By Zachary Shahan •
January 26, 2010
FloDesign, an R&D start-up in the US that has created a wind turbine design based on jet engine technology, just secured $34.5 million to help begin commercial development of its turbines. Lars Andersen, former president of Vestas China, has also just been appointed as the company’s CEO.
FloDesign claims that its turbines are 3-4 times more efficient than traditional open-fan turbines. They have several other beneficial features as well that help economically, environmentally, and in other ways.
By Zachary Shahan •
January 24, 2010
That takes my breath away. In one of the biggest renewable energy deals in the history of the world, a Korean consortium led by Samsung* has agreed to build 2,500 megawatts of wind and solar power capacity in the Canadian province of Ontario.
Samsung C&T and the Ontario government signed the deal on Thursday, January 21st. The agreement will bring thousands of jobs and clean energy for more than half a million homes to Ontario.
Building off of this new deal, Korean trade officials plan to make Ontario their base of operations for all of North American.
By Zachary Shahan •
January 7, 2010
New wind turbine technology out of Denmark can “see” the wind before it arrives and aim itself accordingly.
By Joe Walsh •
December 11, 2009
Climategate’s questions recede as island nations walk out. China sizzles and the US fizzles on world stage. What are the political takeaways from week one in Copenhagen and what does it mean for the possibility of a binding agreement?
By Zachary Shahan •
December 4, 2009
A new comprehensive study — The Impact of Wind Power Projects on Residential Property Values in the United States: A Multi-Site Hedonic Analysis — conclusively shows that property values are not harmed by wind turbines and wind power facilities.
The study, conducted by Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory shows that neither views of wind facilities nor proximity to wind facilities have any significant effect on property values.
The study examined “7,500 sales of single-family homes situated within 10 miles of 24 existing wind facilities in nine different U.S. states.”
By Zachary Shahan •
November 27, 2009
New research by leading alternative energy research firm New Energy Finance finds that solar power will cost less by about 50% at the end of 2009 compared to the end of 2008.
The costs are pre-subsidy, so they could be much lower if you take better government subsidies into account.
But it isn’t only solar that’s down in cost. It’s other renewable energy sources, too.
By Zachary Shahan •
November 3, 2009
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about China’s new policy to focus on buying (almost entirely) “China-grown” wind turbines and wind turbine technologies with Chinese patents. That policy wasn’t a big hit internationally and China is back-tracking.
However, is it changing its stance out of international moral pressure or a major financial incentive (recent deal) in the US? And who is to benefit the most from this shift?
By Joe Walsh •
July 27, 2009
Whatever the relative merits and drawbacks of biomass are, they are preferable to continuing to mine and burn coal. Until we start to bring large-scale base loading renewable capacity online, we continue inexorably on the same business as usual curve.
By Rob Yunich •
January 12, 2009
President-elect Barack Obama spent part of his Jan. 8 speech at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., discussing alternative energy, specifically doubling production over the next three years. At the same time, two companies took the opportunity to announce green-friendly initiatives of their own.
By Ariel Schwartz •
January 6, 2009
Mini turbines will be installed inside the UK’s gas pipeline grid later this year in an attempt to gather energy from pipeline pressure. The set-up will be tested in east London and should produce 20MW by 2010. If successful, future installations across the country could produce up to 1GW. That’s the same amount of power produced by a coal or nuclear power station.
