656'000 units in 2010, after 521'000 in 2009 and 460'000 in 2008. These small...
These are series of photos of a "demonstration" of "urban wind" using five Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) from three different manufacturers at Crissy Field in San Francisco. They are all very...
Factors unrelated to noise may explain some of the annoyance reported in the few epidemiological studies of wind turbine noise. These factors include being able to see wind turbines from home, having...
Earlier this week researchers at the University of Auckland published an experimental study showing that people primed by watching online information about health problems from wind turbines,...
A surge in health complaints linked to wind farms could owe more to increased discussion of health risk than the low-level sound generated by the actual turbines, according to a new study. . .
Health complaints from people living around turbines shown to be psychological effect of anti-wind lobby making people worry . . .
Background and objectives With often florid allegations about health problems arising from wind turbine exposure now widespread in parts of rural Australia and on the internet, nocebo effects...
One of the B movie unkillable wind energy myths — it just keeps coming back even after it’s been run over by truckloads of facts, disembowelled by logic and burnt to a crisp by the light of reason —...
Dismissing this as one of the "flakier arguments" in the renewables debate, Smith points to a recent analysis National Grid undertook for the Scottish Parliament. It concluded that over an 18 month...
The lowly potato has a story to tell and it's a parable about modern attitudes toward wind energy. . .[more]
The event marks the 28th year of the annual spring hike. More than 800 people, from children to octogenarians, have taken the six-mile walk across Cameron Ridge since the event was first launched. . .[more]
An insightful summary of how the aerodynamic properties of VAWTs differ from HAWTs by an authority on aerodynamics presented at the 2000 AWEA conference. . .
It is unlikely that any “modern” reinvention of Darrieus designs can perform any better than the experimental turbines Sandia and its contractors developed during the late 1970s and early 1980s. . .[more]
An ongoing area of enthusiasm and often fruitless investment is the area of high-altitude wind generation. Numerous companies have products which are hyped as replacing the iconic white tower with...
Even though most analysts focused only on the economic aspects of feed-in tariffs and quota models and not on non-economic factors, such as transparency and local ownership, the results were...[more]
As such, wind farms will generally see replacement of old turbines and emplacement of new wind turbines in adjacent areas. This has been the case in major wind farm areas in California, Nevada,...
Powering the Green Economy: The Feed-in Tariff Handbook is a book that has been out for some time and though I’ve thoroughly marked up my copy I’ve never got around to posting a proper review. So...[more]
Driven by media and online coverage of the idea, many believe that things like wifi and cell-phone signals are making them ill. There’s no good evidence that such ‘electrosmog‘ causes health...
There’s an anti-wind energy myth floating around that refuses to die. The most recent siting was in the official policy of an Australian political party, the Democratic Labour Party of Australia....
There are about 240,000 wind turbines generating economically sound electricity world-wide today. But some anti-wind lobbyists claim that wind turbines consume 50% or more of the electricity that...
With this and a small handful of other pictures of wind turbines on fire, anti-wind lobbyists and campaigners are raising yet another set of unfounded fears in those living in areas where wind farms...
The Windspire is a vertical‐axis gyromill. The H‐rotor is 1.22 m (4 ft) in diameter by 6.1 m (20 ft) tall, capturing a swept area of 7.43 m2 (80 ft2). The data presented in this report was collected...
News account on the bankruptcy of Cleanfield Energy. Cleanfield defaults on CAD-1.5m loan over board approved liquidation[more]
Just Because a Better Mousetrap is Known Doesn’t Mean it will be Used When There’s a Vested Financial Interest in the Status Quo . . .[more]
The study Effects of industrial wind turbine noise on sleep and health by Nissenbaum, Hanning and Aramini is being referenced in articles world-wide and is being held up as peer-reviewed evidence...
It seems as if every week, a new wind generator innovation is unveiled, sometimes in technology blogs, sometimes in TV segments, once even on TED Talks. They all claim to be better than the iconic,...
Carol Curtis, the director of the Coconino County Career Center, said employees were told by Southwest Windpower officials Wednesday that the facility in Flagstaff was going to be closed and they...
“For all wind turbines, other than those used for more decorative purposes, the cost of energy is important.”[more]
Wind has overtaken nuclear as an electricity source in China. In 2012, wind farms generated 2 percent more electricity than nuclear power plants did, a gap that will likely widen dramatically over...
