The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory recently ranked PECO WIND fifth in the list of top ten green power programs based on total number of customers. The announcement is part of the DOE’s annual ranking of leading utility green power programs. More than 800 utilities across the Unites States now offer voluntary programs allowing customers to choose electricity generated from renewable resources such as wind and solar.

Wind farms generally improve the scenery of locations that were not that picturesque to begin with. According to a study in Geographical Research published by Wiley-Blackwell, wind farms have a negative impact on landscapes with a high scenic quality, but a positive effect on dull and mundane landscapes.

In the paper titled “Scenic Perceptions of the Visual Effects of Wind Farms in South Australian Landscapes”, over 300 participants rated the scenic qualities of 68 photographed landscapes with, and without, digitally added wind farms.

DUBLIN, Ireland – Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c88388) has announced the addition of Offshore Wind Power Market Potential to their offering.

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into useful forms, such as electricity, using wind turbines. In windmills, wind energy is directly used to crush grain or to pump water. At the end of 2007, worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 94.1 gigawatts. Although wind currently produces just over 1% of worldwide electricity use, it accounts for approximately 19% of electricity production in Denmark, 9% in Spain and Portugal, and 6% in Germany and the Republic of Ireland (2007 data). Globally, wind power generation increased more than fivefold between 2000 and 2007.

EOS leans on SED for wind power expertise in new renewable energy business.

Hancock, MA – EOS Ventures, LLC announced it’s partnership in a press conference today with Sustainable Energy Developments, Inc. (SED). The partnership brings SED and Brian Fairbank, co-owner of Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort, full circle in the renewable energy industry.

On August 15th, 2007 the then 12-person staff of (SED) gathered a top Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort to celebrate it’s biggest accomplishment. Biggest in size that is – it was the ribbon cutting of Jiminy’s 1.5 megawatt wind turbine, a project SED developed from the initial feasibility study to construction management during the installation. After the celebration the SED management team, made up of seven James Madison University alumni, headed back to headquarters fully knowing it would not be their final venture with Brian Fairbank, co-owner of Jiminy.

That brings us to present day, SED sits comfortably in a new office with a now 17-person staff, a new look on the website, 10 large scale projects in the 2008 calendar, and now a strategic alliance with EOS Ventures, LLC. EOS provides a one-stop resource for project expertise, management and ownership to install a turn-key alternative energy unit at your site via a long long-term power purchase agreement.

DUBLIN, Ireland – Research and Markets has announced the addition of “Offshore Wind Power” to their offering.

The 1st Edition of Offshore Wind Power report is a 75-page overview of how and why offshore wind power is set to become a major contributor to global power production.

Wind power has been the fastest growing industry in the world over the last decade and most wind energy is produced onshore. However, a number of challenges have arisen that make continued onshore wind power deployment more difficult. This has opened the door for offshore wind power development. Offshore wind turbines take advantage of wind speeds which are more constant and stronger than those on land. Larger turbines are used, which translates into greater energy production. Since many large load centers are located near coasts, turbines can be installed closer to load, decreasing transmission losses and reducing congestion. The placement of turbines over-the-horizon and undersea transmission lines eliminate many of the aesthetic concerns that are common with onshore turbines.

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – Renewable Energy Systems (RES) Americas Inc. of Austin, Texas, one of the leading wind developers in North America, has signed agreements exceeding $700 million to receive GE Energy 1.5-megawatt wind turbines for projects in 2009 and 2010.

GE Energy will supply RES with nearly 500 megawatts of new wind energy capacity, and will provide commissioning and operations services as well as maintenance support. “Throughout the United States we continue to witness strong interest in the production of cleaner, wind-generated electricity,” said Victor Abate, vice president-renewables for GE Energy. “We are pleased that RES has selected our well-proven, 1.5-megawatt technology to help the company reach its build-out goals for the years ahead.”

MINNEAPOLIS – Xcel Energy soon will begin testing a cutting-edge technology to store wind energy in batteries. It will be the first use of the technology in the United States for direct wind energy storage.

Integrating variable wind and solar power production with the needs of the power grid is an ongoing issue for the utility industry. Xcel Energy will begin testing a one-megawatt battery-storage technology to demonstrate its ability to store wind energy and move it to the electricity grid when needed. Fully charged, the battery could power 500 homes for over 7 hours.

