wind

How the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer Vestas is laying off 10% of it's global workforce, halting production at one of its 26 plants. What does this mean for the company, and, more significantly, for the global wind industry in 2012?[read more]

On Tuesday I sat down with Stuart Varney & Company on FOX Business to talk about wind power and the relative merits of distributed generation versus big wind farms, including the need for transmission and grid infrastructure improvements to make big wind viable. Here's the video: Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com...[read more]

The latest Government figures on the amount of electricity generated by wind power have been welcomed by RenewableUK, the country’s largest renewable energy trade association, as proof of the increasingly significant contribution wind energy makes to UK households. Statistics for the third quarter of 2011, released by the Department of...[read more]

Earlier, I wrote on how crucially an unreliable sources of power such as wind depend on fossil fuels. Based on real world production data from around the world, I noted that even with massively distributed production wind power is very variable and necessitates a reliable backup power source (typically from fossil fuels) which must be able to produce essentially all the power society consumes. A way around this problem would be a massive energy storage, but I found the size of the required storage to be unreasonably large.[read more]

In September 2010, the German government announced the following three targets: Renewable electricity: 35% (or 38.6%) of total electricity production, TEP, by 2020, 50% by 2030, 65% by 2040 and 80% by 2050 Renewable electricity was 16.8%  of TEP in 2011 and 19.8% in 2011.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...[read more]

Like many of you, I saw this headline about Siemens' US wind business and was impressed. Since Siemens is TEC's sponsor, I was able to request an interview on the topic, and I spoke with Mike Revak- Siemens' VP of Technical Sales and Proposals of the US Wind Group. We had an interesting chat- he is bullish on US wind, with or without the government incentives. Phew, because I've been worried … my questions are italicized.[read more]

Citigroup upgraded the diverse global technology company Emerson Electric earlier today to a buy with a $60 price target. EMR closed up three and a quarter percent at 52.13 average volume. There was in fact a great deal of analyst activity concerning Emerson Electric and in different directions. This very diverse global tech company...[read more]

Molycorp Inc. (NYSE:MCP) is expected to report $0.66 per share with over $161 million in revenues. The conference call is set for Thursday, November 10th at 4:30. Click here for the webcast presentation. Although the dipped to below 38 on friday morning the finished the week up nearly 5% at 40.18 on strong volume. Molycorp is a...[read more]

If you believed what politicians say about green energy and jobs, you probably think they fit together like peanut butter and jelly squished between layers of bread. Has there been a renewable power subsidy announcement or ribbon-cutting ceremony where the word “jobs” was not featured in the first two or three sentences uttered by...[read more]

Guest post by Andy DawsonOne anti-nuclear argument that’s frequently made is that nuclear is slow to deploy – that renewables can make inroads into carbon production rather faster than can building new nuclear stations. I was recently proiked into taking a look at this, in the context of the UK’s 2020 and 2030 CO2 and Renewables targets...[read more]

The US renewable energy industry faces a greatly altered incentive environment next year, as eligibility for two of its largest current subsidies comes to an end at the close of 2011. The corn ethanol sector will likely see the complete withdrawal of the blenders' credit that has fueled its growth for more than 30 years, while new...[read more]

Wind, hydro and other renewables supplied 50% more electricity than in the same period last year, and now represent almost 10% of all electricity generated.But there have been howls of protest from energy intensive industries, echoed by Goerge Osborne at the Tory Party Conference, that the cost of all the Government policies leading to...[read more]

Comments on the Comprehensive Energy PlanThe Vermont Department of Public Service (DPS) has issued a draft Comprehensive Energy Plan for Vermont, and they have opened it for public comment. This document covers all types of energy use in Vermont: home heating, transportation, electricity. It is the document Governor Shumlin wanted:...[read more]

Last Wednesday, August 3rd, saw a new record set in the ERCOT electricity service area. ERCOT wasted no time in putting some data from these events online. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), put up a blog post titled Wind helps meet new Texas record for electricity demand. Now, that's something we would expect, except for...[read more]

According to my local newspaper, my local utility company “set a new peak load record of 3,346 megawatts on Thursday” (July 21), “when the mercury rose to over 100 across the region, eclipsing the old record of 3,299 megawatts set on Aug. 2, 2006. NYSEG’s 2010 summer peak was 3,178 megawatts on July 8.” Iberdrola owns my local...[read more]