Wave energy turbine on the way

www.borderwatch.com.au
21 Oct 2013

THE countdown to the arrival of the world's first 1MW wave energy converter off the coast of Port McDonnell is underway with Sydney-based company Oceanlinx Limited set to launch the project this week. See your ad here The converter-called greenWAVE-will be connected to the electricity grid in South Australia by the end of the year and is expected to put the South East on the world renewable energy map.

The company has released the first photographs of the groundbreaking unit's turbine, which will soon be part of the seascape off Port MacDonnell. Constructed and to be launched into the water from TechPort in Adelaide on Friday, the $7m project will be the first of its kind to be commissioned in the world.

The demonstration unit received $4m from the Federal Government in a bid to make the project ready for market. The unit-which is on track for a December completion-will be grid-connected and rigorously tested throughout 2014.

The 3000 tonne demonstration unit will be on display at TechPort before being towed to its final location a few km off the coast of Port MacDonnell. The unit has a rated capacity of 1MW, which can supply power to about 1000 homes. Oceanlinx managing director Ali Baghaei said the converter was based on the oscillating water column principle.

He said the technology was one of the wave energy sector's most tested and matured technologies. Mr Baghaei said the unit was completely environmentally friendly, sitting under its own weight on the seabed in shallow water with no anchors, mooring or attachment to the seabed. "It is expected to act as an artificial reef for sea life", Mr Baghaei said.

"It has no moving parts under the water and is designed to withstand the most aggressive sea conditions, while there is ease of access to the weather-tight powerhouse placed above the sea level, so the life management costs are kept to the minimum". He said Oceanlinx had demonstrated three test platforms in the ocean over the past 16 years. See your ad here "It was the first company to achieve the full grid connection of a test platform in Australia in 2010", Mr Baghaei said.

"With an end to end solution, its technologies are globally patented and provide versatility for application in conjunction with a wide range of areas such as offshore platforms, breakwater construction, desalination and provision of energy and water to remote locations. "As a leading technology provider in the wave energy conversion sector, Oceanlinx is in discussion with a number of international entities to develop multiple units of this technology".

Solar power from giant mirrors flows into California's grid

www.forbes.com
24 Sep 2013

BrightSource Energy's massive solar farm in a remote corner of California delivered its first flow of power to the grid, an important step for demonstrating that the project is on the final path to become a fully operating power plant, the company said Tuesday.

BrightSource Energy achieved what is called the "first sync" with the project, Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, where for the first time the steam was sent to one of its three turbines for generating electricity and synching to the grid. Ivanpah is the first commercial power plant project in the United States for BrightSource Energy, which owns a stake in the project along with NRG Energy NRG Energy +0.77% and Google GOOG-1.42%.

The project also is one of the massive solar power projects being built in California to enable the state to meet its goal of using an increasing amount of renewable electricity. The state's mandate requires 33% of its utilities power supplies to come from renewable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and biomass by 2020.

The project has a 392 MW capacity but is set to deliver 377 MWs to the Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison, It's sized to deliver enough power to about 140,000 homes per year.

Ivanpah is made up of three power generation stations. The "first sync" milestone took place at Unit 1, and the same step will be done at Unit 2 and Unit 3 soon. Unit 2 and Unit 3 are scheduled to start delivering electricity to the grid by the end of the year.

Read More…

Oceanlinx moves closer to wave energy go-ahead

www.businessspectator.com.au
11 Sep 2013

Oceanlinx Ltd has applied for South Australia's first generation licence using wave energy conversion technology, located offshore of Port MacDonnell, South Australia.

Oceanlinx Limited intends on installing a wave energy converter with a name plate rating of 1000kW. The unit will be connected to the 11kV distribution grid via a subsea cable, the SA Essential Services Commission says. All of the electricity generated will be sold to an energy retailer.

No fuel is used to generate the electricity. The unit is powered from air flow driving a turbine connected to an asynchronous generator. This air flow is created by the passing of waves interacting with the structure which houses the turbo-mechanical and electrical equipment.

