Green Options

Image source: AWEA

Editor's note: Since David was only able to spend one day at WINDPOWER 2007, we asked Jessica Jensen, co-founder of Low Impact Living, to offer her take on the rest of the conference. Here are her impressions of Day 2.

Day 2 at WINDPOWER 2007, the national wind energy expo hosted by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) continued to be exciting. With over 400 companies exhibiting and

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Editor's note: Yesterday, we discovered that both Green Options and EcoGeek have representatives visiting WindPower 2007, the American Wind Energy Association's annual convention and trade show. In order to give readers of both sites a wide range of coverage, we decided to join efforts and share our posts. This first one comes from EcoGeek writer Ransom Riggs, and was published earlier today.

Day one of the Windpower 2007 conference

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Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on H.R. 2337, The Energy Policy Reform and Revitalization Act. The bill, according to the nonprofit Alliance to Save Energy, promotes alternative energy and efficiency, including a green building program that would require all major new facility construction projects funded in whole or in part through the Department of the Interior, National Ocean Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, or the Forest

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A seemingly simple alteration a wind turbine blade’s traditional shape could result in huge improvements in efficiency.

WhalePower Corporation out of Toronto, Canada has designed a turbine blade with rounded, teeth-like bumps along the leading edge. The company’s name is a nod to the humpback whale, whose flipper was the inspiration for the design.

The agility of the humpback whale is astonishing, given that they can be over 50 feet long, weigh nearly 80,000

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Ogden, Utah has joined the growing number of American cities buying clean, renewable energy to power their community. Mayor Matthew Godfrey announced that Ogden will buy enough renewable energy through Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky program to cover about 19 percent of city buildings’ electricity use.

The Mayor also urged residents and businesses to participate in the Blue Sky program, which gets its electricity from six wind power facilities and is one [...]

Your credit just got a little greener.

Wells Fargo credit card and bank card customers have another choice in redeeming rewards points. Now, in addition to gift cards or airline tickets, Wells Fargo is offering up wind power. 5,000 points will get you 6,000 kilowatt hours, which they say is "equivalent to the clean air benefits of three acres of pine forest storing carbon for one year." 10,000 points will

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I’m not one to think a hydrogen economy is right around the corner – let’s make sure our energy efficiency and current renewable technology are maxed out first – but this invention caught my eye.

The WindHunter is the concept of an offshore, floating system of wind turbines that make electricity, electrolyze sea water, and make hydrogen. The architects of the idea envision four two-megawatt wind turbines mounted on a moveable framework connected to the deck

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With more than 6,000 megawatts (MW) of wind energy projected for the Pacific Northwest, many communities anticipate an influx of new jobs. But who’s going to prepare the workers for this high-tech, emerging field?

 The Columbia Gorge Community College on the boundary of Oregon and Washington is offering the first training for wind energy technicians on the West Coast. Its location near the center of the Columbia River Gorge is a focal point for wind development

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North Dakota – the top state for wind power according to the American Wind Energy Association – is far behind less windy states in utilizing its clean, powerful natural resource. But that gap will soon narrow.

A $250 million wind farm is planned for Langdon in the northeast corner of the state. The 106 wind turbines will start spinning later this year or early next year, pumping out 159 MW of electricity – enough

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A new company called General Compression says it will commercialize its idea for storing wind energy. Using compressed-air energy storage and a $5 million round of seed funding, the Massachusetts company plans to use compressed-air technology to store energy from wind turbines.

A typical wind turbine has a generator that sits on the turbine (the nacelle), and the electricity from the generator goes down the turbine and onto the grid. General Compression places an

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Hong Kong just announced a tiny wind turbine, and now the world’s largest is coming out of Germany. The Repower 5M is an enormous machine, standing nearly 400 feet high and producing 5 MW of power. It has a 400 foot diameter blade span and is the largest and supposedly the most efficient turbine in the world.

Manufactured by Repower Systems out of Hamburg, the first 5M turbine was erected offshore

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