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?

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Big shifts seem to be stirring in the wind turbine market. Foreign companies are backing out of China due to China’s move to use more home-grown technology. At the same time, China is looking to expand its wind turbine sales into Europe.

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Beth Daley writes about the “hard look” that proposed biomass facilities - and biomass technology itself - are getting from area environmentalists and regulators. Add that to the “hard look” many regulators, environmental groups and local NIMBY opponents are giving wind (especially commercial-scale) and transmission lines (needed to interconnect any new renewable capacity) and you are left with: business as usual. Now that is a goal Americans, our politicians and business interests can all get behind - just look at health care reform.

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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.

“We will modernize more than 75 [percent] of federal buildings and improve the energy efficiency of two million American homes, saving consumers and taxpayers billions on our energy bills,” Obama said, according to his change.gov Web site. “In the process, we will put Americans to work in new jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced – jobs building solar panels and wind turbines; constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings; and developing the new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain.”

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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.

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After eight long years there is finally a cause for hope here in the United States. George Bush may still be in office, but right now all America’s problems are President-Elect Obama’s to solve (see Obama Recession, thanks Rush), but he seems ready for them.

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Virginia-based Catch the Wind has an innovative solution for improving wind turbine efficiency— laser beams. The company’s fiber-optic laser system gives turbines up to 20 extra seconds to adjust to changes in gusts and wind direction. That may not sound like much, but Catch the Wind claims that its system can improve turbine output by 10 percent.

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Utility company Southern California Edison (SCE) has confirmed plans to build a massive 909 MW wind farm in Oregon. When completed, the facility will be one of the largest fully permitted wind power sites anywhere in the world.

The installation will be located in Morrow and Gilliam counties in North-Central Oregon, and will consist of 303 3MW wind turbines spread across a 30-mile radius. The project, called Caithness Shepherd’s Flat, will generate around two billion kWh of energy, roughly 10 per cent of SCE’s total alternative energy portfolio.

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Earthfirst Canada has announced that British Columbia’s first commercial wind turbine—a 3 MW Vestas V90— was fully assembled on October 6th about 50 kilometers northwest of Chetwynd, British Columbia.

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When finished, the Roscoe site will become one of the world’s largest wind farms, boasting a total of 627 wind turbines capable of powering more than 250,000 of the state’s homes.

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ScottishPower Renewables will apply for planning permission next year to build the two farms in Northern Ireland’s seabed. The turbines will be manufactured in Scotland in an intentional boost to the country’s green-collar job market.

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The Shepherd’s Flat Wind Farm will contain 303 wind turbines and will double the state’s wind-generating capacity. It will boost the local economy by creating 250 to 300 new jobs, and lease payments to landowners will supplement farm incomes.

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Hope you enjoy! I certainly had a lot of fun making this video.

Afterwards, if you like, you can read more about South Korea’s renewable energy future here.

Anna Bligh, the Premier of Queensland, announced the town will be powered by a 10-megawatt plant using 8000 mirrors to reflect sunlight onto graphite blocks. Water will be pumped through the blocks creating steam which will power a turbine electricity generator. According to the news source the amount of water used to generate the steam is no more than the amount of rainfall the area receives in a year.

The plan will deliver about 30 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, enough to provide electricity for the community 24 hours a day. If all goes as planned, the small town will be buzzing with electricity by 2010.

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"In January 2006, I created the [R.I] Office of Energy Resources and tasked it with finding a way to generate 15 percent of Rhode Island's electricity from wind power,' the governor recalled. 'My goal was simple: I wanted to encourage Rhode Island's energy independence through the use of a renewable source. This study … makes clear for the first time that Rhode Island enjoys enough wind to achieve five times that amount of electricity generation."

Called "The Ocean State", Rhode Island has almost 100 square miles suitable for wind generation. These aren't just 'stick your thumb out and feel the breeze' type locales either. These are places where permits from an environmental point of view, as well as social, would most likely easily pass. Great caution and care for migration paths, noise, community support, and other issues will be addressed before any action takes place. From the article,

"We have made no decisions on where to locate wind facilities,' the Governor said. 'We are not looking to load up all these areas with wind turbines, but rather to select the best areas where we can proceed. This will take a lot of community, expert and stakeholder input. The study is just the first step in this process."

Even greater, the infrastructure and expertise is available for Rhode Island to source many of the components for the turbines locally. Plans are coming together to not only make the state efficient, but also as a center of excellence for renewable energy.

You see: Big things do come from small packages.

Hit the jump for more.

The design is simple and efficient: plastic gearwheels, each 25 centimeters in diameter, are linked to one another and turn, moved by the wind. Depending on how much energy is required, the number of wheels can be arranged in any number of shapes and sizes; from two to two thousand square meters. The turbines will spin even if wind levels are as low as two meters per second! Imagine the roof of an office building outlined with these "gears" — or a clothesline of spinning wheels hung out between two urban building. From the article,

"The turbines have an initial capital investment of about $100 US per kilowatt, compared with $600 for coal plants and $1,500 for traditional wind turbines. Traditional wind turbines make power for about $.10 per kilowatt hour; he projects his turbines will do it for one tenth of that."

Whether this new design for harnessing the wind takes off or not, it's still encouraging to see inventors looking for ways to increase mass consumption and avoid some of the pitfalls associated with current wind projects. A set of 20 gear wheels right now costs about $25. The inventor, Lucien Gambarota, hopes that once mass produced, that price will fall substantially. "Maybe that's why I bring something new and different, because my first priority is production, and that means costs," he said. "The only way I know to control costs is mass production."

The first tests of the technology will take place shortly on one of the university's skyscrapers overlooking Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor. Could these things survive the typhoons that often whip through the area? Time will tell whether you'll picking up a set at Home Depot to power your television. Hit the jump for more information!