The application will be assessed against relevant criteria specified in the Electricity Act and the Essential Services Commission Act 2002. Comments in respect of the application should be provided on or before October 7, 2013. The application has been made pursuant to Part 3 of the Electricity Act 1996 (Electricity Act).

Battery may prove way to store wind energy

www.kplu.org
5 Jul 2013

Researchers are testing a new battery power storage system that may provide some long-term solutions to storing power from the electrical grid. The tests are being conducted at a wind farm near the Tri-Cities. Currently, wind power--and hydroelectric--must be used as it is produced.

"Electric in general is difficult to store, or to save for later; you have to use it", said John Steigers of Energy Northwest, a public power consortium. "The whole system in the country is based on the premise that what is being produced has to be used".

The new battery that is being tested is huge--we're talking half the size of a railway shipping container. It utilizes modern Lithium ion technology. Steigers says the battery is being tested at several different locations. The idea is that it can store wind power that is generated at times of the day when actual use by consumers is not all that high.

"It tends to show up at night, when the loads for the system are the lowest, and when it shows up you can store it, and then later in the day when air conditioners are on and people are working it, the electricity can be used at that time", he said.

Steigers says the battery is expected to be able to store enough electricity to power 50 homes for a year. He says long-term plans for the batteries would be to site them where they are needed, at industrial areas or neighborhoods to power individual homes.

Chile expands wind power resources

www.upi.com
27 Jun 2013

SANTIAGO, Chile, June 27 (UPI)--Chile has set sights on expanding wind power generation as President Sebastian Pinera's government battles environmental controversies over multibillion dollar mining and hydrocarbon projects.

This week Pinera opened a new $150 million wind farm in northern Chile built in collaboration with Italy's Enel Green Power. It is the largest wind farm to begin operating in Chile as the government considers other renewable energy projects.

The 90 MW Talinay East facility is owned by Italy's Enel Green Power and features 45 Vestas Wind Systems V100 2 MW turbines in the Coquimbo region, 250 miles north of Santiago. Pinera said he would continue to expand renewable energy development and predicted at least 80% of about 500 MW of power to be added annually to the national grid would be "clean renewable energy".

Pinera has not outlined how much of the funding over the coming years will be coming from the state and how the remainder of the project finance will be raised. Chile's clean power program will be boosted through a series of what analysts called rationalization measures. These include plans to link two major independent grids and new transmission lines. The government also hopes to simplify legislation and regulatory framework surrounding land use related to electrical distribution networks.

Chile's infrastructure was severely damaged in a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in February 2010. Numerous aftershocks that year and in following years caused further havoc and put additional burden on government resources. Several energy exploration and development plans were affected.

The Talinay East wind farm is similar to another Enel Green Power facility, Valle de los Vientos, in the northern region of Antofagasta, which features an identical array of Vestas Wind Systems turbines. Enel Green Power acquired Talinay from Vestas Wind Systems in 2012. The wind farm was previously owned by Spain's Enhol and business conglomerate Grupo Phoenix.

Vestas Wind Systems said Talinay's development was "a strategic environmental decision". The company aims to continue increasing the share of renewable energy sources in global energy consumption. The construction of Talinay East started in late 2011 but completion was delayed. Latin America has a wind installed base of more than 2,000 MW. Given a positive political framework supporting the development of wind power, data suggests there could be 93,300 MW of wind installations by 2030.

Chile is aiming to reduce dependence on thermo-electric energy, which takes up about 67.8% of total production. It is also fighting to eliminate coal-fueled electricity production, but progress is slow. Environmentalist campaign groups oppose further expansion of hydroelectric power, currently about 31% of the total, just as advocacy organizations oppose new mining operations across Chile.

Climate change could affect power plant operations & nuclear capacity according to DOE Report

Power Engineering
July

A recent report from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) says climate change and the resulting rising temperatures can potentially affect water levels and temperatures at power plants and affect demand on the power grid.

