Wind power news and discussions

[wjfox]

Biden to pursue wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico

BY RACHEL FRAZIN - 07/20/22 2:45 PM ET

The Biden administration will pursue the development of offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico, the White House said Wednesday.

The new proposed offshore wind areas in the Gulf would represent the first time that wind energy is produced in the Gulf, which is typically a hub for oil and gas production.

According to a White House fact sheet, the areas where it is proposing offshore wind development have the potential to power 3 million homes.

President Biden will also direct Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to advance wind energy off the mid- and Southern Atlantic Coasts and Florida’s Gulf Coast, though the White House did not announce any concrete plans to develop wind energy in these regions.

The announcement comes as Biden is set to deliver remarks on climate change in Massachusetts on Wednesday. Biden is facing increasing pressure to act on climate change after swing vote Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) walked away from Senate climate talks this week.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-envir ... of-mexico/

[caltrek]

The Next U.S. Energy Boom Could be Wind Power in the Gulf of Mexico
by Michael E. Webber and Hugh Daigle
August 16, 2022

Introduction:

(The Conversation) With passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains US$370 billion for climate and energy programs, policy experts are forecasting a big expansion in clean electricity generation. One source that’s poised for growth is offshore wind power.

Today the U.S. has just two operating offshore wind farms, off of Rhode Island and North Carolina, with a combined generating capacity of 42 megawatts. For comparison, the new Traverse Wind Energy Center in Oklahoma has 356 turbines and a 998-megawatt generating capacity. But many more projects are in development, mostly along the Atlantic coast.

The Biden administration has identified two zones for offshore wind power development in the Gulf of Mexico, which up until now has been firmly identified with oil and gas production. As part of his climate strategy, President Joe Biden has set a goal for the deployment of 30 gigawatts (30,000 megawatts) of offshore wind generating capacity by 2030 – enough to power 10 million homes with carbon-free electricity.

As energy researchers based in Texas, we see this as an exciting new phase in our nation’s ongoing clean power transition. In our view, offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico presents a unique opportunity for a geographic region with a strong energy workforce and infrastructure to help meet society’s need for reliable low-carbon energy.

Read more here: https://theconversation.com/next-us-en ... o-188326

[caltrek]

Danes, Germans Back Baltic Wind Hub to Offset Russian Gas
August 29, 2022

Introduction:

(AP via Courthouse News) COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark will increase its planned offshore wind capacity in the Baltic Sea to 3 gigawatts and hook it up to the German grid, a step toward weaning Europe off its reliance on Russian gas. When established in 2030, it should be able to supply electricity to up 4.5 million European homes.

A 470-kilometer (292-mile) undersea cable will run via the Danish Baltic Sea island of Bornholm to northern Germany, enabling the power to be sent directly to the German electricity grid and on to the rest of Europe.

At present, Denmark and Germany have respective offshore wind energy capacities of 1.5 gigawatts and 1 gigawatt.

German Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck called it “a flagship project” and added that “with such projects among European partners, we achieve two key goals at the same time: European energy security and climate neutrality.” The deal was announced Monday in Copenhagen.

Denmark’s energy minister, Dan Jørgensen, added that “international cooperation is more urgent than ever before" to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to make Europe independent from Russian gas and oil.”

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/danes-g ... sian-gas/

[wjfox]

Hornsea 2: North Sea wind farm claims title of world's largest

By Jonah Fisher
BBC Environment Correspondent

2 hours ago

The world's largest offshore wind farm is now fully operational, 55 miles off the coast of Yorkshire.

The Hornsea 2 project can generate enough electricity to power about 1.3 million homes - that's enough for a city the size of Manchester.

A decade ago renewables made up just 11% of the UK's energy mix. By 2021 it was 40%, with offshore wind the largest component.

[...]

Hornsea 2 has taken the title of "world's largest" from its neighbour Hornsea 1. It covers an area about four and half time the size of Liverpool. With even larger projects under construction nearby in the North Sea it's unlikely its title will last long. The Dogger Bank wind farm, which when fully built will be able to power 6m homes, is due to start coming on stream next year.

