By Paul Dvorak, former editor, Windpower Engineering and Development; and Thomas Schock, Team Leader, Cleveland Power of Wind Action Team Whose side are unelected officials really on: The general public or special interests? The question came to mind recently as the Icebreaker Wind project neared final approval and was halted dead in its tracks by…
Inch Cape completes 3-year wind measurements with Lidar
Details of a novel three-year project to enhance the energy assessment and revenue forecasting for the proposed Inch Cape Offshore Wind Farm 15km off the Angus coast in the East of Scotland demonstrates significant benefits of adopting bespoke technology to gather data. A ZephIR wind Lidar system was installed on an existing lighthouse structure thanks…
Liftra’s Blade Way brings down turbine blades without a crane
Wind turbine service company Liftra launched the Blade Way in 2017 and introduced it at AWEA’s recent Windpower 2018 conference, as a way to remove and replace wind turbine blades without the time and cost expense of a high-reach crane. Blade Way has a rated capacity of 14.6 tons, and it can work at peak…
GE 6-MW Halide turbines go to work at Merkur Offshore
The Offshore Wind Farm, Merkur Offshore is located in the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the North Sea, about 45 km north of Borkum Island in the north-eastern part of the specified zone for offshore wind farms. The project site covers an area of 47 km². Merkur Offshore will be equipped with 66 wind…
The local impact of wind energy in the spotlight on Global Wind Day
From niche technology, wind energy is now a global success story. The wind industry provides 260,000 quality high-skilled jobs in Europe. On a global scale, that figure is now 1.15 million. Today is Global Wind Day, an opportunity for citizens around the world to learn more about and show their support for wind power. It’s also…
Hydrogen Council schedules 2018 global CEO meeting in San Francisco
Editor’s note: This organization should be of interest to the wind industry because it offers another potential customer for wind-generated power. It is likely that hydrogen will be electrolyzed from water and so provides a reason that no functioning wind turbine should ever be curtailed. Executives from the Hydrogen Council, a global CEO-led coalition working…
Meet Keystone Engineering’s twisted jacket, an offshore wind-turbine foundation
Keystone Engineering’s Offshore Renewables Division has developed a patented design called the Inward Battered Guide Structure, or “Twisted Jacket” foundation. This innovative offshore foundation reduces both cost and risk compared to traditional offshore foundations. The company says its experience in fabrication, construction, and installing offshore structures provides a big advantage in the design stage of…
What to know about the visual impact of offshore wind farms
This article comes from the blog at US Wind The proposal to build offshore wind projects in Maryland, approved by the state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) has been lauded and cheered by environmentalists, organized labor, Maryland manufacturers, and voters from the swing legislative districts of Baltimore County and Eastern Shore that favor renewable energy in…
Trenwa’s precast utility trench withstands 80,000-lb trucks during substation rebuild
Since 1960 the composites industry has grown 25 fold [1] as industry after industry adapt its light, strong hardwearing qualities to create higher performance products than previously possible. The U.S. is leading the charge with the second largest market for composites globally (after China)[2]. Fibrelite has been using composites for many years to re-engineer omnipresent yet…
Interview with Head of Energy Informatics and Information Systems at Fraunhofer IEE
Reinhard Mackensen discusses the security of wind-farm information. Q. Data science has accelerated at an exponential pace during the relatively short life of the wind power industry. What are the major changes over the past 5 to 10 years? A. Dr. Mackensen: The first major change was the regulatory framework which forced operators to open…
Germany’s EnBW enters California offshore wind; Tech giants align to remove contract barriers
The article was first published by New Energy Update Germany’s ENBW has entered the North American offshore wind market by joining Trident Wind’s project to build up to 1 GW of floating wind capacity off the coast of central California. ENBW has created a regional subsidiary, EnBW North America, and formed a joint venture with Trident…
LOC Renewables expands its geotechnical team to enhance offshore development capabilities
LOC Renewables, through its specialist naval architectural and design firm, Longitude Engineering, has announced the expansion of its geoscience consultancy team, strengthening its end-to-end project development capabilities. The team will deliver a range of services related to the mitigation of ground risk for offshore wind development, from concept through to construction and maintenance. The continued…
Principle Power and Senvion plan to float a 10-MW turbine
Principle Power recently announced its involvement in a European Commission funded project to accelerate the adoption of the next generation of high capacity offshore wind turbines. Involving the most experienced offshore industry stakeholders, the ReaLCoE project, led by German turbine manufacturer Senvion, serves a strategic mission to develop the “Next Generation 10+MW rated, Robust, Reliable and Large Offshore Wind…
Iowa hints at how it became a nation-leading wind powerhouse
Eat your heart out, California, but little middle-of-America Iowa is closer to hitting the halfway mark to 100% powered by wind than you are. MidAmerican’s recently announced around its new Wind XII project which will position the company to hit its 100% renewable energy goal and significantly contribute to Iowa’s ongoing leadership in renewable energy.…
New Jersey Governor signs sweeping clean energy revisions into law, formalizes 100% clean energy goal by 2050
This article comes from McCarter & English LLP and is authored by Streett, Emily, Frank, Kimberly B., W., and Howe, Nathan New Jersey has injected new life into its renewable energy programs with the passage of a bill that significantly raises New Jersey’s renewable portfolio standards (RPS), revamps its solar renewable energy certificate (SREC) program, kick-starts development in energy…
ENGIE North America acquires Unity International Group
ENGIE North America Inc. recently announced it has acquired Unity International Group, a premier electrical construction and maintenance company. The new firm specializes in electrical system construction; data and telecommunications systems construction; management of mission-critical power infrastructure; building-wide maintenance of electrical, mechanical, and energy management equipment; and enterprise-scale IT infrastructure support and services. The company…
Power contracts are off to a good start in 2018
This article comes from law firm Norton Rose Fulbright and is authored by Keith Martin Renewable energy developers reported coming into 2018 that the competition for power purchase agreements to supply electricity to utilities and corporate offtakers was “brutal.” The situation appears to have made a dramatic turnaround. NextEra Energy CFO John Ketchum said during…
Honeywell announces multi-site industrial cybersecurity solution to meet needs of connected operations
Honeywell has announced software to provide cybersecurity to industrial customers who manage diverse process control networks, sites, and vendors. As customers continue their digital transformation and their industrial sites become more connected, integrating cybersecurity has become even more critical. The multi-site solution for cyber-security management is based on Honeywell’s ICS Shield, which provides a top-down…
DoE launches two clean energy initiatives at 9th Clean Energy Ministerial
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette launched two new clean energy initiatives at the ninth Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM9) in Copenhagen, Denmark. Both the Nuclear Innovation: Clean Energy Future (NICE Future) initiative and the Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) initiative were originally proposed by Secretary of Energy Rick Perry at last year’s CEM…
Checking the global pulse for electric vehicles
This article comes from the Argonne National Laboratory. A team of academic researchers is seeking clarity on predictive plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) models. An examination of more than three dozen studies is providing some meaningful insights. “The value of the models is not in their predictive power, but in connecting ‘important’ factors in a way that…