[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . Kaiser Jeep

while hauling spent fuel rods and decommissioned reactor vessels.

There is not a whole lot of that going on and, from my point of view, that is the problem with the argument of all nuclear proponents . . . only part of the story has been told.

Cheers.

[Graeme]

Wind Turbines Could Rule Tornado Alley

The reason that Pilger, Nebraska was so badly hit by tornados last month is the same reason that wind is a great energy source in Tornado Alley. The wind blows hard and often. So wind energy should be the major part of a sustainable energy mix in this region of the United States.

We don’t yet know how to protect our towns from tornados, although we’ve gotten very good at protecting our people with new shelters. But we do know how to harness that power using wind turbines.

In 2013, wind generation made up 4% of America’s 4 trillion kWhrs of electricity production, up 50% from 2009 (PowerMag). At the same time, coal resurged to 39%, retaking the lead over natural gas which dropped to 27%. Nuclear remained steady at 19%, as did hydropower at 7%.

Biomass dropped to 1.5%, geothermal was 0.4% and solar was 0.2% (EIA).

So wind has become our fifth largest power generator, and will capture fourth place from hydropower before 2030 since we’ve basically tapped out hydro in this country. However, although wind turbines are strewn throughout America, most of this generation is coming from Tornado Alley (Wind Electricity Generation In Tornado Alley; EIA).

forbes

[dolanbaker]

Are wind turbines tornado proof?

[KaiserJeep]

No, wind turbines are not tornado-proof. However, Nuclear power plants ARE tornado-proof.

Scrub Puller, the Forbes report above DOES include the complete nuclear fuel cycle, unlike earlier reports. Even after these extra deaths are accounted for, nuclear energy is safer than wind or solar or hydro power. Nuclear is also the only form of safe power that is available 24 hour by 365 days per year, and thus is suitable for baseline power generation.

California has just scaled back on hydropower, for the first time in decades. As with Germany, we will face a large decrease in renewable energy output this year. In our case, the cause is drought, rather than a lack of political willpower.

[Graeme]

Taming Tornadoes Storm Abatement from Space

Wind Share of World Electricity Will More Than Double By 2018

Global prospects for wind power are rising despite disappointing 2013 numbers, say analysts at Navigant Research. Although the wind industry worldwide added 36,134 MW in 2013, for the first time in nearly a decade, new installed wind power fell below that of the year before. The graph below indicates a 20% year-on-year decline in 2013, compared to market growth of 18.6% in 2012.

Analysts had expected this market decline because of important European markets continuing to feel the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and negative conditions in several key countries (notably the United States and Spain, both plagued by policy inconsistency). Importantly, the US failed to demonstrate an ongoing political commitment and renew tax credits for wind development, which have traditionally stimulated investment. Installation of new wind plants in the United States dropped by 93%, significantly reducing global growth.

Still, wind power now supplies about 3% of the world’s electricity, and the signs are good for the next several years. Navigant expects wind power to deliver 7.3% of global electricity by 2018. Says Feng Zhao, research director:

cleantechnica

[Keith_McClary]

Are global wind power resource estimates overstated?
Amanda S Adams and David W Keith
25 February 2013

Large-scale deployment of wind turbines may be expected to slow local winds, reducing CF and so reducing total wind power that can be extracted. Previous estimates of regional or global wind power resources [2–4] have ignored this effect, by assumed that array efficiency is independent of total capacity, and have therefore neglected the large-scale atmospheric energetics that constrain global winds and so constrain the energy they can be extracted by wind turbine arrays. Here we show that estimates based only on local wind power constraints may substantially overestimate global wind power capacity, by overestimating the CF's that could actually be obtained.
...
Consider wind turbines distributed evenly over some area. When the CD is sufficiently low its effect on winds within the area can be neglected and PD will increase linearly with the turbine density so that CF is constant. However, as the turbine density increases winds must slow and CF must decline so that PD grows sub-linearly. At sufficiently high PD the power produced will reach a maximum and then decrease as the increasing turbine density slows the winds.
...
As we discuss in section 2, more policy-driven wind power capacity estimates have restricted the area considered by factors such as wind energy density (e.g., wind power 'class' which impacts production cost), distance from energy demand, or competition with other land uses [2–4]. Yet as shown in figure 4, these estimates have used power production densities that are several times larger than the wind power production limit of around 1 W m−2 found in our study and in the global model studies [12, 13]. It is therefore plausible that wind power capacity may be limited to an extent that is relevant to energy policy.

