EPA tools screen contaminated and underutilized sites for renewable energy potential

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Excerpt: Finding ideal sites for solar and wind projects can be challenging, especially for those who lack technical expertise. But Bloomberg reports that the EPA and Energy Department have made this easier by offering new tools for evaluating commercial and industrial rooftops, parking lots, and contaminate …

Software efficiently, realistically simulates composite wind turbine blades

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Excerpt: Allan Wood, President and CEO of AnalySwift As wind-turbine manufacturers seek additional ways to reduce costs and improve performance, greater focus has turned to improving modeling techniques as a way to reliably predict wind-turbine behavior prior to expensive prototyping and testing. In parti …

New discoveries hoped from a turbine in a wind tunnel

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Excerpt: The aerospace-engineering department at Politecnico di Milano (Italy) is working on a model wind turbine in the school’s wind tunnel. It has been used for researching operating behaviors in extreme conditions. Bachmann electronic is providing the controller for the model. The setup is to te …

Watch the wind live

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Excerpt: I always wondered why my boy friend in Pittsburgh often seemed to experience our weather here in Cleveland a day later. This really cool wind map from a pair of Google computer scientists may hold the answer. One can view the pathways of wind across the U.S. live. Information is updated hourly …

Patent for unusual downdraft wind tower OK to file

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Excerpt:   The Downdraft Tower is a tall hollow cylinder with a water spray system at the top. Pumps deliver water to the top of the tower to spray a fine mist across the entire opening. The water evaporates and cools the hot dry air at the top. The cooled air is denser and heavier than the outsi …

When lightning strikes

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Excerpt: Electric utilities, energy companies, and wind-farm operators will say that adverse weather can cost their operations a significant amount when it affects their infrastructure. Lightning is one weather phenomena that challenges wind-farm operations. Fortunately, recent products and software allow op …

2011 wind energy performance map

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Excerpt: A recent map of wind performance throughout 2011 shows that wind speeds were above their season averages for most of the U.S. The map, from 3TIER, shows departures from long-term mean wind speeds that range from -20% to +20% and provides an indication of how wind projects should have performed …

Monitoring transformers key to predictive maintenance

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Excerpt: Mike Dickinson, Pacific Coast Transformers, www.pacificcresttransformers.com Transformers serve as a hub for collection and distribution of energy changing the voltage level at different locations of the grid. They are a key component of the Smart Grid, loosely defined as an automated, widely dis …

Tracking where and when lightning strikes

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Excerpt: The developer of a global lightning detection network will provide access to its Global Lightning Dataset GLD360, which holds lightning data with peak current estimates, greater location accuracy, and improved polarity classification than previously available. The enhancements in data quality wi …

New lab to help utilities ‘see’ grid of the future

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Excerpt: This article comes from NREL With the simple flick of a light switch, you connect to "the machine," the North American electric grid. It’s the world's most complex transmission and distribution system — also is referred to as the world's largest machine. That same machine has run reliably o …