Each of the 165 turbines in Hornsea 2 stands about 200m tall from the sea level to the top of the 81m blades. Mr Harnett says a single rotation takes six seconds and provides enough energy to power a home for a day.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62731923

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

South Australia’s incredible week: 104.1 per cent wind and solar over seven days
https://reneweconomy.com.au/south-austr ... even-days/
Giles Parkinson 18 December 2022 19

South Australia aims to reach 100 per cent “net renewables” within a few years – over a full year – but in the past week it has already done better than that.

Our attention to the state was sparked by a tweet from Teal supporter and energy analyst Simon Holmes a Court, who tweeted on Friday that the state had average an “incredible” 99.8 per cent over the previous seven days.

When we checked before writing this story on Sunday afternoon, it had done better than that – averaging 104.1 per cent over the seven days (to 2.30pm AEST on Sunday).

To be clear, this 104.1 per cent relates to the amount of wind and solar compared to state demand. The state is connected to the rest of the grid so imports and exports are inevitable, so the figure is already a “net result.”

[andmar74]

https://electrek.co/2022/12/22/worlds-m ... ne-vestas/

World’s most powerful wind turbine’s blades arrive for installation

I live 9 km from the test center. Even for the worlds biggest windmills, that's too far to disturb me in any way.

[caltrek]

https://electrek.co/2022/12/22/worlds-m ... ne-vestas/

World’s most powerful wind turbine’s blades arrive for installation

I live 9 km from the test center. Even for the worlds biggest windmills, that's too far to disturb me in any way.

If I were writing up an environmental review statement on the project, I might note the potential for an effect upon the bird population of the area. If that effect were severe enough, a mitigation measure might be in order. Perhaps something to discourage birds from flying into the blades and thus killing themselves.

[andmar74]

https://electrek.co/2022/12/22/worlds-m ... ne-vestas/

World’s most powerful wind turbine’s blades arrive for installation

I live 9 km from the test center. Even for the worlds biggest windmills, that's too far to disturb me in any way.

If I were writing up an environmental review statement on the project, I might note the potential for an effect upon the bird population of the area. If that effect were severe enough, a mitigation measure might be in order. Perhaps something to discourage birds from flying into the blades and thus killing themselves.

There have been studies that show that windmills kill very few birds. When the windmills get bigger and the blades rotate more slowly, one should think even fewer birds are killed.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

New record for world's most powerful wind turbine

11th January 2023

A company in China has revealed plans for a "super giant" wind turbine with 260-metre-diameter rotor and power rating of 18 megawatts (MW).

Until now, the world record for the most powerful wind turbine stood at 16 MW, achieved by MingYang Smart Energy and its MySE 16.0-242, which has a rotor diameter of 242 metres (794 ft). This model had overtaken the already monstrous size of General Electric's Haliade-X, which debuted at 12 MW in 2019 and got uprated to 14 MW in 2021.

Now, a subsidiary of the China State Shipbuilding Corp. (CSSC) has unveiled plans for an even larger and more powerful wind turbine – the H260-18MW – featuring a massive 18 MW in a rotor diameter of 260 metres. To put that in perspective, its rotor diameter alone is equal to the height of the 48-storey Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, and more than twice the height of the London Eye.

Read more: https://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/202 ... meline.htm

[weatheriscool]

Norway just greenlit this vertical-axis floating wind turbine
Avatar for Michelle Lewis
Michelle Lewis | Jan 27 2023 - 3:25 pm PT
https://electrek.co/2023/01/27/norway-v ... d-turbine/

Swedish wind turbine maker SeaTwirl got the go-ahead to test its 1 megawatt (MW) S2X vertical-axis floating offshore prototype in Norway.
Vertical-axis floating wind turbine pilot

In March 2022, Norway’s Ministry of Energy gave approval to SeaTwirl and Norwegian offshore wind test center Marine Energy Test Centre to pilot the vertical-axis floating wind prototype for five years at a former fish farm in Boknafjorden, northeast of Lauplandsholmenoff, 700 meters (2,297 feet) from the coast.

