Yesterday the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, announced that after years of review, the U.S. has approved the construction of Cape Wind, which would be America’s first offshore wind farm. The project will consist of 130 Siemens turbines producing (at peak capacity) 420 MW of electricity- roughly half the production capacity of a modern nuclear power plant. It’s a serious project, in terms of scale, precedent, and politics. The Cape Wind project has been a divisive one drawing the support of many organizations, but also harsh criticism from some environmental groups, powerful families (e.g. the Kennedeys) with views of Nantucket Sound, and Native American tribes with ancestral claims to the region. The project is considered something of a bellwether for American off-shore wind projects, which Salazar cited as one of the reasons for its final approval.
The Cape Wind project would be the first of a number of proposed off-shore wind projects in the U.S. Not shown on this map is Evanston’s own proposed off-shore wind farm, since it is far from being a mature project. At Evanston’s city council meeting on April 13, Evanston’s Sustainable Programs Coordinator Carolyn Collopy gave a report on the proposed project, and the Council voted unanimously in approval of a request for information, which is essentially a feasibility study.
For some background information on wind power, please visit NETG's resources page on wind.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Cape Wind, first U.S. offshore wind farm, approved
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tour of a Corn-to-Ethanol Plant and a Windfarm
Earlier this month, NETG hosted an all-day trip to Adkins Energy, a corn-to-ethanol conversion plant, and to Acciona's Ecogrove windfarm, both in Lena, IL.
At Adkins Energy, Safety Manager Mert Green started us off on our tour by showing us the products that Adkins produces from corn. The most important, of course, is the 200 proof ethanol- each bushel (56 pounds) of corn yields 2.74 gallons of ethanol, as well as a half bushel of corn oil which can be converted to biodiesel. The rest of the solids basically become animal feed, which is shipped across the US and overseas. Only 30 gallons of water are consumed each minute for processing the corn into ethanol, all of which is lost trough a “smokestack” during the drying operation, which means that incredibly, Adkins discharges zero waste from its plant. We got to see, touch, and smell all aspects of production, from receiving and testing, to milling, fermentation, drying, distillation, and distribution.
It's an impressive $70 million facility, all the more so because it operates as a closed cooperative: shares of Adkins Energy are owned by local farmers (most are from Illinois, a few from as far as Wisconsin) looking to get some extra value from their crop. Farmers purchase shares each growing season: for each share purchased, the farmer pays $1,000, and is required to deliver 1,000 bushels of corn to Adkins. Profits from ethanol sales are then paid to the farmers according to the number of shares they own.
After the tour, we ate our lunch at Lion's park in Lena, where we had plenty of time to chat, relax, and go a little crazy on the playground.
For even more photos from this trip, head over to our facebook page.
Read More >>
Thursday, December 3, 2009
NREL's State of the State report
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has released a detailed report looking into the status of each US state's renewable energies portfolio. Illinois tends to place low when looking at total renewables capacity, but fares much better when considering growth.
Read More >>Thursday, October 1, 2009
Wind power in China
Interesting Science article on the potential of wind in China, showing that there exist vast wind resources accessible at reasonable costs:
"China is the world's largest carbon dioxide producer and the world's second-largest producer of electrical power, 80% of which it generates by burning coal. Still, demand for electricity in China continues to increase at an annual rate of ~10%. An affordable, carbon-free source of electrical power generation would thus constitute an important way for China to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and other environmental impacts of fossil fuels. In a Report 11 Sep 2009 Science, McElroy et al. estimated the potential for wind-generated electricity in China subject to the existing financial conditions and government-approved bidding process for new wind farms. The team used a compilation of global meteorological data analyzed with a state-of-the-art weather/climate model. Their analysis shows that although it would require a substantial financial investment up front, there is enough wind to generate electricity to supply the nation's entire projected demand for 2030 (about twice what is used now) at reasonable prices per kilowatt-hour."
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Quarrel Over Iowa's Wind Energy Surplus
More wind energy news out of the Midwest today. A first-of-its-kind dispute is now taking place between two Iowa wind energy suppliers: MidAmerican Energy of Des Moines, IA and NextEra of Jupiter, FL.
MidAmerican Energy recently asked regulators to approve an additional 1,000 MW of power (to add to its existing 1,300 MW). They are asking for swift action in hopes of taking advantage of the cheap wind turbine prices stemming from the current surplus. However, NextEra wants a piece of the action and is filing an intervention, claiming that they can provide "he best power at the best price."
It will be interesting to see if more of these disputes occur as we move closer to a bolstered interstate transmission grid, as was heralded by the President in his Earth day speech.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
DIY Wind Turbine
I saw this on TV last night: how to build a small wind turbine, on the cheap. Fun!
Read More >>Thursday, May 7, 2009
WINDPOWER 2009
Amid very little news coverage, the WINDPOWER 2009 Conference and Exhibition has been underway at McCormick place in Chicago since Monday. Over 20,000 people are in attendance and some 1,200 exhibitors have gathered to discuss the latest industry developments and trends, new products and services, and policy.
Check out some local coverage on the event here.
For more information on wind technology, check out NETG's resources section on wind.
Friday, May 1, 2009
DOE announces new wind energy funding
In the news this week... DOE Secretary Steve Chu announced an additional $93 million for wind energy projects. The DOE press release can be found here.
Read More >>Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Interactive Map of Renewable Energy Facilities
The Natural Resources Defense Council just released a great interactive graphic section on their site to browse the geographic location of existing and planned facilities for a variety of renewable energies. You can pan the map and drill down to the county level using your mouse or just enter your zip code of interest. Included are nice summaries of the plotted technologies as well as a state-by-state breakdown of hot energy topics; currently, there are only five listed but they are planning to increase that number very soon. It's a great complement to Matt's recent post on the electricity grid.
Read More >>Thursday, April 23, 2009
New Rules For Offshore Wind Turbines
Rules for offshore wind farm construction are changing, which is great news for planned projects off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, among others. It's a great follow-up to last week's NETG-sponsored discussion with Stan Komperda of American Wind Energy Management. Next site, Lake Michigan?
Read more about the new rules here.