Secretive funding network channelled millions to stop state governments moving towards renewable energy
This review was a case of cleaning my desktop and before electronically filing away Sandia's year-old report on its work with Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs), I'd decided to thumb through it and...[more]
Since Wind Energy Basics was first published in 1999, there has been an explosion of interest in new vertical-axis wind turbines. In that edition, the conclusion illustrating one photograph was...[more]
The Environment Protection Authority issued a report 31 January 2013 on the Infrasound levels near windfarms and in other environments. The report is another nail in the coffin of anti-wind...[more]
Note: The following is an excerpt from my 2009 book Wind Energy Basics Revised: A Guide to Home- and Community-scale Wind Energy Systems. I am reprinting it here because of the constant...[more]
In preparing for a review of a Sandia report on its decades-long research on Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs), especially the Darrieus or eggbeater design, I thought it might be wise to first see...[more]
Since the beginning of November, wind power has been the largest source of electricity within Spain – ahead of even nuclear and coal power – according to the Spanish wind power association's blog....
The government aims to triple the nation's supply capacity of electricity generated through wind power to 7.5 million kilowatts by developing transmission grids in Hokkaido and the Tohoku region, it...
Feed-in tariffs are the world’s most effective policy for developing wind energy said the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) this past summer. . .[more]
On Wednesday, the official figures for new wind turbine installations in Germany were published, and the sector grew by around 20 percent. German wind energy association BWE emphasizes how reliable...
Danish release statistics on the growth of renewables and the continuing decline in Carbon emissions. . .[more]
It is clear from the results that the infrasound levels measured at the two residential locations near wind farms (Location 8 near the Bluff Wind Farm and Location 9 near Clements Gap Wind Farm) are...
Cancelled rally may be latest example of US big business funding grassroots opposition groups in the UK . . .
The quest to slay the faulty dragon of conventional, or horizontal axis, wind turbines (HAWTS) has been an impossible one, thus far. The domination of conventional wind comes from their reliability,...
Four major and statistically reliable studies by different respected and independent organizations in different countries spread over a decade have found no correlation between operating wind...
Across Canada anti-WiFi activists are spreading misinformation about wireless networking (WiFi) and related technologies. Many activists blame WiFi networks’ low level radio signals for a broad...
A climate scientist who says he has been subjected to a vitriolic hate campaign has denounced the way that American billionaires have been able to secretly finance the climate-sceptic organisations...
Our firm needs 100 volunteers to attend and participate in a rally in front of the British Consulate/Embassy in Midtown Manhattan on the East Side on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 at 12 noon. The event...
Audit trail reveals that donors linked to fossil fuel industry are backing global warming sceptics . . .
Behind the climate 'countermovement' are two billionaire brothers . . .
The poll, conducted by ACORE in the days immediately following the US election, found that energy was an important part of an voter’s decision, on a par with foreign policy, and ahead of abortion....
Germany likes to sell itself as a leader in environmental protection, but not everyone is convinced. In particular, the Anglo world remains devoted to nuclear power and criticizes Germany for not...
This has left wind energy open to attack by those, for whatever reason, who don’t think wind turbines have a place in our electricity mix. Associated with those attacks is much misunderstanding about...
For the first time ever, power production from PV and CSP were separately reported in December for California. French energy expert Bernard Chabot took a look at the figures, especially to determine...
Opens Up New Possibility for Community Ownership Danish researchers have uncovered surprising results in a study of offshore wind energy. Contrary to expectations, research at the University of...[more]
As French energy expert Bernard Chabot explains, December was a strong month for wind power in Germany, and in the last week of the month, when power demand was low because of the holidays and...
Nearly Half of the Regions GDP is from Tourism Yet Nearly Two-Thirds of Schleswig-Holstein's Wind Capacity is also in the Region December 26, 2012 By Paul Gipe Attendees at the 2012 Husum wind...[more]
Nearly 2% of Land Area Set Aside for Wind Energy Not 100%, Not 200%, But 300% Renewable Energy by 2020 Says Government The German state of Schleswig-Holstein recently approved doubling the land...[more]
Henning Holst is one of Germany's pioneering community wind developers. Located in the center of the wind energy universe in Husum (the gray city by the sea) in northwestern Germany, he was there at...[more]
In a densely populated country like Germany, wind turbines as a consequence are installed near people, as are all other forms of infrastructure. That's one of the most striking observations North...[more]
On a recent pilgrimage-and that's the only word for it-to Denmark in September we stopped by the Danmarks Vindmølleforening (the Danish Wind Turbine Owners Association) to visit my colleagues Asbjørn...[more]
At the World Wind Energy Association conference in Bonn this past July there was a session on operations and maintenance and service providers. Carlo Reeker summarized the findings of annual survey...[more]
