Domestic Fuel

Deepwater wind energy turbines off the coast of Maine could be producing electricity that is cost competitive with conventional generation techniques within the next 10 years.

The Portland (ME) Press Herald reports that a study from the University of Maine shows that floating giant wind turbines 10 miles off the coast could be producing electricity for just 8-10 cents a kilowatt hour, on par with current costs:

Building floating platforms on land and towing them to their deepwater locations will be much cheaper than erecting turbine towers on the sea floor, researchers say. Seabed turbines are common in Europe and are the preferred design for proposed wind farms in shallow waters off the East Coast of the United States.

Dagher and his associates are in touch with roughly four dozen companies around the world involved in offshore wind. The study, Dagher said, will save a prospective bidder years of research and millions of dollars. He is hopeful that the study’s detailed data will entice at least a couple of qualified developers to consider Maine over other locations where the potential for deepwater wind energy is being considered. “This will give Maine a major leg up,” he said.

Maine will test a 25-megawatt pilot floating offshore wind project off Monhegan Island with hopes of producing commercial-scale wind energy amounts by 2020.

Solar panels, wind turbines and methane digesters are big hits on American farms and ranches, that according to a new survey from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The 2009 On-Farm Renewable Energy Production Survey, the first-ever nationwide survey that looked at renewable energy practices on America’s farms and ranches, shows that these types of energy sources have increased significantly over the last 10 years, with 8,569 operations making renewable energy across the country:

“These results indicate that farmers and ranchers are increasingly adopting renewable energy practices on their operations and reaping the important economic and environmental benefits,” said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “At USDA we are committed to natural resource conservation, prosperity and energy independence in rural America. This survey gives us a benchmark against which we can measure our future successes.”

On the state level, California leads the nation with 1,956 operations producing renewable energy, accounting for nearly a quarter of all operations in the United States participating in this practice. Texas, Hawaii and Colorado were the other major states where farmers on at least 500 or more operations were producing their own renewable energy.

The survey goes on to show that farmers in nearly every state were able to save money by using their own, homegrown, renewable energy. More information is available here.

Photo Courtesy of RES Americas

The Flat Water Wind project has been completed in Southern Nebraska’s Richardson County and Kansas’ Nemaha County. This 60 megawatt (MW) wind farm is comprised of 40 1.5 MW GE wind turbines and was completed on November 15, 2010 – one month ahead of schedule. The wind farm was developed and constructed by Renewable Energy Systems Americas Inc. (RES) for Flat Water Wind Farm LLC, which is a partnership between Gestamp Wind North America, a subsidiary of Gestamp Renewables and Banco Santander, S.A.

“We are delighted to be working with Gestamp Wind North America and look forward to a continued partnership in the future. Working together we have successfully completed a project that will bring clean, renewable energy to the Omaha Public Power District,” said Susan Reilly, President and CEO for RES Americas. “Harvesting the wind has and will continue to be rewarding to the communities of Richardson and Nemaha Counties, bringing economic benefits and jobs, and contributing to a clean energy future.”

Javier Mateache, President and CEO of Gestamp Wind North America, added, “The construction of this wind farm was a remarkable success. Teaming up with RES Americas in this endeavor surpassed our expectations. At the peak of construction the project employed up to 150 skilled American workers, who demonstrated the highest level of performance and execution. Gestamp Wind is very proud to be a part of the Nebraskan community for the next year and will continue to work to become a significant player in the US wind industry.”

There are renewable winners and losers in the FY2012 budget proposed this week by President Obama.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the president has included funding in the budget “To promote the domestic production of renewable energy, we invest in renewable energy programs related to commercialization; research and development; education and outreach; and energy efficiency and conservation. We are also focusing our loans to rural electric cooperatives to support the development of clean burning low emission fossil fuel facilities and renewable energy deployment. Developing a nation-wide renewable energy industry will create hundreds of thousands of jobs in rural America, while helping us reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and reducing risks to our environment.”

More specifically, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu says the budget includes $3.2 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs and $300 million in credit subsidies to support approximately $3-4 billion in renewable energy and energy efficient projects. Funding for renewable energy technology would increase over all by 70 percent, including $425 million to support the “SunShot” solar power initiative, $64 million for offshore wind farms, $59 million for geothermal power initiatives.

