Renewable Energy World - Wind Power

In a series of deals the investor-owned utility says is good for consumers' wallets, American Electric Power subsidiary Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) recently signed long-term power purchase agreements for a total of 358.65 MW of capacity from wind projects in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

Today the Obama administration moved forward with plans to develop the enormous offshore wind energy resources along the Mid-Atlantic coast, using a "Smart for the Start" approach designed to expedite the siting process while incorporating strong environmental protections.

Renewable energy in the United States is at a crossroads. With several federal tax grants set to expire by the end of 2012, utilities are trying to decide if the falling prices of solar and wind technology makes renewable energy competitive enough to invest in despite vanishing federal aid.

Wind energy is becoming one of the most widely used sources of renewable energy. In fact, according to the American Wind Energy Association, the wind energy industry has added more than 35 percent of all the new power generating capacity since 2007. As the industry grows in popularity, new developers continue to enter the market, and existing developers may likely expand their investments in wind farms.

Twenty years ago, international leaders descended on Brazil to lay the groundwork for what would eventually become the Kyoto Protocol. This summer, a 20-member United Nations panel will once again head to Rio de Janeiro with an even more ambitious agenda.

Due to growing urbanization and resulting environmental threats, China has invested nearly US$50 billion annually into its renewable energy sector since 2009. China's five-year investment in environmental protection is on track to reach 3.1 trillion yuan (US$454 billion). By 2015, its environmental protection industry is expected to top 2 trillion yuan (US$317 billion).

With developers having made their final end-of-year push through the last day of December, the January ritual of announcements concerning new projects entering commercial operation and new PPAs kicking in continued this week.

The U.S. wind industry posted strong fourth quarter results, AWEA reported on Thursday during a webinar for members and press.

Solar players on both sides of the Pacific have been warily anticipating the Feb. 13 deadline when the Department of Commerce was set to announce whether it would impose duties on solar cells and modules coming in from China.

During the fourteen years that I've lived in Switzerland, the Germans have been the world's staunchest supporters of green power and alternative energy. Their aggressive development of wind power was breathtaking, as was their warm embrace of photovoltaic power.

In his Jan. 24 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama reinstated his commitment to renewable energy. Despite the demise of solar manufacturer Solyndra looming over the past year of his term, Obama said that he “will not walk away from the promise of clean energy.” Obama called for a commitment by the Defense Department

I have a new favorite word — aggregation. At the risk of sounding like a reporter, I'm going to summarize a pre-holiday news story you might have missed but need to know about.

Securitizing renewable energy networks from cyber-attacks is not complicated by their oft-cited operational headache of intermittency, but rather by their separation from a utility's control system, said smart grid executives at the Gridwise Global Forum in Washington, DC in early November. Though renewable intermittency adds to the challenge of stabilizing a grid, the forum revealed new evidence of real-world smart grid load shifting that continues to chip away at the tired argument that renewable energy cannot successfully integrate into a legacy grid.

So far, the complaint by American wind tower manufacturers against their competition from Asia has mirrored the solar industry petition filed in October.

If we want wind to continue growing, more turbines will need to be placed in our communities and close to our backyards. And that will inevitably cause more social friction.

In news that clears the way for construction to start immediately, California-based NaturEner USA, LLC, secured a $320 million construction loan with Morgan Stanley for the189-MW Rim Rock wind power project in Montana.

They stand as looming testaments to innovation, growing ever more prominent and powerful. Yet for much of 2011, wind installations remained somewhat obscured, eclipsed by the media storm surrounding the solar industry.

Chile is built for renewable energy. The seemingly unending coastline that runs the length of its boundary is prime real estate for wind development, and eventually the offshore wind projects, that could power the cities found along its spine. The nation's solar resources, especially in the northern regions, are among the best in the world. And its place along the ring of fire means its geothermal potential is vast, yet untapped.

A top GE executive is calling the political battle between economy and environment "nonsense." In a video interview at an international clean energy investment conference last week, Mark Vachon, vice president of GE's successful Ecomagination program, hailed "environmental performance" as a key driver for business.

Two new reports about the wind industry in Australia provide good news about the facts but bad news about the politics. The first report is from CSIRO, Australia’s peak scientific research organisation, on community acceptance of rural wind farms. Dr. Nina Hall from the CSIRO Science into Society Group was lead author. Hall and her colleagu