The report was released as part of the President's Climate Action Plan and states that every corner of the United States will be affected by increased temperatures. Increased temperatures and drought conditions can affect cooling water temperatures that are required for coal-fired and gas-fired power plants as reported by Power Engineering. Approximately 60 percent of the nation's thermal power plants that require water for cooling are located in areas that have been hard hit by drought conditions.

Temperatures have increased 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last century. In hotter weather, customers use more electricity to cool their housing and businesses. A study by the DOE Argonne National Laboratory found that peak demand during hot weather could require the power output of 100 additional power plants.

Another example cited in the report is reduced water available for hydropower. In 2012, the Sierra Nevada Mountains experienced a lighter snowpack than normal. As a result, California had an eight percent drop in hydropower capacity. Lower levels in Lake Mead resulted in a 23 percent drop in the power generation at the Hoover Dam.

The DOE report says nuclear stations will shut down more often due to water temperatures, citing the shutdown in August 2012 at the Millstone Nuclear Power Station Shutdown due to warmer temperatures in Long Island Sound.

The report comes one week after President Obama, describing climate change as a threat to future generations, called for action to address the problem "before it's too late". The President said his goal is to cut heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants.

An interactive map of the potential impacts on the U.S, energy supply can be found on the Energy.gov website.

LNP ‘lying’ over solar power cost

www.thechronicle.com.au
15 Jun 2013

DON'T blame solar, blame electricity infrastructure for the dramatic surge in your power bill, a leading Sunshine Coast solar company says. Infinity Solar has hit back at the State Government's claims solar power and green schemes are to blame for the upcoming 22.6% electricity price rise.

Director Chris Thomson blamed infrastructure and network costs as the main culprit, saying it added $127 a year to the average Queenslanders power bill. "Queensland's power grid is operating on inadequate infrastructure and is suffering from a lack of spending over previous years, meaning updating the network is going to cost Queenslanders money", Mr Thomson said.

"Solar power is an easy scapegoat for the government, when in fact the government-funded feed-in tariff is only adding $32 to an average household bill. "Network costs, on the other hand, account for almost half of a standard power bill (48.2%), with upcoming price increases hitting Queenslanders with hundreds of dollars extra on their power bills.

"Energex spent $900 million last financial year on the network and Ergon Energy spent $300 million. The solar feed-in tariff only cost $50 million, so it is completely misleading of the government to blame solar power. "People also need to keep in mind that solar power is not just a financial issue, but is a necessary tool in helping reduce Australia's carbon emissions and increase environmental sustainability".

Infinity's Sunshine Coast shop manager Ashley Pitman said Caloundra had had "one of the highest uptakes (of solar) in Australia". He said while solar did contribute to the increase in the electricity price it was only "between 2.5% and 7%". "It has become a cost, but we have to look at the benefits it's had in keeping cost down", he said.

New way for farmers to make money

www.nzherald.co.nz
10 Jun 2013

There is a new way for farmers to make money these days that will actually benefit our environment.

The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) estimates that around 140,000kWh of solar power falls on the roof of a typical farm shed each year. Most of this simply heats up a piece of tin and adds minimal value while milking sheds and arable land operations (which use dryers and pumps) consume large amounts of costly power.

Why not capture even some of that energy for domestic use and sell it back to the grid when it is not needed? In Australia, there are over 1,000,000 grid-tied solar customers, who make electricity for their own use and sell the excess back to the grid. This clever idea is starting to catch on in New Zealand-with renewable energy generation leaders Meridian Energy providing the technology and Westpac pitching in to finance farmers putting in solar panels.

If this initiative catches on (and why wouldn't it?) the agricultural sector will save thousands of dollars from their energy bill, we will reduce our needs to generate electricity through fossil fuels and energy security will be improved.

It is great to see Meridian Energy initiating something that will improve the environmental performance of farmers, who are constantly criticised by the urban population for the cumulative effect their industry has on waterways and greenhouse emissions.