However, hydrogen energy and fuel cell research would be cut by about 40 percent, a move that the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA) calls those cuts “misguided and harmful to American competitiveness.”

“After investing billions of American dollars and years of effort, we simply cannot walk away from our commitment to these critical technologies,” said Ruth Cox, president and executive director of the FCHEA. “Fuel cells are the microprocessors of the Energy Age and they are already transforming the energy network through distributed generation of clean, efficient and reliable power.”

In the good news category, Big Oil takes a big hit in the budget, eliminating some $3.6 billion in tax subsidies for the oil, coal and gas industries.

General Electric has acquired technology that will help it build taller wind towers.

This company press release says this next generation technology from Wind Tower Systems, LLC (WTS) is necessary as wind turbine blades have been getting longer:

WTS has been working on the development of the space frame tower system technology for use at wind farm sites that require hub heights of 100 meters or more. The space frame tower technology is a highly engineered and optimized structure that will handle the unique static and dynamic loads generated by wind turbines.

“We see great potential in the addition of this technology to our portfolio not only for our customers but also for the wind industry as a whole,” said Victor Abate, vice president-renewable energy for GE Power & Water. “Taller towers are an essential complement to longer blades. Longer blades capture more energy and in turn improve return on investment for wind farm developers.”

GE officials say the taller towers will help lower wind energy costs. The company will be testing the new tower later this year with plans to make it commercially available by next year.

A South Dakota wind farm will receive U.S. Department of Agriculture loan guarantees that will help build 100 wind turbines providing 151.5 megawatts of electricity.

This USDA press release says the money will help Basin Electric Power Cooperative build the PrairieWinds wind farm energy project in central South Dakota that will join the cooperative’s other electric generation projects to meet the needs of 2.8 million customers served by 135 distribution systems in nine states:

“The investment announced today will help us ‘win the future,’” said [Agriculture Secretary Tom] Vilsack. “Capturing and converting wind to electricity will create jobs, reduce our reliance on imported energy, and build a reliable source of renewable energy for generations of rural Americans.”

The South Dakota project is a model of public and private investment partnership. The Wind Partners announced in late September they had raised the $16.8 million required from South Dakota investors for their part of the project, along with 32 separate rural land owners who participated by providing lease easements. PrairieWinds will construct the turbines for the Wind Partners and operate them. Through PrairieWinds, Basin Electric will purchase the electricity produced. A $204 million loan guarantee will be funded by USDA Rural Development’s Rural Utilities Service. The Loan Guarantee is for 60 percent of the total $340 million project costs. Funding is contingent upon meeting the conditions of the guaranteed loan agreement.

Despite being indoors, there was plenty of wind used during Sunday’s Super Bowl (no, I’m not talking about Joe Buck yammering on). The electricity used to power everything from TV cameras to the massive jumbo screen has been offset by the purchase of wind energy credits from a wind farm in Texas.

This story from Environment News Service says the deal is an agreement between between Just Energy, the National Football League and the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee:

Just Energy will purchase renewable energy certificates on behalf of the Super Bowl to offset all direct and indirect carbon emissions associated with power generation at major Super Bowl XLV venues.

“We’re thrilled to be chosen by the NFL to play a key role in the greening of the world’s most significant annual sports championship,” said Ken Hartwick, chief executive of Just Energy. “Every day we see more organizations and more people becoming greener in their habits. We see this as a powerful opportunity to join the NFL and lead by example before a global audience.”

Just Energy also provided renewable energy certificates for the recent Pro Bowl in Hawaii.

One of the big knocks against alternative forms of energy is that they are not cost competitive to more traditional counterparts. However, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) now contends that wind energy generation costs about the same as natural gas.

And this article from ClimateCentral.org says despite a tough year for new wind energy installations, the group is looking forward to a much better future:

Experts have suggested that natural gas, with its apparently smaller climate impact and widespread availability within the United States, could temporarily replace coal on our way to a cleaner energy future. But recent reports have called some of gas’s benefits into question; could the economics and the science suggest a coming turn against the so-called “bridge fuel?”

