In a study published in the journal Wind Energy (PDF), the authors detailed how their five years of modeling studies determined that by placing 144,000 offshore wind turbines – each 270 feet high and each capable of generating 5 megawatts of power – up and down the coast from Maine to Florida we could provide enough electricity for the entire region.

While looking for the best places to capture and utilize wind energy, the researchers looked for regions with a low hurricane risk, a water depth of less than 100 feet, and areas without any conflicting uses such as shipping lanes or bird migration paths. The offshore area from Virginia to Maine was found to have “the most exceptional overall resource” due to wind patterns and a significantly less chance of devastating hurricane activity in the future. For the area south of Virginia down to Florida, the report stated that quite a large area could be available for offshore wind if the concept of floating turbines were developed into more feasible units from their current prototype-like state.

“People mistakenly think that wind energy is not useful because output from most land-based turbines peaks in the late evening/early morning, when electricity demand is low,” said Mike Dvorak, principle author of the study. “The real value of offshore wind energy is that it often peaks when we need the most electricity — during the middle of the day.”

With the $2.5 billion Cape Wind Project starting to take shape off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and lawsuits opposing it being dropped, we could soon see much more offshore wind development in the near future. Currently the U.S. gets just 4 percent of its electricity from wind power. Would residents up and down the East Coast trade off the distant sight of 144,000 turbines off the coast of their beach to know all their power is coming from a clean and renewable source? Would you?

[via NBC News]

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Research led by Carnegie’s Ken Caldeira and published in the journal Nature Climate Change on September 9 shows that by combining ground-level and high-altitude atmospheric wind turbines, we could provide for 100 times the current power demands of the entire world. Combining surface-level wind turbines generating 400 TW of power and turbines floated high into the atmosphere on kites capable of generating 1,800 TW means that we could extract a whopping 2,200 terrawatts of power from the wind. Today the whole world uses just 18 TW of power, meaning that wind could provide all the energy we need for the foreseeable future.

Using models to study the effects of drag on turbines and how many could be placed in formation before winds slowed too much to generate any more electricity, the researchers set out to find the point at which energy extraction was at its highest. They also showed that there could a 0.1 degree Celsius rise rise in surface temperatures due to attempts to harvesting so much wind power, but contrary to some studies the overall effect on the environment would be very minor, especially considering that all our energy would then be from a clean, renewable source.

“Looking at the big picture, it is more likely that economic, technological or political factors will determine the growth of wind power around the world, rather than geophysical limitations,” Caldeira said.

We recently mentioned that wind turbines could solve the world’s water crisis and now it looks like if we set our efforts to it, energy derived from the wind could also power our entire world for hundreds of years. Just what are we waiting for?

[via Science Daily]

Image Credit: jinterwas/Flickr

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Wild Horse Wind Farm, located in Kittitas County, Washington, generates electricity for 80,000 homes via 149 wind turbines placed high across 10,000 privately-owned acres of Whiskey Dick Mountain ridge tops.

Each standing 351 feet tall with a rotor diameter of 264 feet, the 1.8-megawatt Vestas V80 turbines are capable of producing electricity with wind speeds of just 9 mph – which is easily reached most of the year – but generate peak power when winds are at 31 mph. The 273-megawatt facility broke ground in 2005 with plans for 125 turbines and was expanded upon in 2009 with additional 24. The area is also home to the Pacific Northwest’s largest solar-power array, capable of generating 500 kilowatts of electricity.

Visitors to the wind farm have access to miles of paved, gravel, and dirt trails winding their way around and up to Whiskey Dick peak, as well as the Renewable Energy Center at Wild Horse offering educational displays and tours. Most people don’t get a chance to see wind turbines up close like this and it must be magnificent to stand directly underneath one as its blades fly by. By allowing hikers, bikers, hunters and horseback riders to get up close and personal to the farm, Puget Sound Energy is encouraging interest in the technology which in turn could result in further support for more wind turbines when we need them.

Take a tour inside one of Puget Sound Energy’s wind turbines:

[via Seattle Times]

Image Credit: aa7ae/Flickr

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Wind patterns in Brazil tend to be strong but steady, without the turbulence that’s common in other places. The new Brazilian wind turbine was designed to capture a large amount of wind, but because of the lack of turbulence, it didn’t need to be capable of withstanding the same stresses as a typical wind turbine. The design allows the turbines to be 8 percent more efficient, so fewer turbines are needed to generate the same amount of energy.

Wind power is growing quickly in Brazil. Right now, there are around 1,400 MW of installed wind power in Brazil, and the country is predicted to add 32 gigawatts over the next five years (to put that in perspective, one gigawatt can power between 750,000 and a million homes in the U.S.). The strong market has drawn in companies like G.E., which secured contracts last years for projects that will product 1.4 gigawatts of electricity. G.E. has already installed 300 turbines in Brazil.

With hydropower providing about half of Brazil’s electricity now, the country may have a power grid that’s 100 percent free of fossil fuels by 2050.

Image by Flickr user Fotos Gov/Ba

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Each turbine can make 1,000 gallons of drinking water using only the wind, ABC News reports. The technology is currently being tested in France and Abu Dhabi.

