U.S. Is Now the World’s Wind Power Leader
The U.S. has continued to have high growth rates in its wind industry for the third year in a row at an estimated $18 billion in revenues. With the record growth rates, America’s wind industry is now the largest in the world with a capacity of more than 21,000 Megawatts of energy, passing the prior leader Germany. This was all in the American Wind Energy Association, AWEA, annual report detailing the huge growth numbers and project growth for next year.
That 21,000 megawatts of capacity are expected to generate over 60 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2009, enough to serve over 5.5 million American homes.
Even though this is not a race to who can have the most renewable energy, I like the fact that America has boosted it’s research and development in these areas. Hopefully other countries strive for this recognition and continue to grow their renewable energy industries. One contributing factor to the high growth amid our current economic hardships are the renewable energy tax credits in the $700 billion bailout bill passed a few months ago. I was not fully in support of the bailout bill, but I am really glad these tax credits made their way in. They are already make a huge difference and hopefully continue to help grow our wind, solar and geothermal industries.
Super-Yachts Go Green With Wind and Solar Energy
For all those multi-millionaires out there that want to enjoy the seas comfortably while going green, there is a new boat that could fit the bill. The Solar Sailor company based out of Sydney, Australia is creating a series of super-yachts that will run off of solar and wind energy. The idea is to create a solar sail that can multi-task as a sail and it’s energy source. A huge problem with many of the current yachts sailing on the seas is that they guzzle tons of gas and emits tons of pounds of CO2. The reason they require so much energy is that they not only need to run these huge boats, but they also have fancy equipment like Jacuzzis and movie theaters that require tons of energy to operate. One thing that shocked me was to see that they huge yachts can consume as much 1 liter of fuel per second. That’s right not minute but second.
The technology works through a computer system that will control the solar sail. The sail can then be electronically mounted based off of the sun’s position or the direction of the wind. Not only would the vessels be getting 5% of its energy from the solar panels mounted on the sails, but they would also be getting approximately 20-40% of the total energy needs from wind. This could save the owners tons of money to operate their yachts as well as eliminate tons of emissions.
The thing that frustrates me the most about this is: why do you need such a large and elaborate boat? Is it really necessary to have a yacht of such size that requires so much fuel to run? Just because the ultra wealthy that own super-yachts have the money to buy these, why not allocate you money elsewhere. Even after adding these great renewable energy modifications to these boats, they still are going to be burning tons of fuel. They are just burning less that they previously were. This is how our environment has taken such a huge hit. The need to have massive machines and boats that require tons of energy to operate. Even if they were to convert these massive boats to run completely on renewable energy, it still doesn’t make them green or eco-friendly. Tons of materials are needed to build these devices just to make a few people more comfortable when they are sailing. I’m all for supporting renewable energy, but we as a society also need to start conserving more. What are you thoughts.
Texas Walmarts to Begin Using Wind Energy
Walmart recently purchased a huge amount of wind energy from the Duke energy company to power approximately 360 of their stores in Texas. The energy will come from a wind farm that is currently under construction in Notrees, Texas. It will be completed in April of 2009 and will produce 226 million kWh of energy per year, enough to offset 139,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions every year. This energy purchase will push Walmart into the top 15 of EPA’s list of green power purchasers in America.
The motivation for this plan seems to be economical in both terms of saving money on energy costs as well as better press as Walmart will now be seen as “green” by the media. I’m not really a huge fan of Walmart, but this is the right move in my opinion. With our country is such hard economic times, buying this amount of wind energy can really help boost . Hopefully this will encourage other retailers to buy renewable energy and for Walmart to expand using renewable energy in their stores throughout the country.
British Wind Farm Proposal Brings Controversy
The British Environment Agency is considering building an 80 turbine wind farm development that would be partially built on several major water bodies including the River Thames, the River Medway in the North Downs and parts of the Fens. The wind farm should produce approximately 200 megawatts of energy, enough energy to power 90,000 households. Some of them will be built in lands surrounding the agency’s offices and pumping stations. The remaining will be put riverside of the rivers mentioned above. The plan is to produce enough energy to run all of the agency’s offices along with making an additional $5 million in revenue each year by putting extra electricity back into the grid.