[Graeme]

Question of the week: Who really controls the wind industry?

This week Windpower Monthly asks Tom Kiernan of AWEA, Peter Dickson of Glennmont Partners and Mark Konold of Worldwatch Institute who - manufacturers, financiers, politicians, the public - hold the most power over the future of the wind industry.

Peter Dickson - technical director Glenmont Partners

There are many players in the wind industry: regulators, manufacturers, developers, investors, lenders, so it is interesting to understand who holds the controlling stake - where does power lie?

To begin with power lay with the engineers and technologists who stepped up with solutions to the energy crisis of the 1970s. Western governments, desperate for a solution to the energy squeeze, turned to new forms of energy to fuel their economies. As the industry developed into a climate change mitigation strategy, supported by aggressive growth targets and long-term stable tariffs, power shifted according to where the bottlenecks existed in the industry – to manufacturers, developers or to financiers.


So the power in the wind sector lies with those who can control its future, the voters. The industry needs a revised mandate from the public to continue to invest in technology, in projects and in infrastructure. It is the responsibility of the industry, of academics, politicians and the media to present full and balanced information on the need for alternative power so that power can be exercised from an informed and unbiased perspective.

Tom Kiernan - CEO AWEA

windpowermonthly

[Graeme]

States Can Reap Economic Rewards of Wind Energy While Meeting New EPA Rules

States can reap the economic rewards of wind energy, while meeting new EPA rules, according to the America Wind Energy Association (AWEA).

“Overall, AWEA strongly supports the draft rule proposed by the EPA,” said AWEA Vice-President Tom Vinson in a statement during recent hearings on proposed EPA carbon rules for power plants.


US wind capacity has nearly doubled, on average, every three years since 2005, the AWEA said. In 2012, 13 GW of new wind power capacity was created, thanks to the uncertainty over the wind production tax credit (PTC). Because of the growth, the wind industry has drawn average yearly private investment in the past five years of $15 billion in 39 states and Puerto Rico. It has also created 50,000 jobs in 44 states.

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

Global Onshore Wind Market Expected to Reach $898 Billion in 2020

In a new global market report from Transparency Market Research, the onshore wind energy is anticipated to reach $898 billion by 2020. In 2013, the market was valued at $89.3 billion. From 2014 to 2020, the market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 29.6 percent.

According to the report, there are several factors that account for wind’s success. For one, wind is a relatively mature source of renewable energy, as it’s had time to develop and establish itself. However, the most rapid development has come in recent years as green initiatives are ramping up worldwide. Job growth in wind-rich regions is also a major factor, as is wind-friendly governmental policies around the globe.

The report also notes, though, that there is still plenty of room for cost reduction, innovation, and material diversification.

Currently, the market is dominated by the Asia Pacific region, with China and India at the forefront. China was the clear leader, with record installations of 16030 MW in 2013.

Unfortunately, in the U.S. and Europe, onshore wind growth has stalled. While Germany and the U.K. were definite leaders in Europe, the region is far from the wind powerhouse it once was. And while the U.S. is still a global leader in wind, 2013 saw a sharp decline in installations.

energydigital

[Graeme]

US Installs 835MW New Wind Energy So Far In 2014, 14.6GW On The Way

America’s solar market boom has outshined other renewables in recent news, but the latest wind industry update is a reminder new turbines can save money and boost economies across the country – despite doldrums caused by federal policy inaction.

835 megawatts (MW) of new wind energy capacity was installed across the United States during the first half (1H) of 2014 with 619MW coming online in the second quarter (2Q), according to the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) U.S. Wind Industry Second Quarter 2014 Market Report.