One can only hope that when farmers save money through solar generation that they might invest it into fencing and riparian planting rather than the latest model 4WD. But seriously, if you park the complicated and hotly contested environmental arguments about climate change and power generation for just one minute-free energy from the sun makes simple economic sense.

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Google buys output from Swedish wind farm for Finnish servers

www.bloomberg.com
4 Jun 2013

Google Inc. (GOOG), which has invested more than $1 billion in wind-and solar power projects, said it will buy the entire output of a new wind farm in Pajala, northern Sweden, to run its data center in Hamina, Finland.

The 10 year power purchase agreement has helped secure financing for building the 72 MW project for owner O2 Vind AB from Allianz SE (ALV), Europe's largest insurer. When the Maevaara wind park is fully operational in early 2015, Munich-based Allianz will assume ownership while O2 will manage the facility, Mountain View, California-based Google said in an e-mailed statement today.

The agreement benefits from the Nordic region's shared electricity market and grid system, Nord Pool, which lets Google buy the wind farm's electricity output in Sweden and consume the same amount of power at its data center in Finland, the company said.

Industry News: Google and Warren Buffet invest billions into wind energy

www.stockhouse.com
3 Jun 2013

AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwired)--06/03/13 -Building Turbines, Inc., a designer and manufacturer of patented, innovative commercial rooftop wind turbine systems has received further validation of the earning potential, visibility, and ecological importance of the emerging wind power market on the heels of Google Corp.'s research division "Google X" and Warren Buffet's announcements of recent, sizable investments into the wind power companies.

Google X recently announced that they have acquired California based Makani Power for $110 Million. Makani Power produces energy through cable tethered "flying wings" and represents Google's interest in developing alternative wind power with a sizable dollar investment. Since 2010 Google's research division has made 11 renewable energy investments of comparable sizes including $200 Million into "Spinning Spur" wind farm in the Texas panhandle and investments into Atlantic Wind Connection for offshore grids designed to capitalize off wind power.

Legendary mogul Warren Buffet has recently been dubbed a leader in wind power investments after spending $1.9 Billion on wind farm projects in Iowa and has been well known for his investments into the alternative energy sector in the past two years. Additionally, his megastar energy company MidAmerican began building wind turbines in 2004 bringing his current total investments in wind power to date to $5.4 Billion.

"BLDW sees promise in market trends which lean to the most successful investors the world has ever seen taking interest in their market. With Texas being the number one state in America for wind power harvesting and production the idea of major players snooping about for companies to acquire has gone from small business dream to big market trend. Especially exciting is that our turbines are DG (distributed generation), meaning the power is produced where it is consumed, not in some field or over the ocean", according to John Graham, CEO

Solar power users will fight back, LNP warned

www.brisbanetimes.com.au
3 Jun 2013

Solar users could use their power as a voting bloc against the state government if it continues to make false claims about the green power, a Queensland solar installer warned today. Anthony Buckwell, who runs Sun State Solar, said 308,000 Queensland homes had solar power systems, representing more than 23% of Queensland's detached and semi-detached houses, according to the 2011 Australian Bureau of Statistics.

"It is supporting a $2 billion industry, supporting close to one thousand solar installers, so that would be several thousand workers", he said. "It really is 'small business'". "And if we want to get away from a one-dimensional mining economy, these are the types of businesses that should be supported".

Mr Buckwell said some groups had begun to discuss expressing their frustration as a voting bloc, using the theme "I have solar and I vote". "People are thinking of ways to get the views of solar families heard", he said. "We are talking almost 25% of households-if they start to feel unfairly targeted I think some of them will come on board".

He said solar users remained connected to the grid, but did not use the grid permanently. He said the money solar users received was reasonable because the energy they produced was 100% green. On Monday morning Mr McArdle called for a debate about the impact of solar use in Queensland. "In the 2012 13 year, $67 on each person's power bill relates to the solar benefit scheme", he said.