But four groups – the Norwegian Environmental Protection Association, the Norwegian Fishermen’s Association, and two campaign groups – appealed against SeaTwirl’s permit, and so the project was put on ice.

Yesterday, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate rejected the appeal, so SeaTwirl’s S2X pilot can now proceed, and no further appeals will be considered.

[weatheriscool]

Newly Discovered Chemical Process Renders All Existing Wind Turbine Blades Recyclable


https://www.offshorewind.biz/2023/02/08 ... ecyclable/
February 8, 2023, by Adrijana Buljan

A new chemical process discovered as part of a Vestas-led project removes the need for changing the design or composition of the material used for wind turbine blades to make them recyclable as it allows for epoxy-based blades to be broken down into raw material that can be reused to make new wind turbine blades or to be used for other purposes.

The wind turbine manufacturer has now revealed plans to scale up the newly discovered chemical disassembly process into a commercial solution by teaming up with Olin, an epoxy manufacturer and one of Vestas’s project partners, and Stena Recycling, a recycling specialist.

Once the solution has matured, it will eliminate the need for blade redesign, or landfill disposal of epoxy-based blades when they are decommissioned, Vestas said.

“Until now, the wind industry has believed that turbine blade material calls for a new approach to design and manufacture to be either recyclable, or beyond this, circular, at end of life. Going forward, we can now view old epoxy-based blades as a source of raw material”, said Lisa Ekstrand, Vice President and Head of Sustainability at Vestas.

[wjfox]

World’s largest onshore wind turbine, and the first to reach 10MW, debuts in China

14 February 2023

Chinese wind energy company Envision Energy has reportedly debuted a new 10MW onshore wind turbine, the largest of its kind and boasting the world’s largest rotor diameter.

According to various local outlets including the state-run China Daily, Envision Energy unveiled the new EN-220/10MW last week.

For a long time, onshore wind turbines have been limited in size to a maximum of 7MW, after many years of hovering around the 5MW mark.

Conversely, offshore wind turbines, with access to greater wind speeds and fewer constraints on size, have been for getting steadily bigger for several years.

Now, however, the first two-digit-capacity onshore turbine is officially on the horizon, with expectation that sizes will continue to grow (despite growing issues with equipment defects).

https://reneweconomy.com.au/worlds-larg ... -in-china/



Image: Envision Energy

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

This is for wind power

Define this list between 1995 through 2021


Sure! Here is the installed wind power capacity and electricity generation in megawatts (MW) in the United States for each year between 1995 through 2021 based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration:

1995: 258 MW installed capacity, 424,000 MWh electricity generation
1996: 425 MW installed capacity, 1,134,000 MWh electricity generation
1997: 1,330 MW installed capacity, 2,496,000 MWh electricity generation
1998: 2,531 MW installed capacity, 6,637,000 MWh electricity generation
1999: 2,843 MW installed capacity, 6,997,000 MWh electricity generation
2000: 4,261 MW installed capacity, 10,038,000 MWh electricity generation
2001: 4,685 MW installed capacity, 13,620,000 MWh electricity generation
2002: 6,374 MW installed capacity, 20,191,000 MWh electricity generation
2003: 6,740 MW installed capacity, 26,589,000 MWh electricity generation
2004: 9,150 MW installed capacity, 41,581,000 MWh electricity generation
2005: 11,603 MW installed capacity, 56,497,000 MWh electricity generation
2006: 14,576 MW installed capacity, 80,544,000 MWh electricity generation
2007: 16,819 MW installed capacity, 112,227,000 MWh electricity generation
2008: 25,237 MW installed capacity, 55,865,000 MWh electricity generation
2009: 35,159 MW installed capacity, 70,609,000 MWh electricity generation
2010: 40,180 MW installed capacity, 94,651,000 MWh electricity generation
2011: 46,916 MW installed capacity, 120,031,000 MWh electricity generation
2012: 60,007 MW installed capacity, 140,783,000 MWh electricity generation
2013: 61,110 MW installed capacity, 167,559,000 MWh electricity generation
2014: 65,879 MW installed capacity, 181,073,000 MWh electricity generation
2015: 74,472 MW installed capacity, 190,927,000 MWh electricity generation
2016: 82,143 MW installed capacity, 226,542,000 MWh electricity generation
2017: 89,077 MW installed capacity, 254,303,000 MWh electricity generation
2018: 96,433 MW installed capacity, 275,877,000 MWh electricity generation
2019: 105,583 MW installed capacity, 300,926,000 MWh electricity generation
2020: 118,311 MW installed capacity, 336,362,000 MWh electricity generation
2021: 131,119 MW installed capacity, data not yet available

