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Welcome to Wind-Works
An on-line archive of articles and commentary on wind and solar energy, community power, feed-in tariffs, and Advanced Renewable Tariffs.
Join the Alliance for Renewable Energy and support a grassroots movement that's bringing feed laws and feed-in tariffs back home to North America.
Sign Up, if you would like to be added to my e-mail distribution list on feed-in tariff developments worldwide.--Paul Gipe
January 25, 2012
What's New on Feed-in Tariffs
- Germans willing to pay for green power--Germany currently has the highest power prices within the EU – by far, in fact. But a recent survey conducted by the German Association of Municipal Utilities finds that an overwhelming majority of Germans are willing to pay the price as long as they get green power in return. . .
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Solar Server: U.K. DECC announces first customers under Renewable Heat Incentive--On January 6th, 2012 the U.K.'s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced that an umbrella manufacturer and the owners of holiday cottages have become the first two applicants for the nation's Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). . .
- Netherlands: Feed-in Tariff Might Help Cope with Renewable Heat--Probably even within the first quarter of this year, the Netherlands is going to have its own feed-in-tariff for renewable heat. . .
- Northern Indiana utility wins with solar feed-in tariff--Since the Northern Indiana Public Service Company launched its Feed-in-tariff pilot program last year, solar power installations in the area have skyrocketed, says Amanda Miller . . .
- Craig Morris: India's new solar policy--The Indian government has adopted new feed-in tariffs, and off-grid solar is also to be promoted. But India has made it clear that recent reports about protectionist measures are unfounded. Nonetheless, India plans to ramp up its domestic production capacity. . .
- Presentation by Gipe Verdexchange 2012 M2A on Utility Tariffs
- Presentation by Gipe Verdexchange 2012 M4D on Assessing Federal Policies
- "Citizen Power" Conference to be held in Historic Chamber Where World's First Feed-in Law Was Enacted--Germany, a country where 51% of the renewable energy generation is owned by its own citizens, will be hosting an international conference on community power 3-5 July, 2012 in Bonn, the former capital. The conference will be held in the historic chamber where the world's first feed-in law was enacted, the former home of the Bundestag, Germany's parliament. . .
Nuclear Power, Japan, Feed-in Tariffs, and the Rapid Development of Renewables
What's New on Solar Energy
- Craig Morris: Blinded by the German Mirror--On Wednesday, Germany's Der Spiegel published a critique of the country's solar policy. The magazine, whose name means The Mirror, claims that Germans support solar blindly, but the weekly has a history of blind reports on renewables itself. . . Der Spiegel is one of Germany's main news weeklies, equivalent to Time or Newsweek in the US or the Economist in the UK. Strangely for a country where popular and political support for renewables has led to such impressive results on the market, Der Spiegel continues to publish silly, populist criticism instead of productive, insightful analyses. The recent article entitled "Reevaluating Germany's blind faith in the sun" is the latest example. . .
- PV Magazine: Photovoltaics – the energy alternative that is immediately available in large and affordable quantities--Publisher Karl-Heinz Remmers takes aim at those who continue to label photovoltaics as the most expensive renewable energy source - particularly in context of the German renewable landscape. . .
- Proposed revised solar PV feed-in tariffs for Ontario in 2012--For 2012 the Green Energy Act Alliance and Shine Ontario recommend a dramatic cut in the solar PV tariffs in response to the falling prices of modules during the past two years. Using a simple economic model, we have calculated the tariffs needed for a reasonable profit. . .
What's New on Community Power
- Guardian: The communities taking renewable energy into their own hands--Despite the economy, people are investing in solar, wind and hydro power for their local communities . . .
- Co-operative renewable energy in the UK: a guide to this growing sector--Co-operatively-owned energy generation is a vibrant and growing sector in the UK. The first co-operatively-owned wind turbines, Baywind in Cumbria, started turning in 1997. Since then, over 7,000 individual investors have ploughed over £16 million into community-owned renewable energy. . .
- CAW leads renewable energy sector with Ontario’s first union-owned wind project--Ontario’s first 100% union-owned wind energy project breaks ground November 29, 2011, led by the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union. Located at their Family Education Centre in Port Elgin, the single 500 kW wind turbine will generate 1600 MWh of renewable energy annually for the Ontario grid, powering the equivalent of 130 homes. . .
What's New on Wind Energy
- The Age: Wide support found for wind farms--THERE is much stronger public support for wind farms than media coverage of the issue would suggest, because a ''vocal minority'' who oppose wind farms secure the majority of media and political attention, according to CSIRO research. . .
- Toronto Star: Ontario anti-wind-power group accused of breaking election financing rules--A prominent anti-wind-power group is under fire amid accusations it broke election financing by running a negative advertising campaign against Liberal candidates last fall. . .
- History of Wind Power Links--This page was prompted by a technical question about early electricity-generating wind turbines in the USA. The question followed a similar question about "who was the first" to interconnect a wind turbine with an electricity network. There is a lot of confusion internationally about both subjects. . .
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
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