Life Alternate » Wind

Increasing Wind Power in China

Wispa — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 08:15:26 +0000

China is becoming the world leader in Wind Energy Production and leaving other counties flapping behind. The hunger for energy has made developing greener options extremely viable.

China has gone for wind in a big way with growth in wind power being more than any other forms of renewable energy production in the country. They are still building nasty polluting coal power station to meet demand and by total generating capacity coal still beats wind by a long way.

Since 2005 wind capacity has virtually doubled each year with around 19,000 MW being installed in 2010. This brings the total capacity to over 44,733 MW of electricity generation. A number that is pushing the USA in to a second place spot. The United States is also falling back on new installation with just a measly 5,000 MW installed in 2010.

First place or second place does not matter as this is no way a competition. Cleaner renewable energy could be seen as an ultimate step to preserving our future. Some of the USA’s demise is attributed to the reduction on tax credits for wind installations.

Everybody has targets and China has its own of 90,000 MW by the year 2015. With many large scale wind farms in development it would seem that China can easily achieve and surpass this number.

Wind production has it’s problems like most renewable energies. The obvious one here is the wind does not always blow and thus no power generation. The variability of the wind speed can reduce output to a fraction of the generating capacity.

Energy storage is the key here which lends itself wonderfully to home wind generation. On a larger scale with larger capacities then the problems become much harder.

Egypt Goes with Wind and Solar Energy

Wispa — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 09:28:06 +0000

The North African country of Egypt has long term plans for renewable energy. Using both Wind and Solar Energies the country hoped to make use of its ideal location in the African Continent.

The initial target of generating renewable energy will be 12 percent of it’s demands from wind energy alone. This ambitious project would see over 2,500 megawatts of wind generating turbines over the next five years.

In addition to wind power, Egypt has it`s eyes on solar energy. Up to 1 Megawatt is planned for solar energy production to be completed over a ten year period.

This month will see the inauguration of Egypt`s first Solar Thermal power station. Located in Koraimat, the plant will produce around 140 megawatts of energy.

Egypt and many other Countries in North Africa and the Middle East are ideally suited for Renewable Energy production with regular wind direction and one of the highest rates of sunshine in the world.

This puts these countries at an advantage for energy exports. Alongside the construction of renewable energy facilities will be the infrastructure for connecting Egypt to Europe as a likely customer.

The Cost of Energy from Wind Power

Wispa — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 08:58:31 +0000

For millions of years the wind has blown around the planet and been used by mankind for centauries. This renewable energy has been overtaken by more concentrated forms of energy such as coal and oil. Down but not forgotten it might be time for a second wind.

Home Wind Turbines

For many years wind was used as a direct power source. Mills to grind corn, used as water pumps or those tall sailing ships that used to roam the oceans. It is just in the last few decades that wind energy is seeing a come back a means to produce electricity.

The late decades of the last centaury has shown that generating electricity was possible and for many this was a desirable alternative to the dominant fossil fuels being used. Wind turbine technology is still developing. The perfecting of the blades to extract energy at varying wind speeds along with more efficiency in converting that energy into electricity has leapt bounds over the year.

All this means that the cost of producing electrical energy is dropping. Like many modern technologies the rate of development is much faster that 50 or 100 years ago. This unfortunately means that last years ideas soon become obsolete until developments level off.

This is happening for wind power and now turbines can produce energy that is comparable in costs with coal, nuclear, gas or oil power stations. Paying 30 or 40 cents for wind energy was too expensive when put up against the much cheaper coal power station. Luckily the dreams and ideals were not pushed aside and over the years the cost has been dramatically reduced.

Wind farms can now nearly compete equally with a cost of around 5 cents per kilowatt of electricity produced. It might currently be a little bit more expensive but it does have advantages over fossil fuels. Most notable is the wind will never run out like the impending demise of oil and on a longer term gas. The pollutions caused by coal power stations are non existent with wind energy. These factors make wind very attractive as one form of alternative energy.

Wind does have a down side, a very important factor in our modern day lives. We need a constant source of energy to keep our societies running efficiently and wind power by itself can not do that. This form of energy is at the beck and call of nature and when the wind does not blow then the turbines do not work.

This should not rule out wind power as a form of clean energy for our future. But use it alongside other renewable generating power stations.

The home owner has a large advantage here. Installing a wind turbine on your property can supply your home with cheap clean renewable energy when the wind blows. When nature decides to give us calm weather we can still take advantage of our utility supplies. This can remove that large obstacle of not always producing electricity.