"By 2015 16 the QCA [Queensland Competition Authority] is saying to us, $276 on each person's power bill relates to solar benefits. Now those are people who can't afford to put solar on their roofs". "...The perverse outcome is 92,000 homes don't pay any power bills at all. I don't believe that was the intent of the scheme and a debate must be had about who should pay what in regard to their power bills when you consider that a large number of people pay no power bill at all".

Mr Buckwell accused the government of spin-doctoring, saying Friday's QCA report showed maintaining the network made up the bulk of the costs. "It is just not true", Mr Buckwell said. "If you look at the report that the Queensland Competition Authority issued on Friday, it clearly shows the breakdown", he said.

That report shows the solar feed-in tariff made up 3.9% of a typical residential bill, green schemes made up 3.5% of the bill, and the carbon tax made up 7.4% of the bill. Almost 82% of the increase to power bills will cover generating power, expanding the network of "poles and wires" and getting bills to homes. More than 46% of the increase comes from increases to the network of poles and wires.

Mr Buckwell added the federal government compensated householders for the carbon tax. "obviously they are spin-doctoring the figures", he said. "There is a 7 8% rise in the price because of their own decision to freeze tariff 11 when they first came in". Mr Buckwell said the state government was also ignoring the fact that people taking up solar power generally spent between $8000 and $15,000 to set up a system. "And local generation contributes to the local network, so it means there is less of a need to upgrade [the grid]", he said.

Bac Lieu wind-power project comes on line

www.saigon-gpdaily.com.vn
30 May 2013

A wind-power project in the Mekong Delta city of Bac Lieu was connected to the national electricity grid yesterday. The wind-power project is the second in the country to be connected to the national grid. The first project began operating in April of last year in central Binh Thuan Province.

Work on the first phase of the Bac Lieu project, with installation of 10 turbines totalling 16MW, was completed after nearly three years of construction, according to the Bac Lieu-based Cong Ly Construction and Trading Co Ltd.

Cong Ly Co invested VND2 trillion (US$95.2 million) in the first phase of the wind-power project, which can generate 56 million kW per year. The project's 62 turbines, provided by US company General Electric Co (GE), have a capacity of 1.6 MWs each. They will help generate 320 million kW per year.

All the turbines, which have total output of 99.2 MW, will become operational in June 2014, the company said. Cong Ly Co will invest a total of VND5.2 trillion ($247.5 million) in the project, which is located on 500ha in Vinh Trach DONG Energy Commune in Bac Lieu City. Capital for the project is sourced from loans provided by the US Import and Export Bank. This is the first wind-power project in the Mekong Delta.

Wind power blows into Africa

www.capitalfm.co.ke
26 May 2013

CAPE TOWN, May 26 Giant turbines churning in the wind are a rare sight in Africa-but that will not be the case for long. Until now the meagre amounts of investment in African wind power have predominantly come from governments and foreign donors. But this is changing fast, say experts.

Private investors smell profit in beefing-up the continent's over-stretched power grids and swarms of new wind turbines are soon expected to emerge. If all plans on the table come to fruition, capacity will increase tenfold. "When you look at the on-going and planned projects, you see actually over 50% of the projects being sponsored by the private sector", said African Development Bank economist Emelly Mutambatsere.

Today wind makes up one% of electricity production, or just 1.1 GWs. But an additional 10.5 GWs is in the pipeline. According to an African Development Bank study of 76 wind projects, two thirds are pending. Liberalisation of electricity markets has helped prise open the sluice gates for investment. "The state still plays a big role in a lot of the countries", Mutambatsere told AFP. "But a number of countries have liberalised to some extent".

North Africa-including Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco-have led the way. But sub-Saharan Africa is catching up. This year saw the first large commercial wind farm in the region come on line, a 52 MW project in Ethiopia. Further south, the continent's heaviest carbon emitter South Africa is a striking example of the sector's growth.