This growth is more than the industry installed during the first three quarters of 2013 and boosts total installed U.S. wind capacity to 46,300 turbines and nearly 62 gigawatts (GW), with even more on the horizon – another 106 projects representing up to 14,600MW of additional capacity are currently underway in 21 states across the country

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

Price of US Wind Power at ‘All-Time Low’ of 2.5 Cents per Kilowatt-Hour

A just-released Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report pegs utility-scale wind power-purchase agreement pricing as averaging $25 per megawatt-hour for projects that negotiated contracts in 2013. That's cheap power.

But, as Stephen Lacey asked in a recent podcast, how do we calculate the true cost of intermittent renewables?

Lacey and The Energy Gang debated the findings of a recent study from the Brookings Institution that concluded that the costs of wind and solar "are higher than presumed when using a cost-benefit calculation model." The Economist picked up that Brookings report, which ranked solar PV last and wind next to last, while gas and nuclear led the rankings.

The Rocky Mountain Institute's Amory Lovins contributed an article to Greentech Media arguing that the Brookings Institution paper’s conclusions were wrong -- the fruits of an analysis based on "outdated or otherwise incorrect data." Lovins wrote that the author "assumed solar and wind to be more expensive and less productive than they actually are, and conversely assumed nuclear and gas combined-cycle to be less expensive and (for gas) more productive than they actually are. All knobs got turned in exactly the wrong directions."

greentechmedia

Energy Department Reports Highlight Strength of U.S. Wind Energy Industry

After modest growth in 2013, total installed wind power capacity in the United States now stands at 61 gigawatts (GW), which meets nearly 4.5 percent of electricity demand in an average year, according to the 2013 Wind Technologies Market Report, released today by the Energy Department and its Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The report also found that wind energy prices – particularly in the Interior region of the United States–are at an all-time low, with utilities selecting wind as a cost-saving option.

With utility-scale turbines installed in more than 39 states and territories, the success of the U.S. wind industry has had a ripple effect on the American economy, spurring more than $500 million in exports and supporting jobs related to development, siting, manufacturing, transportation and other industries.

DISTRIBUTED WIND MARKET REPORT

In total, U.S. turbines in distributed applications, which accounted for more than 80 percent of all wind turbines installed in the U.S. last year, reached a cumulative installed capacity of more than 842 MW–enough to power 120,000 average American homes–according to the 2013 Distributed Wind Market Report, also released today by the Energy Department and its Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. This capacity is supplied by roughly 72,000 turbines across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In fact, a total of 14 states, including Iowa, Nevada and California, among others, now each have more than 10 MW of distributed wind capacity.

energy

[Graeme]

How Low Can Wind Energy Go? 2.5¢ Per Kilowatt-Hour Is Just The Beginning

The tubes have been buzzing over a new Department of Energy report on the US wind energy market, which came up with the low-low average cost for wind energy of $25 per megawatt-hour for a certain type of electricity purchase agreement (more on that later). According to some of our friends on the Internets that works out to 2.5¢ per kilowatt-hour, which certainly seems to spell doom for the long term prospects of coal, nuclear, oil, and even that “other” low cost fuel, natural gas.

Before you break out the pom-poms, though, the aptly named 2013 Wind Technologies Market Report contains some important caveats about that $25 figure as well as other findings. We covered the report’s wind tech export angle in brief earlier this week, so now let’s pick apart the cost angle.

cleantechnica

[Graeme]

WIND POWER CAN IMPROVE RESILIENCY OF ELECTRICAL GRIDS

Today, at the CIGRE Session 45 in Paris, GE’s Energy Consulting business (NYSE: GE) presented the findings of its frequency response study on wind power and grid resiliency. The study, which was sponsored by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, modeled the country’s Eastern Interconnection—one of the largest electrical systems in the world—and determined that when equipped with the appropriate modern plant controls, wind applications can substantially enhance grid resiliency.

