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

July 3, 2009

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If you would like to join our list of endorsers supporting Electricity Feed Laws, Feed-in Tariffs, or Renewable Energy Payments, follow this link to the North American Alliance for Renewable Energy's Endorsement Statement.

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• Wind Project Performance Data--This is a quick survey of some of the sources for wind turbine performance statistics, that is, how many turbines, how many MW, and how much electricity they produce.
• Feed-In Tariff Comes to Taiwan by Ucilia Wang, Greentech Media--Lawmakers on the island country finally passed a feed-in tariff policy, which would be a boost for its growing number of solar equipment exporters. . .
• California's Attorney General Says Feed-in Tariffs Legal in USA--In a significant filing June 25, 2009 California's Attorney General (AG) argued that feed-in tariffs as proposed in California are not only permitted under federal law but that they should be used to encourage rapid growth of renewable energy.
• Muncie VAWT--An Expensive Demonstration
• OPA's FIT Application Process by Paul Gipe, June, 2009 (A brief introduction to the new OPA application process.)
• Paul Gipe Presentation on Third Industrial Revolution May 28, 2009
• Debunking the Myths about Wind Energy--While it isn't humanly possible to keep up with all the myths, misperceptions, and outright lies about renewable energy and especially wind energy by those wed to fossil fuels, here are a few links that shed light on the facts. Note that some of the data countering common myths and explanations of how the technology works can be found in my books and elsewhere on this web site.

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 and Advanced Renewable Tariffs. This site also contains an extensive collection of articles and technical reports on electricity feed laws or renewable energy tariffs. I've been an outspoken proponent of feed laws since the late 1990s when I urged the American Wind Energy Association to call for them nationally.

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

Beginning in 1997 I've measured the performance and noise emissions of small wind turbines at the Wulf Test Field in the Tehachapi Pass. 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