The coal-rich nation-gunning for an extra 18 GWs of capacity from renewables such as wind-has opened power production projects to private bidders for the first time. The first bidding round of 28 projects drew $5 billion in investments, according to the energy ministry.

"There's a huge boom going on in South Africa in wind and renewables", said South African Wind Energy Association CEO Johan van den Berg. "South Africa previously had eight operative wind towers or turbines and there's about 250 under construction at the moment".

Last year, investment in South African renewable energy increased in excess of 20,000%, he said. Meanwhile in Kenya the $815 million, 300 MW Lake Turkana Wind Power Project is hoping to break ground in November. With wind flow of 11.8 metres per second the project is "a dream" according to chairman Carlo van Wageningen.

Compressed air technology to store wind energy

www.nwpr.org
24 May 2013

Renewable energy storage is one step closer becoming a reality in the Northwest. Researchers are proposing a new system that could store enough wind power to power 80,000 homes for a month. But researchers aren't proposing fields lined with batteries. They're using some of the Columbia River Basin's natural geography and compressed air.

If Northwest states are to meet renewable energy goals, they'll need to find a way to store power. Wind and solar vary with the weather. Most of the region's wind power kicks up at the same time as hydroelectric. That can produce more energy than the power grid can handle.

"Without a storage technology, that energy is going to be wasted", McGrail says. "Right now we don't have anything to do with it. We either have to shut down the wind farms or spill excess water over the dams".

Now, researchers have found a way to capture extra energy and store it until people need it. This technology would divert that wind-power to machines that compress air. Next, that compressed air would be pumped thousands of feet underground into airtight cavities in the earth's basalt subsurface.

When people needed more power in the summer or winter, a valve would release the compressed air. That would spin turbines and create energy. Steve Knudsen is with Bonneville Power Administration. He says more storage could help balance power on the grid. "You shouldn't ever have to curtail the generation out of wind plants", Knudsen says.

Alabama and Germany already use this technology. But the amount of power stored at those sites is a drop in the bucket compared to what these researchers are proposing. They say they could store enough energy to power 80,000 homes for a month.

Researchers have picked out two sites that will work well-both in Central Washington. BPA says the next step is for utilities to test the technology on a smaller scale.

Solar power brings piped water to rural Western Kenya's doorstep

www.trust.org
23 May 2013

KAKAMEGA, Kenya (Thomson Reuters Foundation)-Residents of some rural communities in Western Kenya can now access clean piped water at their doorsteps, thanks to solar-powered engines that pump it from borehole wells. Pamela Kuyuti reckons it has kept her family together.

"Before this tap with running water was connected to my homestead, I was actually contemplating to quit this marriage", said Kuyuti, a resident of Mukhalanya village. "I was exhausted walking hours on a daily basis to fetch water for my family and for my mother-in-law".

With support from World Vision, an international nongovernmental organisation, community-based organisations in Matete District, Kakamega County, have sunk a borehole at each of nine primary and secondary schools to serve the surrounding communities.

At Lukova primary school, the borehole is about 70 metres (230 feet) deep. An engine connected to 102 interlinked solar panels yields enough electricity to pump 16,000 litres (4,200 US gallons) of water per hour from the borehole into two 100,000 litre (2,600 gallon) pressed steel tanks.

The tanks are built on higher ground than the village's homes, allowing gravity to channel the water through pipes to seven water kiosks and 70 homesteads in a number of villages. While three of the boreholes use solar power to pump water to the villages, the wells in areas that have been reached by the government's rural electrification programme use grid electricity to power the pumps.

According to data from World Vision, approximately 6,600 people are already benefiting from the Lukova project alone, including four schools, two market centres and people in the surrounding community. The nine boreholes serve a total of 1,570 households, which in Western Kenya have an average of seven children.

The pumps are located in schools so that children are the first beneficiaries of the clean water, and because the schools are community-owned institutions in which residents have a common interest.