By developing these renewable energy projects we are helping to limit and adapt to the effects of climate change, reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and help develop a low-carbon economy. We are identifying the main contributors to our own carbon footprint – such as major pumping stations – and looking at how we can generate renewable energy to power them.
This does seems like a perfect plan on the surface, but it is not pleasing everybody. Many people living in these areas as well as critics of the plan have said that the construction of this wind farm could do more harm that good. The biggest concern they have is the well being of the landscapes in these area’s, being unattractive sites along with harming the local wildlife. There is also a concern that the amount of renewable energy generated by these turbines will not even come close to removing the country’s dependency on fossil fuels.
Wind turbines can have a serious impact on the appearance of a landscape and certainly should not be located in areas of natural beauty or national parks.
The agency ensured that it will consult with the public and take these factors into consideration before finalizing plans. This is really a tough situation. On the one hand, this agency is trying to make a difference by running all their offices on renewable energy as well as provide more for the entire country. On the other hand, the natural landscape could be affected by them being present. In my opinion, I actually like the look of the wind turbines and don’t feel at all that they detract from the natural landscape. I agree with the agency that this is the correct move and to continue our dependency on fossil fuels based on the principal that it controls too much of the market is not the right way to go.
Chrysler Introducing New All Electric Peapod
Chrysler recently unveiled it’s new all electric Peapod vehicle out of it’s Green EcoMobility (GEM) division. It used to be called Global Electric Motorcars, but was updated with this new generation of cars. This vehicle will be a new generation of vehicles produced from the GEM subsidiary of Chrysler that hopes to hopes to makes a more user friendly car that is eco friendly.
Today’s GEM is the nation’s No. 1 zero-emission electric vehicle, with 38,000 produced and in use. GEM vehicles are used in settings such as city centers, planned communities, military bases, college campuses, corporate and commercial centers, and city, state and national parks.
Past GEM vehicles were fairly inefficient as they were not aerodynamic and usually were partially open. This made them extremely impractical for daily use. This new generation of electric vehicle is not only fully enclosed, but is much more technologically advanced.
Peapod Specs
- Dimensions: 12 ft. long X 5 ft. 10 inches high X 4 ft. 8 inches wide.
- Car Weight: 1,290 lb. total weight ( no people inside )
- Interior Capacity: 910 lbs
- Person Capacity: 2 person max.
- Range: 30 miles
- Max Speed: 25 miles/hour
- Low Speed: 15 miles/hour
- Battery: 72 volt battery system with on-board charger.
- Recharge Time: 6 to 8 hours
As you can tell from the specs and the earlier quote, this is not a vehicles for highway use. Since it can only go a maximum of 25 mph, it is not street legal in all states. This model can only fit up to 2 people back to back, but there are larger 4 or 6 seater vehicles.
It has a modern look with newer battery technology and even has a plug-in for iPhones or iPods. I actually like the look of the inside as it is extremely simple, but still looks very nice.
The big questions I had about this vehicle are: Where can I charge it at and how long will it take? The answer to the first question is it can be charged in any standard 110-volt outlet. The appropriate time to recharge completely six to eight hours. I still wanted to figure out how much it would cost per charging of this vehicle. Since the normal outlet is typically 15 amps. In order to use my energy calculator, we need to convert volts to watts. The wattage for this device is
72 volts * 15 amps = 1080 watts.
Plugging this value in to my calculator you get a cost of about $331.13 per year to operate this car. I also did an article the average gas cost of a car per year that showed a small economy car uses about $1,868 of gas per year. That means that an electric cars could cost you 1/5 of the amount to run.
At an approximate price of $20,000, do you think you would every buy this electric vehicle? What about other options like the Aptera or Tesla?
