Tower manufacturer breaks ground on new factory

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Excerpt: Ventower Industries has broken ground on its 115,000 ft2, state of the art, wind-tower manufacturing facility. Earlier this year, the company’s design, the Ventower, won an advanced-energy manufacturing tax credit under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The company was one …

Communities to own utility-sized wind projects

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Excerpt: Traditional wind plant developers often say  their work benefits landowners by providing  them with royalty or lease payments. While such an arrangement does provide some benefit to the community, the business model makes little provision for ownership or local participation. One community-base …

DWS Series Anemometers from Carlo Gavazzi

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Excerpt: The international electronic automations group, Carlo Gavazzi Automation, recently launched a line of dynamic wind sensors that can improve efficiency, enhance accuracy and provide safety in a variety of different applications. Their DWS Series Anemometers measure wind velocity from 3.3 to …

Is it a chimney…or a turbine?

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Excerpt: Wind turbines on houses are not always practical because some home owner associations would object to the noise it might make, or neighborhoods that restrict changes in aesthetics. A U.K. inventor may have solved the problem with a design called the Secret Energy Turbine (SET) because it disguis …

Small wind certification testing goes regional

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Excerpt: The DOE recently announced the selection of four partners to establish small wind Regional Test Centers (RTCs) to conduct tests on small wind turbines to meet national and international standards.  These awards provide funding, training, and technical support for each Regional Test Center so they m …

Wind resource maps show wind potential estimates for the U.S.

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Excerpt: Accurate information about the wind resource and wind-energy potential in each state is required for federal and state policy initiatives that will expand the use of wind energy in the U.S. Recent resource maps and wind potential tables were developed through a collaborative project between the Nati …

Chemical capacitor to store wind power

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Excerpt: Xtreme Power Inc says it has power storage technology that can beat lithium ion batteries in terms of energy efficiency, cycle life, and cost. The Texas-based company won a contract to install a 10-MW battery to back up a 30-MW wind farm planned for Oahu, Hawaii. Project developer First Wind rec …

NREL and Great Lakes Wind target midsized turbine designers and manufacturers

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Excerpt: The DOE and NREL have launched the Midsize Wind Turbine Development Project to help close a technology gap and facilitate development and commercialization of midsize wind turbines. The Laboratory is sponsoring workshops in Ohio and Oklahoma, facilitated by Cleveland-based Great Lakes Wind Network, …

Building a new industry in America: Components for Wind Turbines

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Excerpt: by Ed Weston Despite the push from Washington and state capitals for ‘green jobs,’ the wind industry has found them harder to create than expected.  Latest estimates of domestic content of US turbines are estimated at less than 50%.  With the help of organizations like the Great Lakes WIND …

Community wind shapes a growing trend

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Excerpt: An emerging group of wind-farm developers are focusing on midsized project farms and in places utility companies are overlooking. These community-wind projects, ranging from five to 80 MW, are cropping up in part due to recent financial incentives and guidance from firms such as OwnEnergy Inc, Brook …