Things Are Good » wind-power

Windbelt

Cam Proctor — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:53:36 +0000

Conventional wind turbines don’t scale down well—there’s too much friction in the gearbox and other components. So poor, remote communities don’t have any way to harness the power of the wind. Till Shawn Frayne, a 28-year-old inventor based in Mountain View, Calif., saw the need for small-scale wind power to juice LED lamps and radios in the homes of the poor. Frayne’s device, which he calls a Windbelt, is a taut membrane fitted with a pair of magnets that oscillate between metal coils. Prototypes have generated 40 milliwatts in 10-mph slivers of wind, making his device 10 to 30 times as efficient as the best microturbines. Popular mechanics has a good article about the device here.

South Dakota To Sport World’s Largest Windfarm

Adam Clare — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:48:05 +0000

Another plan for a large wind power generation facility has arisen and this time it’s in a state that’s never been mentioned before on Things Are Good: South Dakota, USA. South Dakota is now considering a plan for creating the world’s largest windfarm!

Clipper Windpower of Carpinteria, Calif., intends to erect enough wind turbines in several South Dakota counties to produce up to 6,000 megawatts of electricity, said Bob Gates, the firm’s senior vice president of commercial operations.

That would be eight times larger than the biggest wind farm in the world, a 735-megawatt FPL Energy facility with 421 turbines stretching across three Texas counties.

Spin-Powered Office Towers

Adam Clare — Mon, 14 May 2007 16:34:44 +0000

EcoGeek has the lowdown on a high-rise design that supposedly can power itself and up to ten other office buildings. The tower is designed to have spinning floors and will act like a giant windmill, don’t worry all the essentials like elevators are in a central non-rotating concrete core. A neat idea, but one that I do question.

The video shows the spinning in action:

City Likes to Blow

Adam Clare — Wed, 09 May 2007 17:15:21 +0000

Toronto is looking to green their buildings, and what better place to start than city hall?

Putting small wind turbines on the roof at city hall was one of several ideas presented yesterday to reduce the building’s $3 million annual energy bill.

“Personally, I think it’s a really neat way of increasing the renewable energy footprint for the city hall,” consultant Paul Leitch told about 50 experts meeting yesterday to ponder ways of greening the 42-year-old twin towers.

Leitch said it would cost about $125,000 to install six of the devices – three on each tower – to produce enough electricity to power about nine homes.

Thanks, Lindsay!

Highways Have Potential for Wind Energy Generation

Adam Clare — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:29:58 +0000

Over at Inhabitat, there are two posts on using wind created by traffic on highways to generate electricity. A student proposes horizontally placed wind generators over highways, much like road signs are placed now (pictured).

A proposal coming from New Jersey has the generators built into the highway that powers a light rail system. Awesome!

The design, a runner-up in the 2006 Metropolis Mag Next Generation Design Competition proposed the integration of wind-turbines into the highway barriers that divide the traffic. These turbines would generate power from the wind created by the vehicles that drive past them in opposite directions. Originally conceived as a single row of vertical-axis rotary turbines, it has now been redesigned to include two rows, one stacked on top of each other, with the end power being used to power a light rail system.

Switch’n It Up!

Vanessa King — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 11:00:22 +0000

The World Wildlife Fund started a great new campaign in 2006 called ‘Powerswitch’. The initiative has been working to eventually help the world’s power sector become completely CO2-free. The goals achieved thus far include more than 600,000 actions taken by individual PowerSwitch! supporters. They’ve even stopped the construction of new coal power plants and have pushed legislation that puts tough caps on CO2 emissions and boosts clean and efficient renewable energies.

How do I switch to clean energy from where I live?? It’s actually not as hard as you might think! In many countries, including Canada, you can choose to buy energy from green resources at a very comparable cost. There are many other ways you can work to decrease your global footprint as well.

In only one year the WWF’s campaign has effectively established networks and initiatives on different continents, which are longlasting and are continuing to grow even further. The more people learn about how they can help, the more alternatives to dirty, non-renewable energy sources will become popular and readily available. It all starts with us!

Wind Power Looks Neat

Adam Clare — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 16:12:52 +0000

Wind power, that sustainable source of energy that is gaining popularity, also looks good in photos!

Over at Dark Roasted Blend there are few impressive photos of windmills. Check it out and hope that we build more of these things.

Large English Windfarm

Adam Clare — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:43:02 +0000

The BBC is reporting that the UK government has agreed to allow two huge windfarms to be built off the eastern coast.

“The £1.5bn London Array scheme will have 341 turbines rising from the sea about 12 miles (20km) off the Kent and Essex coasts, as well as five offshore substations and four meteorological masts.

The government said both schemes would make “a significant contribution to the aim of a five-fold increase in the UK’s renewable energy resource by 2020″.