Offshore Wind

Can the DOE Kick-Start Offshore Wind in the US?

By


While there are nearly four gigawatts of installed offshore wind capacity in Europe and China, the U.S. has no operational projects in the water, and its nine advanced-stage plans, representing 3,380 megawatts of potential capacity, face challenges, according to a new study on the industry by Navigant Consulting that was conducted for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

To further drive U.S. offshore wind past those challenges and into commercial operation by 2017, the DOE awarded $28 million per year in Advanced Technology Demonstration funding for the next six years to seven projects that proved themselves with backing from DOE in 2011. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 14, 2012 at 3:30 PM

UK Energy Plan: A Model for a Low-carbon Future?

By


Can government stimulate investment in renewable energy generation by guaranteeing an electricity price for developers of sources such as wind and nuclear?

The UK government thinks it can, and recently introduced a long-awaited bill that would set a “strike price” for power generated by low-carbon producers, and recover the costs from consumers via electricity suppliers. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 10, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Has Germany’s Wind Power Sector Escaped the Grim Fate of Solar PV?

By


While Germany’s once soaring photovoltaic sector is going through very hard times – a consequence primarily of cheap Chinese imports – the country’s wind energy sector, also a market leader, has so far managed to stay on its feet. But the industry is not booming like it did just a few years ago and is scaling back its expectations for 2012. Experts in Germany say that the German wind industry should expect even tougher competition coming its way soon, possibly from China.

In Germany one of the country’s solar panel manufacturers after another closed their doors over the past year and a half: Battling with China and other new competitors the world-wide industry created a glut and prices went tumbling down in 2009 and 2010. With them went under what had been several of the choicest success stories of Germany’s post-unification economy, many of them in the former eastern Germany which had benefited immensely from the upstart renewables industry. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 29, 2012 at 8:30 AM

The Green Republic? Germany’s Wind Energy Boom

By


The German wind industry sits at the heart of a European energy market preparing for a disruptive transformation intended to promote integration and allow the rich wind resource of the North to fuel continent-wide growth, without the risks of nuclear power and reliance on foreign energy producers.

It is a comprehensive, ambitious vision that in Germany alone the environment minister Peter Altmaier has compared in scale to the country’s painful post-Communist reunification. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 8, 2012 at 4:00 PM

Wind Power: The Danish Example

By


Denmark has been a European haven for cleantech companies seeking to install new renewable energy infrastructure. As other European countries have labored under the impacts of an economic slowdown rooted in a currency and sovereign debt crisis, Denmark – still outside the eurozone if closely linked to it – has remained comparatively committed to ambitious clean energy goals.

Situated on a windy peninsula that divides the North and Baltic seas, Denmark has turned to wind power as an obvious mechanism for building out its clean energy capacity. Huge windmills turning serenely along the water are a feature of the above video, as are interviews with a number of officials, energy industry executives and politicians attending a recent European Wind Energy Association meeting. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 25, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Offshore Wind Energy Developers Focus on Northeast US Shores

By


Offshore wind power has become a significant component of several European countries’ electricity generation portfolios and now the US is looking to expand the power generating capacity of wind beyond its coastline.

The economics can be complex – particularly if the production tax credit expires at the end of 2012 – but offshore wind has the potential to become an affordable source of electricity for some of the largest US markets. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 2, 2012 at 1:30 PM

Across the Pond, A Model for Reform?

By


An ambitious plan by the UK government to replace aging power stations with low-carbon generation could be a model for other countries that are also searching for ways of hitting tough emissions targets while satisfying higher future demand for electricity.

On May 22, the government introduced its latest proposal for attracting the 110 billion pounds (roughly $171 billion) that it says is needed to build new generation including nuclear, offshore wind and carbon capture technology to take the place of the 20% of current capacity that will go off line over the next decade. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 1, 2012 at 2:00 PM

Plans for Huge Undersea Power Line Advance

By


Plans to build the first US undersea transmission system for offshore wind farms advanced on Monday when the federal government said there was no competition for the proposed project, which can now be subject to an environmental review without being delayed by an auction.

The US Department of the Interior issued a finding of no competitive interest on the plan by Atlantic Grid Holdings to build the $5 billion Atlantic Wind Connection, a 300-mile transmission line off five mid-Atlantic states to take as much as 7,000 megawatts of wind-turbine capacity from yet-to-be-built offshore wind farms. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 15, 2012 at 3:15 PM

Cost Review Set For World’s ‘Most Expensive Wind Farm’

By


A developer hoping to build America’s first offshore wind farm is taking another look at its costs after reports attacked its plans as too expensive, technically unproven, and likely to have a negative effect on the local economy.

Fishermen’s Energy, a consortium of fishing companies, plans to build the wind farm in New Jersey waters three miles off the coast in a five-turbine pilot project that it hopes will pave the way for a bigger installation in federal waters farther offshore. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 6, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Salazar Sees Fair Winds For Atlantic Projects In 2012

By


Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he expects the leasing process for wind projects off the Atlantic coast, including a “pioneering” backbone transmission project, to go forward early in 2012.

Salazar also announced Tuesday approval of wind and solar projects in the Southwest, and Deputy Secretary David Hayes said Interior is on track to meet Congress’ 2015 target, of 10,000 MW of renewables on federal lands, three years early. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 21, 2011 at 10:45 AM
Page 4 of 512345