Robin Priestley looks at whether the UK is finally getting its act together and adopting a feed-in tariff to rival that of countries like Germany...
23 December, 2009
Energy storage options can be segmented by the length of storage that they offer. Long-term storage such as hydro reservoirs may store energy for many months and have an important impact on the overall energy budget, while small-time storage such as capacitors can help avoid flickering of the light when net companies switch between different electricity suppliers. In this article Bent Sørensen assesses a selection of short-term energy storage devices and their fields of application.
21 December, 2009
Safety, hazard management, risk management: it’s all the same. Whether we act as component manufacturers, general managers, meteorological tower installers or wind turbine technicians, it is our responsibility to make ‘safe’ decisions each and every day. Jack Wallace Jr. provides a very personal technician’s perspective on safety awareness, techniques, and innovations that he would like to see in wind farm O&M.
21 December, 2009
In the ‘Rise of the superconductor’, we highlighted the use of superconductor technology and its potential to transform the economics of wind power. In Part 2, Jack McCall of AMSC outlines how superconductors could help the USA get to grips with its grid modernisation issues.
15 December, 2009
This is it. 2009 is the year to get serious about climate change, the greatest challenge of our age. World leaders meeting in Copenhagen need to reach an ambitious progressive post-2012 climate agreement. But vague promises and finger pointing will not cut it this time, cautions Steve Sawyer of the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).
14 December, 2009
In 2008, the United States Department of Energy (DoE) reported that the US could generate 20% of its electricity from wind energy by 2030, though noting that transmission issues represented a key challenge in meeting this target. One year on, some political steps have been taken – but what happens next? Don C. Smith examines the current status of the transmission issue and forecasts the possible road ahead.
08 December, 2009
It was Democrats - not Republicans - who did in the Senate Climate Change bill, which would have, had it passed, been a big boon to the renewables industry.
07 December, 2009
As the main line Senate Climate Change Bill faded from sight at least for this year, a second Bill emerged and, again, it underlined Democratic disaffection with the Clean Energy Jobs and Power Act of 2009 (S. 1733).
07 December, 2009
No top US Federal official has been more pro-renewables, at least in his rhetoric, than Jon Wellinghoff, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). But has this talk resulted in action?
07 December, 2009
Misalignment in the drive trains of wind turbines can cause vibrations that reduce the service life and availability of gears and generators. These errors can be identified by means of vibration measurements or using condition monitoring systems.
04 December, 2009