As part of the giant Husum wind conference held every two years, organizers this past fall launched an interactive map of wind projects in the region surrounding the "grey city by the sea". . . [more]
While traveling in Denmark this year I picked up a local newspaper (Dagbladet 13 September 2012, p 32) that had an article on the huge Anholt offshore project in the northern Kattegat--the straits...[more]
Update: The most current database for the number of fatal accidents in the wind industry. Below is a summary table from the spreadsheet. Note that there are four other tabs not reproduced here. . . [more]
The installation of small wind turbines is growing rapidly in Italy since the introduction of feed-in tariffs, according to a report by the Department of Engineering at Milan's Polytechnical...[more]
We were returning to San Francisco from the World Wind Energy Association conference in Bonn this past July. As we boarded the plane we met Hans-Josef Fell. Fell was the reason we had to get back to...[more]
This is a beautifully done DVD on the early days of the Danish wind industry. The film was produced by Jørgen Vestergaard in Danish with English subtitles and includes movie clips, photos, and...[more]
This is a welcome technical tome-well illustrated with photos and drawings that I haven't seen in any other book. Naturally directed at the Indian market, it nonetheless has taken a comprehensive...[more]
Build Your Own Small Wind Power System was written by a small wind systems dealer, Kevin Shea, and a professional journalist, Brian Howard. Be forewarned, this is a big book. It's a modern book. It...[more]
Mea culpa, mea culpa, I am terribly remiss is reviewing this excellent book. I simply can't do it justice. My French is even more limited than my time. Nevertheless, I've picked up Energie Eolienne...[more]
The book, edited by Robert Gasch and Jochen Twele, began as course notes for Gasch's popular course on wind turbine design for engineering students at the Technische Universität in Berlin. Many of...[more]
Greg Pahl's Power from the People is an inspirational guide to the burgeoning community power movement. His case studies of people who are making a difference is often a tale of endurance and...[more]
I've studied engineering and natural resources but my first love is geography. Consequently I've become a big fan of German technical writer and geographer Martin Frey. He's written some great little...[more]
Covert footage reveals MP's links to independent candidate--Energy minister denies collusion with anti-wind campaigner--Exposed by Greenpeace . . .
Renewable energy has indeed come of age: It now has its on Baedeker Reiseführer or travel guide. . . [more]
This is an open source spreadsheet on the economics of solar photovoltaics. The spreadsheet contains more than 50 individual tabs covering a multitude of topics beyond the expected cash flow...[more]
Considering the resounding defeat of the fossil-fuel industry's propaganda campaign against President Obama, and his new found interest in climate change, just where does the US rank relative to its...[more]
Wind farm opponents repeatedly argue that turbines cause both rapid and long-gestation health problems. At the time the article was published I’d counted 155 health problems that had been attributed...
In the last few weeks, Ben Lansink released two documents on the Wind Concerns Ontario and Ontario Wind Resistance websites. Mr. Lansink is an accredited appraiser and declares that his documents...
The documentary, though, was commendably sober. It became stiflingly uncomfortable as the girls’ parents looked fruitlessly for someone or something external to blame. They were repelled by the...
The following is an email from retired civil engineer Lynn Shafer on his experience with the Honeywell Windtronics turbine. Shafer lives in Sedalia, Missouri. If the company posts a response, I'll...[more]
More than two-thirds of people would rather have a wind turbine than a shale gas well near their home, according to a new opinion poll published on Tuesday. . .
The deceptively-named Global Warming Policy Foundation (often mentioned on ET, try here and here) think-tanks on climate change (obfuscation), renewable energy (opposition), and conventional energy...
Of the 2027 GB adults interviewed 68% said they would be likely to support local renewable energy projects, including wind turbines, if they were 100% owned and controlled by the community with all...
French electricity spot prices rose on Wednesday, decoupling from lower German prompt prices, boosted by a sharp decline in French nuclear power capacity caused by a series of unplanned outages,...
An article today in German weekly Die Zeit reveals how completely overblown the likelihood is of power outages resulting from the country's Energiewende. . .
During September Spanish tubines generated so much wind power that coal use in Spain crashed, reducing emissions from fossil fuels. . .
In the case of wind energy in Germany, the race to develop new capacity has been accelerated by access to a feed-in-tariff and by policies that prioritize delivery of renewable power. . .
The fact that money seems to be a magic antidote to these ailments further undermines the claims. Health complaints are as rare as rocking horse excrement among turbine hosts. Complaints are rare...
Small Wind Newsletter: I was struck, while reading your biography, that you started out in this field at around the same time that many other renewable energy leaders (including Larry Sherwood,...[more]
WNET: We want to ask you some questions about alternative energy. Gipe. Whoa. Stop right there. "Alternative energy?" Wind, solar, and biomass haven't been called "alternative energy" for three...[more]
The news is especially important because nuclear power, which provides slightly more than 75% of France's power supply, is often held to be an especially inexpensive source of baseload power....