Korea Tries Offshore Wind Power

Wispa — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 07:32:58 +0000

Off Shore Wind Energy is gaining more attention around the world for many reason. South Korea is mulling a plan for a massive wind farm comprising of more that 500 wind turbines off the Korean Coast.

Offshore Wind Farm

Building Off Shore Wind Farms has some advantages over land based turbines. The most notably aspect is that there is a lot of sea. This removes many of the problems concerning the usage of precious land for what is essentially up in the air.

The Korean development would involve an initial 20 wind turbines situated of the west coast of the peninsula by 2013. Each turbine would have an optimal generating power of 5 megawatts. With the number of turbines increasing over the years in phases. By the end of 2020 the Koran Government hopes to have the complete farm operational.

The funding would come from the private sector and it is hoped that the country’s heavy industries would apply for the construction.

Even for such a large wind far, the energy produced would still account for an extremely small percentage of Korea’s energy needs. We should not forget that wind energy is not a constant source for electricity. It is extremely variable and sometimes not producing power at all.

There is no doubt that wind is much a cleaner energy that oil or coal power stations. The wide spread acceptance of variable energies, like wind, needs the complementary technology of energy storage. We may have solved the problems for powering small electrical devices but for large scale storage it has a long way to go. By the time the Korean wind farm becomes fully operational in 2020hopefully some of those issued would be solved.

Wind Power Blowing Out in the USA

Wispa — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 06:12:22 +0000

The United States of America was once on the leading edge of renewable energy generated from wind power. Now it seems this drive is starting to blow itself out.

Offshore Wind Farm

Last year, 2009, the USA installed a quite massive 9.8 GigaWatts of wind generating capacity. In 2010 this may drop to just 7 GigaWatts of new installations. It is not clear why the drop has occurred, but may be somewhat attributed to the recent financial crisis that has rocked the world.

After showing a steady increase of new wind farms every year for the last 5 years, we hope that this is just a little blip and soon we shall see the continual rise of renewable energies.

Wind power, along with Solar energy and wave still produce a tiny amount of the needed energy we use. The two main forms of electrical generation are coal and oil. The recent events in The Gulf Of Mexico with the spillage of oil from deep sea drilling should hopefully edge more generation in the direction of cleaner and renewable energy sources.

Overall is is expected that 200 GigaWatts of capacity will be installed by the year 2025 and the bulk of this may in the form of wind farms built on land.

The installation of offshore wind generation is still relatively untapped. Could we eventually see instead of rigs drilling, pumping and leaking crude oil around the shores lots of cleaner wind farms generating energy without adding to the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Around the world other countries are making strides into renewable energies. The big players are India and China who with their developing infrastructure will find it easier to integrate the newer forms of energy.

World Wind Energy Capacity in 2009

Wispa — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:09:13 +0000

Renewable energy generated from wind power is increasing each year with some areas of the world developing this resource faster than others.

Offshore Wind Farm

The United States of America is out in the lead with a total wind capacity of 35.2 Gigawatts of installed wind turbines. Around 10 GW of that was installed last year.

Second place goes to Germany with 25.8 GW of wind energy production. While Germany produces less than the USA if the comparative electrical demand is taken in to account, Germany produces more of its energy by wind than the USA. The average energy use of an American is nearly twice than of a person from Germany.

The third place prize goes to China which in 2009 had a capacity of 25.1 GW just behind Germany. While China is placed third for generating capacity it takes first place for the rate of new installations. Comparing 2008 and 2009 China increased its wind generating capacity by 50%.

World wide the earth has a total of 158 GW of wind generation in operation which amount to around 1% of the worlds needs. This is still dwarfed by the massive 17,109 GW of energy consumed. The USA accounts for 22% of worlds energy usage.

Those figures are are for the amount of energy that could be produced providing the wind was favorable. Actual usable wind capacity is around 25% of the maximum possible.

As we all know producing renewable energy with wind has a big problem - The wind does not always blow. There is no denying that the wind cant be controlled and if the production happens at night or off-peak times then the energy currently can not be stored.

Improvement can be had with having wind farms spread over a large area that would help balance out energy production but it does still have problems for massive scale energy reliability.

For wind installation which are used to power homes or business then the problem is not so severe. These premises can produce and use energy from wind when the conditions are right and should the wind drop then we can fall back on power from the grid.

Even with the reliability of generation, wind energy should be encouraged as a portion of the worlds needs along with other clean forms renewable energy.