Oklahoma State University Offering Wind Turbine Technology Degree
Oklahoma State University: Oklahoma City is offering one of the countries first wind turbine technologies degree programs. The Oklahoma State Regents voted unanimously to bring OSU this degree program. The two year associates degree program will allow graduates to work on utility-scale wind turbines. The degree program focuses on a variety of topics surrounding wind turbines including:
- Power Distribution
- Operation and Maintenance
- Motors and Generators
- Diagnosis and Repair
- Internship
Dr. Jerry Nielsen, OSU-OKC Science and Engineering Division Head, talks about how important this degree program is for the future of the wind energy market in this country:
The wind industry is such an important factor in Oklahoma’s economy right now. OSU-OKC is on pace to graduate students who can be ready to go to work in the wind patch at the exact time the industry is calling for trained professionals.
This is a really telling quote. It shows that the wind industry is really taking off, especially in the Mid-West where wind is an abundant source. In order to prepare workers to be able to properly work on wind turbines, programs like these are a necessity. There are also other degree program popping up in other smaller colleges throughout America including one in Highland Community College in Kansas. Degree programs like these will probably only be started in areas where wind turbines are being rapidly constructed. Hopefully as wind turbines begin to be constructed all throughout America that more colleges begin to offer this degree program to ensure that wind turbines are properly maintained and repaired.
Green Renewable Energy Certificates
Renewable Energy Certificates or REC are a new trend that consumers and businesses are buying to differentiate themselves among energy buyers. They are simply a way to claim your purchase of renewable energy. You may have also heard them being referred to renewable energy credits or various other terms, but they are all the same.
What are RECs?
Green energy providers are granted one renewable energy credit when they produce a MWh they generated from energy using sources such as a wind farm, solar panels, geothermal and others. Renewable energy credits are commodities that can be traded and sold just as ordinary financial commodities. The energy is put into the electric grid and is only differentiated through the use of these certificates. Many independent companies have been established to ensure certification and verification of green energy sources.
I found a good video that gives you a quick overview of what renewable energy credits are:
History
The first time to actually distinguish traditional dirty energy sources from alternate sources was just a little over 10 years ago. Several markets were opened up in the late 90s that traded electricity generated from green sources, but there was little or no regulations on them. In 2001, several green energy companies began to sell REC to consumers to support the development of new technologies. In an effort to create a national accreditation of these tradable certificates (TRC), the Green-e program was created.
Compliance markets have been created by a policy that exists in 25 U.S. states called Renewable Portfolio Standard. Each of these states requires that electric companies supply to their customers a certain percentage of energy from alternate sources. They can meet their requirements by an equal amount of RECs to the percentage of electricity that is required. For example: A state has a requirement of 20% energy from alternate sources. It can then buy 20% of their total electricity usage in the form of RECs to meet the requirement. There are also voluntary markets in which customers or businesses can just buy RECs, as the name suggestions, voluntarily. The energy comes from states with no compliance market and usually come at a cheaper price.
The Department of Energy provides an in-depth history and a full explanation of RECs.
Benefits
There are many benefits that are achieved through having renewable energy credits that include:
- Allows consumers to directly put their dollars towards green energy without having to own the actual electricity generators.
- Standards are in place by various independent organizations to ensure the proper tracking of each certificate.
- Can be bought across state borders.
A hard thing that many people in America face is that they do not currently have green energy offered in their state and maybe not even in a surrounding state. This gives anybody in American access to energy produced from renewable sources. Even though the electricity you use may not come directly from the wind turbines or solar panels that produced it, it will go towards supporting green energy.
Negatives
Just because the idea of RECs seems great, they are not perfect and have some major flaws:
- Communication to all consumers to ensure a good understanding of the process.
- No national standard is yet in placve as they are regulated by several organizations.
- Not guaranteed to get full environmental benefit from buying.
The major problem with buying green credits in some parts of the country is that the green energy generators are not actually located in those area. Say you were to have a coal plant right down the road from you which produces harmful waste products and dangerous CO2 gases. Even if you buy renewable energy certificates from another state, it will not make the environment in your area any better.
Where to Buy From?
The whole processing of buying RECs may seem confusing, but it is no more difficult than buying energy from dirty traditional sources. You can call your local utility company to inquire about them or you can see check the Department of Energy’s Green Power Network site to see who offers green energy in your state.
Please share your experiences if you currently own RECs or your experiences with them.