AWEA’s statement of competitiveness with natural gas does include the federal incentives for wind power, primarily the renewable energy production tax credit. The credit can lower the price of wind power by 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, and is currently set to expire at the end of 2012. Including this straightforward subsidy, and excluding various other factors from the wind power economics equation can lead one to make the claim of cost parity, some experts say.

Wind energy proponents say they need more consistent government policies … and less federal incentives for the petroleum industry … to stay competitive.

While Iowa might be best known for its ethanol and biodiesel industries, the Hawkeye State is also a leader in wind energy (with more than 1,100 wind turbines across the state) and would like to become bigger in solar. So it only makes sense that Iowa State University Extension will be sponsoring a Wind and Solar Energy Conference on March 2 at the Le Mars Convention Center, in Le Mars, Iowa (not too far from the Northwest Iowa wind turbines in the photograph):

“The conference addresses the latest research in Iowa’s alternative energy,” said Sherry McGill, ISU Extension regional director. “It gives Iowans the opportunity to learn how these alternative energy methods affect them legally and financially.”

Other conference speakers include Aaron Chittenden, city of West Des Moines; Erin Herbold, Iowa State University Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation; Bill Menner, USDA Rural Development; Mark Reinders, MidAmerican Energy Co. and entrepreneurs Gregg Heide and Paul Rekow.

Registration is just $35 before Feb. 22 ($45 after that). More information and registration is available here.

Spanish wind energy company Acciona Energy is building its second wind farm in Oklahoma.

This story from Eco Friend News.com says the Dempsey Ridge Wind Farm located in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma will produce 132 megawatts and will take about a year to build:

The Dempsey Ridge Wind Farm is located just 15 miles west of ACCIONA Energy’s 123-MW Red Hills Wind Farm that was put into service in June 2009. The project will create enough clean energy to power around 46,000 homes in Oklahoma and surrounding states and will avoid the emission of approximately 339,000 metric tons of CO2 per year from conventional power plants.

“Oklahoma is a state that understands energy and has embraced wind as a plentiful and lucrative resource for the future. We are pleased to extend our commitment to this state and this community with the construction of the Dempsey Ridge project. Oklahoma already ranks in the top 10 U.S. states for wind energy potential and this project is another step in the direction of realizing that potential,” said Dan Foley, Chief Development Officer, ACCIONA Energy North America.

The 66 wind turbine farm will be spread out over more than 10,000 acres.

Acciona currently has five wind farms in the U.S., four of them 100 percent owned by the company, including the 180 MW the Tatanka Wind Farm in North and South Dakota; the 11.8 MW Velva Wind Farm, also in North Dakota; the 100.5 MW EcoGrove Wind Farm in Illinois; and now the Red Hills Wind Farm. The company also has a stake in the 74,25 MW Blue Canyon Wind Farm in Oklahoma.

Representatives of the renewable fuels industry were pleased to hear President Obama talking about energy independence during his State of the Union address last night, saying that we need to “break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015″ as well as mentioning wind and solar, nuclear, clean coal and natural gas, and even alluding to the promise of algae as an energy source. However, the goals that Obama laid out are very similar to the goals presidents of this country have been talking about for decades.

Yesterday’s Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit in Des Moines concluded with a piece that aired on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” in June 2010 about how the last eight presidents have gone on television and promised to move America towards a more energy independent future. The segment was filled with Stewart’s trademark humor, but it is sobering to think about how long this country has been touting energy independence and yet still be facing so many hurdles, skeptics and downright enemies who continue to impede that progress.

Stewart showed clips of all of the past eight presidents, from Nixon to Obama, talking about moving “beyond a petroleum-based economy,” first playing clips of both Obama and George W. Bush saying almost the exact same words. He follows up with Clinton, Bush 42, Reagan, Carter, Ford and Nixon making similar statements and talking about ideas like solar, natural gas, fuel cells and even “gasohol.”

Funny, but unfortunately, way too true. Take a look.

Last Fall, National Wind named Peter Mastic President and Chief Development Officer. Now the company has named him CEO. He is now responsible for the company’s strategic planning, operations management, wind farm development, project finance, and overseeing all company employees. Mastic is replacing Leon Steinberg who had been the CEO since 2007 and is staying on as Executive Vice President during the transition period and will remain on the Board of Directors.

