Many wind energy companies are taking big steps forward in making electricity more efficient, affordable, and generally more accessible for individuals, energy companies, and governments.
This page looks at some of today's top wind energy companies and their recent projects.
The world's largest offshore wind farm was recently completed off the coast of Cumbria.
The Walney wind farm project was completed in two phases, at a cost of £1.2 billion.
The wind farm, which consists of 102 wind turbines, is expected to generate enough power to provide electricity to 320,000 homes.
It has a total installed capacity of 367 megawatts.
Dong Energy, the Danish wind energy company operating the wind farm, completed the second phase of the project in record time, with huge financial savings compared to similar projects.
The project set a precedent as it is the first renewable energy project to be funded entirely by foreign pension funds [2].
TransAlta, Canada's largest public traded renewable energy company, has funded a study to mitigate bat mortality from wind turbines, in an effort to make wind energy even more environmentally friendly.
Working closely with researchers from the University of Calgary, TransAlta representatives have been trying their best to get to the bottom of what causes bat mortality around wind turbines, and how it can be reduced or prevented.
Research conducted in the Pincher Creek area shows that a sudden drop in air pressure around the blades is the reason for the high rate of bat deaths.
The drop in pressure causes barotrauma – fatal injury to the lungs – in bats, who are not physiologically equipped to cope with the sudden drop in air pressure.
The research looked at ways to reduce bat mortalities, and deduced that bat activity is highest in low-wind conditions.
By slowing turbines down to virtually motionless during periods of low wind speeds, bat mortalities can be substantially reduced, without significantly affecting the amount of energy generated by the wind farm.
TransAlta has implemented these measures in wind farms, reducing bat mortality by up to 60% [1].
A team of researchers from the Kyushu University's Research Institute for Applied Mechanics (RIAM) have designed a super efficient wind turbine, called a 'wind lens' that is nearly three times more efficient than regular wind turbines.
By incorporating a diffuser shroud that encircles the outer circumference of the rotor blades, and an outer brim, strong vortices are created, which lowers the pressure behind the turbine, creating a wind suction effect that draws more air through the turbine.
The result is that wind power is magnified, significantly enhancing energy production [7].
Web hosting company, HostGator, has taken the initiative to power its servers with green wind energy.
As hosts to over 4 million websites, HostGator's servers require a lot of power to keep them running, and to keep them cool.
After switching to energy efficient servers, they took a further step to reduce their carbon footprint by purchasing renewable energy certificates equivalent to 130% of their energy consumption.
This equates to enough energy to power 321 homes with green energy for a year.
Renewable energy certificates are used to fund the expansion of green energy projects in an effort to gradually switch from non-renewable energy to cleaner renewable energy sources [4].
Urban Green Energy has a major point of difference to other wind energy companies – their products take advantage of the energy generated by low wind speeds.
They believe that by providing an opportunity for more people to tap directly into wind power by distributing small scale wind turbines to the masses, they can contribute enormously to the clean energy revolution.
To this end they have designed a number of products that take advantage of low speed winds, to deliver wind power to homes and small businesses [5].
The units consist of an asymmetrical vertical turbine that can capture wind coming from all directions.
This allows the turbine to operate at much lower speeds than conventional fan-type wind turbines, reducing noise, and hazards to birds as a result of collisions.
The company produces a 600 watt, 1 kilowatt, and 4 kilowatt models, ranging in price from $4000 to $19,000 for the turbine [6]; they also provide additional products and services, such as installation, batteries, and monitoring tools that let you monitor both energy generated, and your energy consumption, remotely from anywhere in the world – how cool is that?
Article References
1. University of Calgary. Scientists Find Successful Way To Reduce Bat Deaths At Wind Turbines. ScienceDaily, 28 Sep. 2009.
2. Terry Macalister. Ed Davey throws weight behind green energy by opening giant UK windfarm. The Guardian, 9 Feb. 2012.
4. HostGator. HostGator Has Gone Green!
5. UrbanGreenEnergy.com
6. Scott Tharler. Small Wind Meets Smart Grid. Discovery News.
7. RIAM Kyushu University Division of Renewable Energy Dynamics. Development of Wind Energy and New Wind Turbine System.
Please call me at 251-979-3683
Who are the designers, producers, manufacturers in US for supply of Solar systems & Electricity produced by Wind mills, badly needed in Pakistan, Please send by email their Names, mailing address, E-mail address & other relevant details, thanks.
