Menasha Corp. To Install Wind Turbines

Menasha Corp. is turning green. The company is installing five electricity generating wind turbines at its headquarters off Bergstrom Road.

Menasha Corp. is expecting all of the five turbines to be installed be for the year’s end. Each turbine will generate 20 kilowatts of electricity which will help power all of the office equipment, including computers and lighting.

Along with the company’s renewable energy project Menasha Corp. is implementing a number of energy-saving electrical improvements.

“Earlier this year, we identified sustainability as one of the critical areas in which Menasha must step forward and take a market leadership position,” said Jim Kotek, Menasha Corp.’s president and chief executive officer. “Our renewable energy project is part of the corporation’s support of alternative energy solutions and our focus of becoming a leader in sustainability.”

The turbines will be purchased from Renewegy, which is located in Oshkosh. The turbines will be installed in the greenway between Menasha Packaging’s manufacturing plant and its north office building on Bergstrom Road.

Wisconsin’s Largest Wind Turbines to Begin Operating in Green Bay Area

Located along the Niagara Escarpment are some of the tallest wind turbines in the nation. Each turbine rises nearly 500 feet from the ground which is only 100 feet shorter than Wisconsin’s tallest skyscraper, the U.S. Bank building.

The turbines are located in Glenmore, as part of the Shirley Wind project and are expected to start producing power later this month.

Several Wisconsin companies contributed to the effort including Michels Wind Energy of Brownsville and Tower Tech of Manitowoc. Tower Tech states that the towers produced for the Shirley Wind project are the largest they have ever produced.

“I can’t tell you how exciting it has been to watch this go up, and to feel and touch the turbines, and know that it’s Wisconsin through and through,” said Bill Rakocy project developer of Emerging Energies.

The new turbines will supply power to Wisconsin Public Service Corp. which in turn will sell energy credits to the stat to help it reach its goal of getting 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.

Each of the new turbines will generate about 2.5 megawatts of electricity which is four times as much as the first two turbines built in Glenmore 12 years ago.

Emerging Energies predicts that the Shirley Wind project will generate enough power over the next year to meet the needs of 8,000 customers.

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

http://www.avanti-online.com/

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.

Four Wind Turbines Spin in the Wind Outside SCA Tissue in Neenah, Photo Courtesy of Marketplace Magazine

Marketplace Magazine Features Local Companies Adopting Wind Energy

Several New North companies have adopted wind energy as an energy alternative and are seeing lower utility rates as a result. Marketplace Magazine, a magazine publication out of Oshkosh, WI recently featured several Wisconsin Wind Works member companies new wind energy operations in Northeast Wisconsin.

The article highlights Orion Energy Systems of Manitowoc, SCA Tissue in Neenah and Bergstrom Automotive of Northeast Wisconsin who have all purchased light commercial scale wind turbines from fellow Wisconsin Wind Works member Renewegy, Inc of Oshkosh. These light commercial scale turbines help the companies reduce energy bills and support green practices.

Other Northeast Wisconsin organizations and companies have also begun adopting wind energy as an alternative including East Town Mall in Green Bay, the article explains.

Read the full Marketplace Magazine article on wind energy, written by Lee Marie Reinsch, at http://www.marketplacemagazine.com/content/588_1.php.

Learn more about Wind Energy and how your company can start participating and supplying to the Wind Supply Chain in Wisconsin and the Midwest at the Wisconsin Wind Works Wind Energy Symposium on October 13^th in Milwaukee, WI at Frontier Airlines Center.

Registration and program information available here: http://www.coalescemarketing.com/wind_symposium/email.htm