“Energy storage is key to expanding the use of renewable energy,” said Dick Kelly, Xcel Energy Chairman, President and CEO. “This technology has the potential to reduce the impact caused by the variability and limited predictability of wind energy generation. As the nation’s leader in distributing wind energy, this will be very important to both us and our customers.”

WindTrain is the recipient of a 2007 Citation from the Unbuilt Architecture Design Committee of the Boston Society of Architects (BSA). This award honors innovation and experimentation in design devoid of standard contextual constraints. Award jurors described WindTrain as, “A bold notion of using found land to reduce automobile emissions.”

Arrowstreet developed the concept of a “wind train” from the imperative to reduce our regional impact on global warming. Massachusetts power plants generate 22% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the state; vehicles contribute 32%. The WindTrain addresses both sources simultaneously, offsetting CO2 production by providing 1,000 MW of power generation capacity through wind turbines located along Route 128 and 93 in Massachusetts, and by linking all existing commuter rail links from the City of Boston with a transit loop-connecting the spokes with the wheel.

The project suggests a vision for the ubiquitous interstate infrastructure in the U.S. and offers opportunities to generate renewable energy across the country without adversely impacting undisturbed land and residential neighborhoods.

Xcel Energy today issued a Request for Proposals for 500 megawatts of wind power to help it meet Minnesota’s Renewable Energy Standard. Under the company’s preferred option, once built, project ownership would be transferred to Xcel Energy. The company will consider resources with commercial operation dates through 2011.

“We support the goal of securing an environmentally sound energy future, and we are committed to achieving this goal in a reliable and timely manner,” said Mark Stoering, Xcel Energy vice president for portfolio strategy and business development. “We also are striving to achieve this goal in a cost-effective manner for our customers.”

Minnesota’s RES requires Xcel Energy to supply 30 percent of its customers’ electricity needs with renewable resources by 2020. To meet Minnesota’s standard and renewable requirements in other jurisdictions the company serves in the Upper Midwest, Xcel Energy plans to add 2,600 megawatts of wind resources to its system by 2020, over and above the 1,300 megawatts of wind resource scheduled to be on line by the end of 2008. At year-end 2007, the company will have more than 1,000 megawatts of wind power on its Minnesota system.

Aiming laser at model windmills shows how clean power source can stir up the atmosphere

Using smoke, laser light, model airplane propellers and a campus wind tunnel, a team led by Johns Hopkins University researchers is trying to solve the airflow mysteries that surround wind turbines, an increasingly popular source of “green” energy. The National Science Foundation recently awarded the team a three-year, $321,000 grant to support the project.

The rise in oil prices and a growing demand for energy from non-polluting sources has led to a global boom in construction of tall wind turbines that convert the power of moving air into electricity. The technology of these devices has improved dramatically in recent years, making wind energy more attractive. For example, Denmark is able to produce about 20 percent of its electric energy through wind turbines. But important questions remain: Could large wind farms, whipping up the air with massive whirling blades, alter local weather conditions? Could changing the arrangement of these turbines lead to even more efficient power production? The researchers from Johns Hopkins and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute hope their work will help answer such questions.

“With diameters spanning up to 100 meters across, these wind turbines are the largest rotating machines ever built,” said research team leader Charles Meneveau, a turbulence expert in Johns Hopkins’ Whiting School of Engineering. “There’s been a lot of research done on wind turbine blade aerodynamics, but few people have looked at the way these machines interact with the turbulent wind conditions around them. By studying the airflow around small, scale-model windmills in the lab, we can develop computer models that tell us more about what’s happening in the atmosphere at full-size wind farms.”

To collect data for such models, Meneveau’s team is conducting experiments in a campus wind tunnel. The tunnel uses a large fan to generate a stream of air moving at about 40 mph. Before it enters the testing area, the air passes through an “active grid,” a curtain of perforated plates that rotate randomly and create turbulence so that air currents in the tunnel more closely resemble real-life wind conditions. The air currents then pass through a series of small model airplane propellers mounted atop posts, mimicking an array of full-size wind turbines.