Showing posts with label IV Wind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IV Wind. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Danish energy gets super-sized: meet the world's largest wind turbine Wired.co.uk
| Wired.co.uk | - |
When it comes to wind turbines, size matters. Besides air density and wind speed, the most important factor affecting energy yield is the rotor's swept area, where wind flows over the rotor blades. That's why Siemens has built the B75, a record ...
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Wind growing 80% per year in China
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Wind Surpasses Nuclear in China J. Matthew Roney www.earth-policy.org/data_highlights/2013/highlights35 |
Earth Policy Release
Data Highlight February 19, 2013 |
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 the next few years as wind surges ahead. Since 2007, nuclear power generation has risen by 10 percent annually, compared with wind’s explosive growth of 80 percent per year. 
Before
the March 2011 nuclear disaster in Japan, China had 10,200 megawatts of
installed nuclear capacity. With 28,000 megawatts then under
construction at 29 nuclear reactors—19 of which had begun construction
since 2009—officials were confident China would reach 40,000 megawatts
of nuclear power by 2015 and perhaps 100,000 megawatts by 2020. The
government’s response to the Fukushima disaster, however, was to suspend
new reactor approvals and conduct a safety review of plants in
operation and under construction.
When
authorities finally lifted the moratorium on approvals in October 2012,
it was with the stipulation that going forward only “Generation-III”
models that meet stricter safety standards would be approved. China has
no experience in operating these more advanced models; several of the
Generation-III reactors it has currently under construction are already
facing delays due to post-Fukushima design changes or supply chain
issues.
Over
the course of 2011 and 2012, China connected four reactors with a
combined 2,600 megawatts of nuclear generating capacity, bringing its
total nuclear installations to 12,800 megawatts. Although officials
still claim that China will reach 40,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity
in 2015, the current pace of construction makes this appear increasingly
unlikely. China's inexperience with Generation-III reactors also casts
doubt on its prospects for achieving what the government now sees as a
more reasonable 2020 goal, some 70,000 megawatts.
The
outlook for wind in China is much more promising. Wind developers
connected 19,000 megawatts of wind power capacity to the grid during
2011 and 2012, and they are expected to add nearly this much in 2013
alone. An oft-cited problem for China’s wind energy sector has been the
inability of the country’s underdeveloped electrical grid to fully
accommodate fast-multiplying wind turbines in remote, wind-rich areas.
Recent efforts to expand and upgrade the grid have improved the
situation: by the end of 2012, 80 percent of China’s estimated 75,600
megawatts of wind capacity were grid-connected.
China should easily meet its official target of 100,000 megawatts of
grid-connected wind capacity by 2015. Looking further ahead, the Chinese
Renewable Energy Industry Association (CREIA) sees wind installations
soaring to at least 200,000 megawatts by 2020. With the seven massive
“Wind Base” mega-complexes now under construction in six
provinces—slated to total at least 138,000 megawatts when complete in
2020—the CREIA projection seems well within reach.
China’s
overall wind energy resource is staggering. Harvard researchers
estimate that China’s wind generation potential is 12 times larger than
its 2010 electricity consumption.
Wind
power clearly has its advantages. The immense wind resource cannot be
depleted; wind farms can be built quickly; they emit no
climate-destabilizing carbon; and no costly fuel imports are needed to
run them. (China spends billions of dollars each year importing most of
the uranium needed to fuel its reactors.) Wind power is also ideal for
countries such as China that face severe water shortages: unlike coal
and nuclear power plants, wind farms need no water for cooling. As
concerns about climate change and water scarcity mount, wind becomes
increasingly attractive compared to conventional electricity sources.
# # #
For more information, see Earth Policy Institute’s Wind Indicator and the Plan B Update “Fukushima Meltdown Hastens Decline of Nuclear Power,” or visit our Data Center at www.earth-policy.org .
Feel free to pass this information along to friends, family members, and colleagues! Media Contact: Reah Janise Kauffman (202) 496-9290 ext. 12 | rjk@earthpolicy.org Research Contact: J. Matthew Roney (202) 496-9290 ext. 17 | jmroney@earthpolicy.org | |
Earth Policy Institute 1350 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 403, Washington, DC 20036 | |
Renewables Deploy Fast
Posted: 14 Feb 2013 12:00 AM PST
Here’s another great post from the always thoughtful Karl-Friedrich Lenz, reposted from his site, Lenz Blog (image added):
Wind turbines in Spain via Shutterstock
These technologies scale faster than any other. No form of traditional generation — coal, gas, or nuclear — scales nearly as fast as efficiency, solar, and wind. Gigawatts of solar and wind can be added in months — not the years to decades required for traditional power plants. Cloudy Germany installed three gigawatts of solar in the month of December 2011 alone. That is 1.6 times more than was installed in the entire U.S. Germany’s scale-up has cut its solar-system costs to half of ours.
At what 'time' does the winning b'ball team let up? Solar & Wind Cutting Fossil Fuels Off At The Kneecaps In Coming Years In ... CleanTechnica
| CleanTechnica | - |
The
story that has really captured the imagination of our readers this year
has been on the Bloomberg New Energy Finance analysis that demonstrated
that wind energy was already cheaper than new coal and gas plants in
Australia, and solar PV was not all ...
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
282 GW Wind World Wide. If that were US only it'd be something.
| DAWN.com | - |
WIND
power expanded by almost 20 per cent in 2012 around the world to reach a
new peak of 282 gigawatts (GW) of total installed capacity.
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
Global Wind Power growth just 1/3 what is needed. Guardian
| The Guardian | - |
Wind
power expanded by almost 20% in 2012 around the world to reach a new
peak of 282 gigawatts (GW) of total installed capacity, while solar
power reached more than 100GW, having more than doubled in two years.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
UK surge in wind turbines. The Independent
| The Independent | - |
Last year the approval rate for wind
farms went up by 50 per cent, according to industry group Renewable UK,
who said: “This welcome trend is coupled with continued strong support
for wind energy, with two thirds of the population in favour of ...
Friday, February 8, 2013
Will Solar Eclipse Wind Power In 2013? KCET
| KCET | - |
According to one energy executive, solar
power will likely outstrip wind in the pace of new installations in
2013. This is as a result both of uncertainty late last year over the
fate of the Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the ever-decreasing ...
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
A Manmade Island to Store Wind Energy. MIT Technology Review
| MIT Technology Review | - |
When the wind
farm produces excess energy for the local electricity grid, such as
off-peak times in the overnight hours, the island will store the energy
and release it later during peak times.
Novel Designs Are Taking Wind Power to the Next Level Kevin Bullis MIT Technology Review
| MIT Technology Review | - |
The technology is part of a trend that's made wind power almost as cheap as fossil fuels. In 1991, wind power cost 15 cents per kilowatt hour.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
U.S. Solar Will Eclipse Wind in 2013, Says Duke Energy. Bloomberg
Solar
| Bloomberg | - |
The U.S. may install 3 gigawatts to 4 gigawatts of wind turbines this year, and solar projects will probably exceed that, said Gregory Wolf, president of Duke Energy Renewables.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
Wind farm nimbyism means we just handed 13000 jobs to Ireland New Statesman
| New Statesman | - |
Yesterday the UK and Irish governments signed an agreement that could see British businesses and consumers funding wind farm developments in Ireland that will export electricity to the UK.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Germany: Renewables growth 5X US. Vid interview
| Mother Jones | - |
Correspondent
Rick Karr reports on how German political parties of every stripe are
now backing a plan that is expected to nearly end that country's use of fossil fuels by 2050. Below, Karr sits down with German environmental economist Claudia Kemfert ...
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