Increased Wind Integration Positions Electrical Grids to Better Respond to Major Disturbances

Finding Based on Model of Eastern Interconnection of U.S. with Aggressive 25-Percent Wind Power Integration

Study Sponsored by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Questions about how the U.S. electrical systems would respond to a large-scale interruption of generation, such as multiple power plants tripping offline, were the catalyst for the study. An event like this could result in significantly lower frequencies on the system, customer interruptions or even large-scale blackouts.

earthtechling

[Graeme]

What The Falling Price Of Wind Power Means

Wind energy has never been more affordable, the Department of Energy’s Berkeley National Laboratory announced recently in releasing its new 2013 Wind Energy Technologies Market Report and a companion slide presentation.

Wind means lower electric bills for millions of Americans across the wind-rich states. That value to consumers is why it’s essential to keep the tax incentives that encourage private investment in building new wind farms — so that more people can benefit from low-priced wind power.

The energy trades are taking notice of the new DOE report: “New Study Finds Price of Wind Energy in U.S. at an All-time Low,” said Civil and Structural Engineer.

“With Wind Energy Prices at All-Time Lows, DOE is Cautiously Optimistic,” former New York Times reporter Jack Cushman wrote in Inside Climate News. And from North American Windpower: “Despite 2013 Challenges, U.S. Wind Power Reaches All-Time Low Price.”

Through innovation and economies of scale, the wind industry has indeed been able to shave over half of its costs in just the past five years.

What do the resulting record low wholesale prices mean for U.S. electric utilities, and we the rate-paying public? For development companies and U.S. turbine factories? For the campaign to extend critical tax policies it will take to build more wind farms?

cleantechnica

[Surf]

Are wind turbines tornado proof?

No, wind turbines are not tornado-proof. However, Nuclear power plants ARE tornado-proof.

[/quote]

While the reactor is tornado proof the power lines outside the reactor are not. if the nuclear reactor cannot export power due to downed power lines the reactor must shut down and and switch to emergency power.

The Fukushima accident started with the loss of the power lines. The backup generators were started but then destroyed by the tidal wave.

Wind turbines are designed to withstand very strong winds. while some older wind farms were damaged by hurricanes newer wind turbines are built stronger and will probably hold up to all but the worst hurricanes.

Tornadoes have the strongest winds on earth. it is probably not possible to build a turbine to withstand 300 mph winds. However a typical tornado only last about an hour ( typically less) and is typically less than a mile wide. It is highly unlikely that an entire wind farm would be destroyed by a tornado. A single tornado would likely damage only a small fraction of a large wind farm. The few damaged wind turbines could be repaired or replaced in a year or two.

Wind and solar systems are inherently resilient due to there distributed nature. The loss of a few wind turbines or a solar power plants due to one storm, earthquake, or tidal wave would not have a big impact.

[Graeme]

The IRS Is Giving Away $13 Billion A Year In Wind Energy Subsidies, Without Congressional Authorization

The main federal handout for the wind energy industry has grown considerably despite the fact that it expired at the end of 2013. Over the past two years, IRS administrators have relaxed the eligibility requirements to make it easier for in-progress wind farm projects to qualify for government subsidies (known in Washington as the ‘production tax credit’ or “PTC”). The IRS has done so repeatedly and quietly, often without action from Congress.

Back in December 2012, while Senate Minority Leader McConnell and Vice President Biden were negotiating a last-minute deal to prevent income taxes from rising across the board, special interests in the wind industry engaged in a flurry of lobbying activity. Congress slipped in a provision in the Fiscal Cliff at the 11th hour that extended and greatly expanded wind subsidies through lower eligibility requirements. Previously, wind farms had to be placed in service and generating electricity in order to claim the credit; after the Fiscal Cliff deal, they only had to be in the beginning stages of construction.

The IRS clarified shortly thereafter that wind farm projects would be able to receive the special tax giveaway if they spent as little as 5 percent of the construction costs. This meant that projects would have to do barely any work by the deadline in order to qualify.