Read More…

Wind farm beats Kusile to grid

business.iafrica.com
21 May 2013

With South Africa's electricity woes becoming more pressing, power utility Eskom has won the National Energy Regulator's (Nersa's) approval to build a R2.4 billion wind farm in the Western Cape. Construction will start later this year, with the wind farm set to deliver up to 100MW of electricity by the end of next year-beating the R170 billion Kusile power station onto the grid.

Eskom said on Monday the project, situated at Koekenaap in the Vredendal area, would enter full commercial production by the end of next year. Increasing energy supply has become critical for the power utility. It warned last month that South Africa would face tight supply during winter. The wind farm is part of the Department of Energy's drive to add 3725MW of generating capacity from renewable sources, mainly wind and solar, by 2018.

Eskom CEO Brian Dames said the cost of the project compared favourably with the R1.14/kW that the government would pay independent power producers (IPPs) for their renewable energy in the first round. The cost of power dropped to 89.7¢/kW in the second round of the IPP, for which agreements were finalised two weeks ago.

In February, Nersa granted Eskom an 8%/year tariff increase for the next five years, taking the cost of electricity to 89.13¢/kW at the end of March 2018.

"This comes below the cost of IPPs and is good news for us", Eskom spokesperson Hilary Joffe said. The project has been funded by development finance institutions, including the World Bank, African Development Bank, Clean Technology Fund and Agence Francaise de Developpement. "That has lowered the cost of funding", Ms Joffe said.

Industrial company Siemens will build and install the wind turbine generators, and then hand them over to Eskom to run, Ms Joffe said. The first power will come onstream during the first half of next year.

That will be well ahead of the 4800MW Kusile coal-fired powered station that Eskom is building at an estimated cost of R170 billion in the Mpumalanga province. The company initially expected the station to start producing power next month, but that projection was pushed back to the end of next year.

Cherokee Nation developing largest tribal wind farm in U.S.

indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com
17 May 2013

The site of a former Indian boarding school in Kay County, Oklahoma will soon become the largest wind farm on tribal land in the United States. The Cherokee Nation has partnered with Chicago-based PNE Wind AG USA Inc, to develop a 90 turbine wind farm, which is estimated to generate $16 million over the next two decades. Development will start immediately on 6,000 acres of the former property of the Chilocco Indian School, which operated from 1884 to 1980. The 153 MW wind farm will power homes, businesses and farms of the southwest grid region.

"The Cherokee Nation has an opportunity to be a leader among Indian nations in renewable energy", said Cherokee Nation Deputy Speaker Chuck Hoskin, Jr. "The tribe will be able to utilize an underutilized resource. We talk a lot about protecting our environment and conserving our resources, so this is a prime opportunity to put words into action".

The Cherokee Nation owns half of the land on which the wind farm will sit. Chilocco was ideal because of its wind resources, and environmental studies show it will not curtail the migratory bird population. The entire Chilocco wind farm will encompass 6,000 acres total. The other 3,000 acres is owned by four other tribes, the Kaw, Otoe-Missouria, Pawnee and Ponca nations. The tribal council voted 14 2 to approve the wind farm.

"The Cherokee Nation is playing a significant role in creating new green jobs and expects to play a key role in Oklahoma's emerging wind power industry", Principal Chief Bill John Baker said in a press release. "The Cherokee Nation is committed to growing the Oklahoma economy, helping reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil and creating sustainable jobs for our people in the renewable energy sector".

Wireless sensor for devices harvests solar energy

www.designnews.com
14 May 2013

Two Israel-based providers of electronics components have collaborated to provide solar power harvesting technology that can power wireless sensors so they require little or no battery power to operate.

Sol Chip and Cellergy are offering a high-performance energy harvester that combines Cellergy supercapacitors and Sol Chip's solar power harvesting technology and can be integrated into a range of devices and applications to provide power for short-range wireless communication.

