Floating Wind Turbines Make Wind Energy Cheaper

As we all know when people decided to take on a building project that takes place on or around the water costs tend to rise. The same can be said for wind turbines, in a new study by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) (United Kingdom) those costs can be justified by long term economic efficiency.

ETI chief executive Dr. David Clarke states, "The traditional view is that the cost of offshore wind becomes increasingly expensive as turbines are located in deeper water, due to additional expenses of supporting traditional turbine structures."

The cost of turbine foundations increase as you get into deeper water, but the wind speeds in deeper water environments are significantly stronger and more consistent, which in turn results in a more reliable and higher energy output.

The conclusions of this this study are simple, floating wind turbines are both technically and economically feasible.

Two more feasibility studies on floating wind turbines are currently under way. The first being the Nova Project, which is analyzing the potential use of vertical axis turbines offshore. The second study, the Helm Wind Project is looking into the viability of making changes to the basic design of offshore wind farms.

With data to support the building of offshore deep water wind turbines industry professionals are optimistic about the future of renewable energy.

$2.1M in funding for Wind Center

The Ohio Third Frontier Commission and Advisory Board has approved a $2.1 million in funding for the creation of a Wind Energy Research Development Center. The center will be located at Stark State College of Technology.

The college, Timken Co., Stark Development Board Inc. and the Stark County Port Authority will be collaborating on the project. The awards are contingent upon funding from the Ohio Air Quality Development Authority.

The new research center will be a test facility for wind turbines. The facility will be able to test and assemble full-scale systems under real world applications and environmental conditions.

With help from the Ohio Third Frontier, Stark State College and Timken will invest upwards of $8 million for the project. The creation of the facility is expected to birth 57 part-time and eight full time jobs.

Wind Power Firm to Expand Production in Wisconsin

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Danish firm Avanti Wind, has been doing business in the United States for many years, making service lifts used by technicians for inspecting and repairing wind turbines.

Avanti Wind has recently moved its production of aluminum ladders from Germany and China to Wisconsin. Even though the pace of wind development has slowed across the country Kent Pedersen, Avanti’s U.S. general manager stated we have done quite well in expanding our customer base in North America, and we’ve continued to grow in 2010 compared to 2009 and we expect that to continue next year.”

The local expansion of Avanti is a small example of creating jobs in which local economic development official’s hope will be a growth sector for Wisconsin. 

Manufacturing is one of Wisconsin’s biggest industries and professionals in the wind industry are looking towards the state to help facilitate the industries growth. “It’s a market we look at and we see growth, we see jobs and we see capital investment,” said Jim Paetsch, business development specialist with the Milwaukee 7 regional economic development group, during the Wisconsin Solar Decade conference.

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World’s Largest Wind Farm Opens in the UK

On Thursday the world’s largest off shore wind farm opened off the British coast consisting of 100 wind turbines capable of supplying enough electricity for 200,000 homes a year.

The farm is located off the coast of Kent in Southern England and is part of a key renewable energy initiative spearheaded by the previous British government.

Vattenfall a Swedish based company will operate the farm after investing around $1.38 billion into the project.

Waters off the coast of the United Kingdom are an alluring place for wind farm operators because of their constant ocean winds. An offshore turbine located around the United Kingdom has the capability to produce 50-percent more power than a similar one elsewhere in Europe.

Europe is seeing a boom in offshore wind energy with the construction of 16 farms currently underway. The Thanet farm covers approximately 13.5 square miles which is roughly the equivalent to 4,000 football fields. The nearest turbine is located 7.4 miles from the coast of Margate.

Along with a renewable, efficient power supply Vattenfall stated that a rise in tourism is expected to bring more tourists into the region eager to see the site of the windmills in the distance.

Impressive as the Thanet Farm is it will not remain the largest windfarm for long, in late 2012 or 2013 the so-called London Array will start to generate electricity just north of London. Owners of the Array farm predict it to be the world’s first 1 gigawatt offshore windfarm.