“Peter joined National Wind three months ago following a national search I initiated and led earlier in the year,” said Steinberg. “Since joining us, Peter has demonstrated a masterful ability to deal with the challenges of the wind industry, and I feel comfortable transitioning out of this role knowing the company is in good hands. His proven success in developing large-scale wind projects across the country will enable National Wind to reach its full potential moving forward.”

Mastic added, “I am pleased to be taking the lead of National Wind at a pivotal point in its progress. As a utility-scale community-based wind developer, National Wind is unique in the industry and is well positioned to adapt successfully to future challenges and opportunities.”

Los Angeles, California officials have announced the city’s Department of Water and Power has generated 20 percent of its power from wind, solar and geothermal sources.

This story from the LA Daily News says it put the city well ahead of its and state renewable energy goals:

“This is a big deal,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said at a City Hall news conference with environmental leaders. “When we set this goal in 2005, the DWP was the dirtiest utility in the nation. Today, it’s the cleanest and we have been able to do it at a cost lower than any other utility in California.”

Wind power accounted for 47 percent of the renewable power, small hydro-electric was 20 percent, geothermal was 22 percent and solar was 1 percent. The mayor said the city hopes solar will provide more of the renewable energy in future years. The amount of renewable power generated by the DWP is 4,500 gigawatt hours, the level needed to power 750,000 homes. That reduces carbon dioxide by 2.5 million metric tons, the equivalent of taking 490,000 cars off the road.

The city was able to hit this goal ahead of other utilities in the area.

AltaTerra Research is hosting an online briefing aimed at the renewable energy industry, particularly, the solar industry, to help them learn how to obtain financing. “Roadmap to Bankability: A Discussion with Matt Cheney on Getting New Technology Financed & Deployed” will be held Thursday, February 3 at 11:00 am Pacific / 2:00 pm Eastern. Matt Cheney is the founder of Renewable Ventures and the CEO of CleanPath Ventures.

Project financing, also known as “bankability” is a critical issue facing the renewable energy industry today. The ability to successfully navigate your company through the paths to funding and onto commercialization is the key for new and improved technologies survive in the marketplace. Without access to private capital, the renewable energy industry will struggle to survive.

“Matt Cheney is a solar luminary and financing expert, who was the first to finance many emerging solar technologies in America. As the founder and former CEO of Renewable Ventures, Matt has financed, owned, and operated more than $300 million in solar assets,” said Jon Guice, managing director of research at AltaTerra Research and moderator of the online briefing. “We are excited to have Matt share his insights on how bankability is affecting the renewable and solar industries and discuss some potential solutions.”

During the online briefing, Cheney will discuss the challenges of project financing and commercialization for emerging and established renewable energy innovations. He will offer practical solutions for how companies are solving the bankability problem, including an exploration of innovative finance mechanisms, and he will focus on how bankability affects customers and investors in innovative technology solutions. In addition, the session will cover the broader issue of how bankability affects the commercialization of new, improved and emerging technologies.

Registration is now open for the live online briefing, and for post-event access.

San Diego, California has approved the first vertical axis wind turbine for the county. Not soon after, the first one has gone live at the home of Tim Williams, who has a personal mission to “go green”. His 3.4 kW Falcon turbine from WePOWER was installed on an 18′ pole on his property by Joe Moore Construction, an authorized WePOWER dealer.

According to a news release, Joe Moore had to appear before the County Building Department and present the WePOWER’s Falcon Turbine for approval. Unlike traditional prop-style turbines, this one is virtually vibration, noise and maintenance free and is safe for birds and bats. But that was only half the battle. A qualified third party had to inspect and approve the product and TUV SUD America, Inc. did just that.

With the work of William and Moore, other residents and businesses in San Diego County can install wind power. Other global customers of WePOWER include Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Best Buy, Tata Energy, and others.

In addition to the 3.4 kW Falcon turbine, WePOWER also has other products including 600W, 1.2kW, 3.4kW, 5.5kW and 12kW turbines. The turbines are approved by the California Energy Commission (CEC) and with the federal tax package that was signed at the end of last year, they also quality for federal tax credits.