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Wind is main source of UK electricity for first time

16 minutes ago

Wind turbines have generated more electricity than gas for the first time in the UK.

In the first three months of this year a third of the country's electricity came from wind farms, research from Imperial College London have shown.

National Grid has also confirmed that April saw a record period of solar energy generation.

By 2035 the UK aims for all of its electricity to have net zero emissions.

"There are still many hurdles to reaching a completely fossil fuel-free grid, but wind out-supplying gas for the first time is a genuine milestone event," said Iain Staffell, energy researcher at Imperial College and lead author of the report.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65557469



DANIEL LEAL/AFP

[caltrek]

Old Lumber Port Preps for New Life as California Offshore Wind Hub
by Edvard Pettersson
May 12 , 2023

Introduction:

(Courthouse News) — Eureka's halcyon days as the "timber capital" of California are long gone, but the deepwater port city 270 miles north of San Francisco may see its fortunes turn as the hub of the state's first foray in offshore wind energy.

Located on Humboldt Bay at a particularly windy corner of the Northern California coast, Eureka sits across two of the five swaths of Pacific Ocean along the California coast that the federal government auctioned off to offshore wind developers this past December for a total of $757 million. The three other leases are on the Central Coast across from Morro Bay.

California is a late entry in the race to explore offshore wind as a source of renewable energy because until recently it wasn't feasible to deploy wind turbines on the steep ocean bottom off the Pacific Coast. On the Atlantic Coast, fixed-bottom wind turbines can sit on the more shallow seabed, but it's only with the large-scale, commercial development of so-called floating wind turbines in the last few years that the Pacific Ocean has become suitable for wind farms.

Humboldt Bay, the second-largest bay in California after the San Francisco Bay, is ideally suited to become the final assembly port for the massive turbines. The models expected to be used off the California coast should have more capacity and be larger than the ones currently in use in Europe, and including the blades, they can rise as high as 1,100 feet above the water — about the height of the Eiffel Tower.

The port at Eureka has a deep navigation channel, no bridges that would hinder towing the tall assemblies out to sea, and hundreds of acres of vacant industrial land along the shore that was once used by the timber industry, said Larry Oetker, the executive director of the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/old-lum ... ind-hub/


Lumber is getting loaded on a ship in the Port of Humboldt Bay
(Source: California Association of Port Authorities)

[weatheriscool]

Integrating offshore wind into China's power grid can further carbon neutrality goals
https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-off ... arbon.html
by Kellie Nault, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Offshore wind power offers a promising solution to the challenge of decarbonizing coastal China. China's coastal provinces, though small in land mass, are home to 76% of the population; they are also responsible for 72% of total national power consumption and 70% of total CO2 emissions. Transitioning the coastal areas away from fossil fuels is one of China's core challenges for achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, and offshore wind power may hold the key.

New research published in Nature Communications develops a bottom-up model to test the capabilities of the grid to accommodate renewable power variability and to design the optimal investment plans for offshore wind power.