One reason why Germans believe they can switch to renewables so fast is that one of their neighbors, Denmark, proves that it can be done. At the end of September, the Danish Energy Agency announced...
Mariah Power, the company that produced the Sousas' wind turbines, generated headlines several years ago as an example of a successful northern Nevada company making headway in the renewable energy...
Conclusive figures show that the sceptics who lobby against wind power simply have their facts wrong. . .
“So, I’m out $23,000, and all they are is a yard decoration,” Albert Sousa said on Wednesday while standing beneath the 30-foot spires next to a backyard chicken coop. “They’re no good at all.”
A typically well done official Danish review of how many wind turbines exist in Denmark, how well they work, how they are integrated into the landscape and the grid, and how the community benefits.
The following text accompanies the brief presentation by Paul Gipe at 2012 Husum WindEnergy exhibition and conference in Husum, Germany. [more]
Japanese mobile phone group and prime proponent of Feed-in Tariffs, Softbank, is planning to build wind farms with up to 1GW of capacity on Hokkaido island, as the company expands its investments in...
French energy expert Bernard Chabot takes a look at German power production over the past 12 months and finds that an increase in onshore wind would make the supply of renewable power more reliable....
Last spring, when the German government resolved to shut down eight of the country's 17 nuclear plants within a week, there was concern about whether the country's grid would remain reliable. Not...
This is the history of wind turbine design breakthroughs. Paul Gipe, a prolific and respected writer on wind power, has seen a million of them. I asked him his view of the Catching Wind Power...
It shows unequivocally that wind power can significantly reduce carbon emissions, is reliable, poses no threat to energy security, and is technically capable of providing a significant proportion of...
Report from thinktank IPPR says wind power is an efficient and reliable energy source, contrary to claims made against it. . .
DWEA believes the current lack of turbine certification and siting criteria under the various LEED rating systems is hurting the distributed wind industry and is counter-productive to the intent of...
French energy expert Bernard Chabot updates his analysis of the German intermittent power sector with data from July. . . the variability of the productivity ratio of the combined [Wind + PV]...
Wind turbines are often criticised for killing birds. Fights against siting wind turbines in bird migration corridors or in bird habitat are frequent. Highly inflammatory language is used by...
The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) is describing Health Canada’s study of health impacts from wind turbines as “superfluous (and) a waste of time and a waste of public...
The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) is describing Health Canada’s study of health impacts from wind turbines as “superfluous (and) a waste of time and a waste of public...
French energy expert Bernard Chabot investigates the changes in wholesale power prices in Germany stemming from the increase in green power production. . .
Expected to do the Same in 2012 New Feed-in Tariffs for 2013 The 2010 launch of Britain's feed-in tariff program has pushed the country ahead of the US in the installation of small wind turbine...[more]
I was just going to pick up the World Wind Energy Association's 2012 Small Wind World Report and extract a few useful numbers to keep myself abreast of the small turbine industry. But once I began...[more]
In countries with a large penetration rate of zero fuel cost renewables (wind power in Denmark and Spain, wind and PV in Germany), the “merit-order effect” (avoiding the most costly means of power...
July 20, 2012: Note that the article below is out of date. See the most current database for the number of fatal accidents in the wind industry. Below is a summary table from the spreadsheet....[more]
At the beginning of this year I started collecting examples of health problems some people were attributing to wind turbine exposure. I had noticed a growing number of such claims on the internet and...
The medical officer of health for Chatham-Kent says claims that turbines affect human health are nothing more than hot air. . .
French expert Bernard Chabot explains another benefit from a balanced mix of wind and solar: their combined daily maximum outputs are lower than the addition of their installed capacity, allowing for...
From January to June 2012, data published on the EEX web site show that, if well balanced, PV and wind production can complement each other along the seasons, leading to an easier to manage...
Presentation on the costs of offshore wind energy relative to that onshore at the WWEC 3-5 July 2012 in Bonn. . .
Presentation at the WWEC 3-5 July 2012 Bonn. . .
Summarizes the German Leitstudie (2011) that found 60 TWh of storage would be needed to meet Germany's 2050 renewable targets.
Electricity generation from renewable energy in Germany is reducing power prices and has left the country with a market whose design no longer works, according to Stadtwerke Leipzig GmbH. Renewable...
French consultant and sustainable energy expert Bernard Chabot updates Germany's PV installation data in terms of system size vis-à-vis market share, compares it with the 2009-2011 distribution and...
The daft claim that wind subsidies have driven 50,000 people into fuel poverty exemplifies the dishonesty of most objections . . .
How many ways can you misinform, distort and spin in a single radio interview? On 9 May, 2011, Max Rheese, executive director of the organisation with the grossly misleading name Australian...