Siemens Christmas Star Shines over Munich

Wispa — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 07:24:21 +0000

If your driving up the A9 Autobahn you might see a bright piece of artwork lighting up the sky this December.

Siemens have adorned a giant wind turbine in highly efficient LED’s that creates a spectacular display for the holiday season. Each blade of the wind turbine has 1000 Light Emitting Diodes glued on with space glue. That is 3000 of those lights in total and the system will use as much energy as a hair dryer.

The Christmas star has a width of 70 meters and can be seen from distances of up to 30 kilometres around Munich. If you want to catch sight of the display it will be shining in the evenings from 4.40 pm until midnight and for those early risers between 5 and 8 am. This only lasts until the 6 of January 2010 when the artwork is scheduled to end.

The YouTube video from Siemens contains a lot of corporate happy talk but explains the ideas behind the display. The one below shows the LED’s in action.

Home Wind Power – Domestic Turbines

Wispa — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:32:08 +0000

Wind Turbines have been sprouting up around the country like massive weeds. There is no doubt that these can be an eyesore if done on a large scale and environmental impact can be massive both to the land and wildlife. But with proper consultation, suitable areas can be found and be much more beneficial.

Home Wind Turbines

Domestic wind turbines, much smaller than the large industrial forests are an option for most home owners. But like home solar powered electricity you home should be ideally suitable to benefit from free electricity. As well as deciding if you would really like a large windmill in your garden or a smaller one on your roof, you may have neighbours to contend with. Probably the biggest hurdle would be you local planning regulations, depending on which particular state or country you are from.

How does it work?

Your home wind turbine works in a similar way to home solar arrays. Energy needs are purchased as normal from you utility supplier and are supplemented by your wind turbine. The more wind that blows, the more electricity your turbine produces and this reduces your consumption of utility power. Remember after the initial costs of installation all the energy produced by your wind turbine is free and may actually make money. When your electrical consumption drops to below the level that is being produced by your wind turbine the excess can be sold back to your utility supplier further reducing your power costs.

What are the Costs?

This will vary by location, the specifications of your installation and the current and future cost of your electricity. You could save between 20% and 50% of your homes electrical cost . This could mean that after between 3 to 10 years at most you will have recouped the cost of the wind turbine. Remember this is all Green Energy, so you are reducing your carbon impact for electricity by the same amount 20% – 50%. Further cost savings could be had by various green grants that may be available.

Domestic wind turbine technology is advancing in all areas, efficiency and noise among others, and supplementing home wind power with home solar power is taking a large step forward environmentally and just as importantly now, reducing your energy costs.

Offshore Wind Turbine Farms

Wispa — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:13:31 +0000

The US department of the interior recently stated that Wind Turbines off the coast of the USA could produce enough electricity to meet the whole country’s needs. Which is probably true, with enough offshore wind farms around the coast this is theoretically possible.

Creating forest of windmills does have its downsides, rushing in on an idea is always going to have serious consequences later on. Just like our hunger for oil in the last 100 years has us hooked on the black gold and at the moment we don’t have the desire to pre-empt the time when the end will come in to sight.

One hundred percent wind power is not desirable. An appropriate proportion combined with other forms of renewable energy is more what the world should aim for. Currently offshore wind farms are the “fad”, these are deeper water over the horizon beasts with 100`s of towers. These pose massive engineering problems along with the caution of putting all your faith in one large concept. The reliability, both engineering and natural problems like the need for constant wind, day in day out, should be waving big flags at those beginning this enterprise.

Still the thought of all out electricity needs being supplied by offshore wind farms is something that should be actively encouraged with a long term view and not just because its fashionable or headline grabbing.

Offshore Wind Farm

Offshore wind farms along with their cousins, inshore and land based wind farms, should all be encouraged each for their own particular advantages to initially supplement our electrical energy needs. Hopeful eventually we should or our children should be able to live in a world which is not carbon energy based and ultimately be powered from fully renewable energy.

Wind is one facet along with others, solar energy, hydro power and the one nobody likes nuclear, both fission and fusion. Having green energy is to everyone’s benefit, apart from those companies reliant on the sales of carbon fuels, but its to no ones benefit in being total energy reliant on one energy form.

The cost of changing will probably not bring down the price of energy that we each have to pay, infarct it might even go up. Thus we should also on a personal level continue to try be more energy efficient more closer to home. If we all do little things then it turns out to be a big thing when we join together.