Why US? There is enough Spanish makers. If you are interested reply I know the sales rep for US.
Well the Spanish added nearly the same amonut in 10 years and it's been a big success so it's likely do-able. Offshore might be more expensive but then there is also a lot more return. It is possible to combine with hydro or combined heat and power plants to even the load but yes older carbon and nuclear plants will still be needed. How many new plants are needed is down to whether efficiency overall can be reduced: negawatts via better insulation and geothermal heating can do a lot of that. Coal to gas tech is also being tried on the firth of Forth and could be tried on other currently abandoned deep coal mines where there is around 200 years worth of coal.The real problem is that the UK doesn't have the money for any public projects and they didn't do anything even when they did have the money. With the ever-increasingly huge sums needing to be spent on decommissioning old nuclear plants, unless a miracle happens they have the choice of the private sector or going bankrupt.
Liked your article, but I couldn't find the date it was written. A date would be helpful.
Regards, Chuck
My donation to green energy in planet!
Dear Sir's
As far ,I have tried more than a hundred Sites on the NET to find out; the different types of wind turbines: a model, which I have designed ; I could not find at all. this Turbine's efficiency is much higher than other types: and designing a power full device to wind energy with this kind is very easy to stable the SET . And cause of it's so spacial characters , it's very easy to be implemented on a bigger scale to the wind energy systems. with making only one device by this type, it could be easy, to power ,consumption needs of a little town or an industrial plant .and the Other word, benefits of this wind turbines is easy installation and technical calculations and so far.......!?............So I'm going to give the details As following ;and I'd like to name it:
Bita Model Wind Turbine.
I'll try to tell the story in a very short !
As a whole, we know that,estimating wind turbine's Efficiency , depends on it's resistance Against the wind power and it's speed!...so there at the common wind turbines, which we look At,there we see just 3 Fan Blades which it can not be more useful cause of it's so less resistant Against the wind, to produce more power...???....less resistant surface and tiny blade's about a 40 degree angle! couldn't be so Efficient.and on the other side you can't make it as large as you Want cause of it's Physical Properties!? BUT HOW DOES BITA WIND TURBINES WORK ??!! Which you could get to the 10 times more power with the same rate from it??
Sure it's happened to you, wanna to close a door or window , in a windy weather !? and you Have felt that you need to push the door with a high pressure !OK! that's all I want to say in This issue :the resistant surface from the turbine ,in this story plays the essential role !?
And there we need to change a few characters of this door too? Listen please; your door works horizontally but this turbine's door's as you see:
In the schematic diagram, work vertically!!??So when the wind blows;it opens the (doors or Windows) at the right side by the time that the left side's windows are closed,so there is a big Push on the turbine rotate towards the closed doors side ! so after a half turn the doors will be Replaced and the rotation will go on as long as the wind is powering our structure !?all the Opened doors will be closed after a half turn by the it's gravity falling vertically.and also you will Choose a tiny and light metal to make this windows,so that with a little push by the wind Blowing that'll be opened !?
But here ,you should be noticed that the all embedded doors are one way open; to the anti Wind blowing- side ! ......if you follow more the technical specifications you'l very soon find out, A highly stable method of making as large as and as big in Length and width structure in the Field;so As I said above ,it'll be able to power even a big factory !
Turbine's GEARBOX and GENERATOR ,will be installed at the down ward as shown by the letter capital G ! and it's Also possible to ad around the device, some ground rolling legs, to it by means of to avoid, it's high wight Keeping from falling or breaking down against the wind power !!??
With Best Wishes, Reza Moghaddam
I have a wind project you might like. It funnels wind to a turbine much like wind socks at the airport. Funnels would concentrate the wind and then wind would
turn into the line from the outside (two funnels) and you could control the wind
into your turbine for much higher power rates. No $150,000,000.00 large turbines,
no high repair costs, and no crane costs (expensive) . Even AWEA suggests small
wind most economical.
Please contact me if maybe we could develop something along these lines. California
moutains at Tehachapi and Banning use mountains to do this for the windmills you
see there. Small wind funneling to a high speed/density small turbine rather than
small wind to a large turbine.
Richared M.
I am an Oil and Gas consultant providing legal services, site acquisition work, abstracting title, title examination, etc. I know the same services are needed for the erection of Wind Farm Sites. I am currently involved with multiple sites located in Texas. Is there anyone out there who can give me contact information as to companies who need such services? Thank you!
Need wind Tirbin viticulture