Again, in April 2013, the PTC raised the amount of the subsidy. The IRS issued a notice that raised the value of the tax credit from $22 per megawatt-hour of electricity produced to $23 per megawatt-hour.

forbes

[Graeme]

Rooftop Mounted Wind Turbines That Make Homes Self-Sufficient

When it comes to renewable energy, wind turbines are certainly one of the greener and more sustainable options. Their biggest drawbacks is that they have to be large to produce enough energy, and that they make a lot of noise, which is why they haven’t yet been widely adopted by homeowners. However, The Archimedes, a Holland-based renewable energy start-up is currently working on a solution to this problem. They are designing a wind turbine small enough to be mounted on the roof of a typical home, but which is still highly efficient at converting wind to energy and does so nearly soundlessly.

According to the company, this so-called Liam F1 turbine would be able to generate 1,500 kWh of energy per year at wind speeds of 5m/s, which is enough to satisfy about half of an average household’s energy use. If combined with a rooftop mounted solar PV array, the system would generate enough energy to take a home off-the-grid.

jetsongreen

[vtsnowedin]

Rooftop Mounted Wind Turbines That Make Homes Self-Sufficient

When it comes to renewable energy, wind turbines are certainly one of the greener and more sustainable options. Their biggest drawbacks is that they have to be large to produce enough energy, and that they make a lot of noise, which is why they haven’t yet been widely adopted by homeowners. However, The Archimedes, a Holland-based renewable energy start-up is currently working on a solution to this problem. They are designing a wind turbine small enough to be mounted on the roof of a typical home, but which is still highly efficient at converting wind to energy and does so nearly soundlessly.

According to the company, this so-called Liam F1 turbine would be able to generate 1,500 kWh of energy per year at wind speeds of 5m/s, which is enough to satisfy about half of an average household’s energy use. If combined with a rooftop mounted solar PV array, the system would generate enough energy to take a home off-the-grid.

jetsongreen

Sounds great but the proof is in the listening. Small windmills can be quite noisy and maybe they have solved this problem but I would have to hear their results in a good brisk wind to believe it. Also windmills are slaves to the area of a circle formula where doubling the diameter yields four times the flow and conversely cutting it in half yields only a quarter of the power. The Jacob's windmills I worked on in the seventy's swept a fourteen foot diameter circle and charged a set of batteries which stored 440 amp hours. On a good site these proved adequate until the grid was extended to the plains. Anything smaller and I'd have my doubts about adequacy even with some solar panel back up. Of course the wind blows at night and in the winter so their certainly is a potential for a dual wind and solar system that serves very well.

[ROCKMAN]

Vt - I recall a similar effort in England some years ago that seemed to be a total flop. Maybe some of our Brit cousins can update us.

[Graeme]

Doesn't appear to be a problem according to this website. In fact, the procedure to get one is explained in detail below:

Installing a wind turbine

Home wind turbines

Choosing a home wind turbine

There are two types home wind turbines: roof-mounted and free-standing mast-mounted. Home wind turbines can either be connected to the national grid or stand alone, storing the energy they produce in a battery.

Home wind turbines come in a range of sizes, prices and powers, generating from under 100W to around 50kW. Smaller micro-turbines are often used to charge batteries, while those of 0.6kW upwards can also be used to generate electricity for houses and businesses. Rooftop models vary from 0.5kW to 2.5kW in size.

Choosing the right turbine design and size to suit your home is very dependent on individual circumstances.

Earn cash from home wind power
Renewable energy has become more attractive since April 2010, when the government launched its Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme. Under this scheme, if you generate your own electricity through a wind turbine, energy suppliers must pay you for it, whether you use it to power your home or export it to the grid.

The scheme guarantees a minimum payment for all electricity generated, plus a separate extra payment for electricity you export to the grid. This is in addition to the fact that you'll be saving money on your energy bills by importing less from the grid.

Terms and conditions apply to the scheme. For example, the wind turbine must have been installed after 1 April 2010 by a certified Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) approved installer – but it's definitely worth looking into this before you get a wind turbine installed. To find out more, see our Feed-in Tariff explained guide.

You can get a good estimate of how much you may be able to earn through a feed-in tariff by using the Energy Saving Trust's Solar Energy Calculator.

which