Inventor Marc Parent brainstormed the idea while coping with water shortages during a stint in the Caribbean.

“The WMS1000 can create water when there is no existing source available,” Thibault Janin, marketing director of Eole Water, the company that makes the turbines, said in an interview with ABC News. “That makes a difference. Our technology integrates water creation, water collection, water treatment and water local distribution. The WMS1000 can produce and distribute water everywhere.”

The turbines cost $600,000 each and last for about 20 years. They require little maintenance, as they are created specifically for rural areas with limited access to clean drinking water.

The biggest hurdle for this new technology is affordability, Janin told ABC.

Featured photo credit: Shutterstock.com

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Conventional wind turbines work by harnessing the kinetic energy of the wind to spin propeller-type blades at low torque. The blades rotate a shaft connected to a generator, which makes electricity. It’s a rather simple process but it’s not the most efficient way of generating the power that we need. Saphon Energy believes that it has a new technology which can change that.

The company has developed “Zero-Blade” wind turbines which operate without the typical blades, rotors, or gearboxes. The Zero-Blade design is inspired by sailboats, as turbine blades are replaced by a giant sail which harnesses the wind by following a non-rotational back and forth motion. According to the Saphon Energy website, this allows for the conversion of the captured kinetic energy into mechanical energy using pistons which creates hydraulic pressure. This pressure can either be stored in hydraulic accumulator or used to make electricity via a hydraulic motor and a generator.

Saphon’s studies project that the new technology could be 2.3 times more efficient than today’s conventional wind turbines while cutting costs by some 45 percent. In addition, it could eliminate the so-called “Wind Turbine Syndrome” reported by some residents living near or under wind turbine installations. If the studies hold true in the real world, wind farms could look a lot different in a few short years.

Check out a video of the technology from Saphon Energy:

[via Energy Matters]

Image Source: Saphon

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At a cost of $1.8 million and with an expected release date in 2014, the study will take a look at 2,000 homes distanced between 500 meters and five kilometers from installations with eight to twelve turbines. There are nearly 140 such places spread throughout Canada, supplying 2.3 percent of the country’s electricity needs. Interviews will be recorded, blood pressure will be monitored, and sleep studies will be conducted by 25 experts in acoustics, health assessment and medicine.

Jane Wilson, who heads the group Wind Concerns Ontario, thinks the study is a great first step towards proving that wind turbines damage human health. “The symptoms that are being reported by people in Ontario are the same as those being reported around the world,” she said. “So there really is something there.” CEO of North American Platform Against Wind Power Sherri Lange supports the study as well. “The house vibrates, it becomes like a guitar. The noise and the vibration enters the home and it actually increases the effect,” she told CBC News.

As to be expected, wind industry folks don’t expect to see any connection between turbines and human health. Robert Hornung, president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association said that “we believe that the balance of scientific evidence clearly shows that wind turbines don’t have an impact on human health,” adding that numerous reviews in the past backed up his claims. He does, however, welcome any new studies on wind energy. “Health Canada’s new study will contribute to the scientific literature and our knowledge base, and we appreciate the opportunity for stakeholders to review the draft methodology and study design and we look forward to undertaking such a review and providing our feedback,” he said.

In addition to industry members, even some government policy makers don’t expect anything from the report. The director of Queen’s University’s Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy Warren Mabee is among those who don’t see the correlation. “I don’t expect any big surprises in this report, because it’s been very, very difficult in the past to link conclusively cause and effect, to show that the turbines themselves are solely responsible for any kind of health impacts people are experiencing,” he said.

My unprofessional guess and opinion? They aren’t going to find too much, unless a resident happens to live directly underneath one and they are suffering from a lack of sleep because of the noise. That I can understand being annoying and detrimental to one’s health. Other than that, I think we need to take into consideration the effect on our health if we don’t move away from burning fossil fuels to provide electricity; I think that’s much more dangerous path to continue on than the noise generated by a wind turbine.

[via O.Canada]

Image Credit: Neville10/Flickr

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Findings published in May by Marloes Caduff of the Institute of Environmental Engineering in the journal Environmental Science & Technology quantify a general move towards bigger and bigger turbines. Because bigger turbines can generate much more power while not requiring proportional increases in materials and technology than smaller ones, the resulting power that they do generate is greener. The report states that “the results showed that the larger the turbine is, the greener the electricity becomes. This effect was caused by pure size effects of the turbine (micro level) as well as learning and experience with the technology over time (macro level).”

In the last 30 years, wind turbines have grown in size from 50 feet in diameter in 1980 to about 500 feet today. The future could see 1,000-foot diameter turbines.

While the idea of even greener power being generated by larger wind turbines is certainly appreciated, one has to wonder how they would go over with the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) crowd. Communities across the world are fighting the construction of wind turbines within view of their homes and word of even bigger turbines on the horizon could step up their battle. I, for one, would welcome bigger turbines if it meant for even greener power. Anything we can do to wean ourselves off fossil fuels is good with me.

[via UPI]

Image Source: Environmental Science & Technology

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