The companies envision the technology being used to enable the so-called Internet of Things in which devices can identify and communicate with one another over the Internet or a network. These devices will be used in a number of industries, including agriculture, smart lighting control, smart water management, environmental monitoring, medical, security, and safety.

The Everlasting Solar Battery--Sol Chip's contribution to the collaboration--addresses the needs of remote or mobile devices that operate autonomously by prolonging battery life, reducing environmental hazard and improving battery-charging technology, Zack Sharon, Sol Chip's sales and marketing director, told Design News. "The technology harvests light energy to extend battery life or replace batteries in many applications and reduces system overall cost", he said.

The Sol Chip device is essentially a single-chip solar cell with integrated battery management and charging circuitry. The device can recharge batteries or charge super-capacitors, and has a patent-pending architecture that provides higher efficiency with an extremely lean and cost saving implementation, Sharon told us. The harvester combines the Everlasting Solar Battery with Cellergy's supercapacitor technology to store the energy, which allows for more energy storage than typical capacitors.

Energy harvesting is becoming a method of choice for low-power devices that typically run on batteries but don't need a lot of energy to power them. A number of semiconductor and electronics components companies are building ultra-low-power components or micro energy-harvesting devices that can be embedded in devices like medical sensors, smoke alarms, security systems, and other devices.

According to Sharon, the addressable market for the Sol Chip-Cellergy technology is estimated at 1 billion units in 2022, with many segments growing more than 10% per year. "Initial target segments include wireless sensors and wireless sensor networks, smart power grids, smart cities, and active RFID", he said.

Brazilian indigenous people turn to wind power as dam alternative

www.wired.co.uk
13 May 2013

The indigenous people of Brazil's most northerly region have been conducting a wind power trial, in a bid to convince the government that it's a realistic alternative to the country's controversial hydroelectric dams.

Roraima is both the northernmost and least populated of Brazil's states, wedged between Venezuala and Guyana. Internationally, it's most well known for Mount Roraima, a 31km2 table mountain with 400m-tall sides that inspired both Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World and Pixar's Up. It's also the site of some of Brazil's highest-average wind speeds, coming down from the mountains and speeding across the grasslands and savannah in the east of the state at an average of between six and nine metres per second according to the Wind Energy Atlas of Brazil.

As reported by Climate News Network, the Makuxi people think this might give them a chance to put forward a different idea for the Brazilian government's Lights For All programme, which has been trying to bring electricity to off-the-grid households since 2003. The latest figures, from 2003 to 2011, record 14.3 million people living in 2.8 million households now enjoying the benefits of reliable grid power--so much that it's actually reversed the migration of people from rural areas to cities. Most of that grid electricity--82.7%--has come from hydroelectric dams.

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Cattle breeder to tell of wind turbine success

www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk
13 Jun 2016

A FARMER has had a windfall after building a turbine on his land that creates his own electrictity and sees any surplus going on to power peoples' homes. Farmer and cattle breeder James Weightman not only sells his home grown Blonde D'Aquitaine Bulls all over the UK, but he's now selling his home grown electricity. He has installed a 500kW urban fringe wind turbine to power the entire farm and he sells the remaining electricity back to the National Grid.

The project has been such a success that the Weightman family, along with gfw-Renewables, turbine suppliers EWT, and funders Barclays Bank, are holding an Open Day at Hallfield Farm, Easington, on Thursday, May 16, from 10am-4pm.

It has been organised so other landowners and farmers can see what is involved in wind turbine projects, how turbines operate, what the benefits are, and what pitfalls to look out for. Since its installation, the turbine at Hallfield Farm has greatly exceeded expectations and continues to feed sustainable 'green' energy back into the local grid connection. James said: "After nearly 18 months of preparation work, it was great to see our turbine finally commissioned.

"It has now been operational since October 2012 and is already a fantastic asset to the farm, offsetting our carbon footprint and reducing the impact of rising energy costs on our business". Renewable energy continues to be at the forefront of the Government's carbon reduction agenda, with the UK committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 20% by 2020.