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1. For Wind, Is Bigger Better?
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2. Register now for Lean, Clean & Green
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3. New Rules for Offshore Clean Power On the Way
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4. Daily Sprout
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5. Hey Green:Net Startups, Deadline is Friday Night to Submit
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6. Tesla Talks Up $350M in Loans, But Lingers in Limbo at DOE
For Wind, Is Bigger Better?
David Ehrlich - Big Green
Wind turbine makers are aiming ever higher to get more power from the giant machines, building turbines that pack more of an electricity generating punch, as well as towers and blades that are just, well, bigger. But how big can the turbines get?
American Superconductor is going for a whopping 10 megawatts, more than twice the power of some of the bigger turbines in operation today. General Electric, one of the largest manufactures of wind turbines in the world, currently makes turbines ranging from 1.5 MW to 3.6 MW.
American Superconductor said this week that it will work with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and its National Wind Technology Center to look at the economics of building a 10-MW turbine. The Devens, Mass.-based company said it can get a bigger power punch but still keep the size and weight under control by using its high temperature superconductor wire, which it claims is lighter and more efficient than the copper wire traditionally used in wind turbines.
Apparently even the economic downturn can’t stop these new turbines from spinning. Carpinteria, Calif.-based Clipper Windpower, which recently announced production cuts and layoffs, insisted to the Guardian that its work with the UK’s Crown Estate on a 7.5-MW offshore turbine, dubbed the Britannia project, is going full steam ahead. Clipper announced plans for the more powerful turbine last April, calling it the world’s largest offshore turbine.
But what about the growing physical size of these giants? The National Wind Technology Center is looking at that as well, saying earlier this month that it plans to install two big turbines at its lab just south of Boulder, Colo. The turbines, from GE and Siemens, don’t necessarily represent the largest turbines available, but they’ll be the largest ever installed at the wind center, giving scientists a chance to poke and prod the machines to see what kind of stresses the turbines can take. They plan to work on ways to get more power out of existing turbines, and on how to improve the durability of the turbine’s components.
The GE turbine, a 1.5-MW model of which is currently available, will have a 262-foot steel tower, with the diameter of the rotor reaching 250 feet. The whole thing weighs about 220 tons. The Siemens turbine, a late-stage prototype, will generate 2.3 MW, with a tower about the same height as GE’s, but a much bigger rotor, one that covers 331 feet.
Maybe we’ll have a better idea of how big these giants can be, or should be, when the wind center finishes its tests in late 2011.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Register now for Lean, Clean & Green
Guest Column - Misc
The Uptime Institute’s 2009 Research Symposium, “Lean, Clean & Green,” is the only Enterprise IT and Data Center event focused on peak productivity, reliability, efficiency and eco-sustainability that provides senior-level strategies and tools you can implement immediately to help reduce your power bills by 25 percent, saving your enterprise millions of dollars over a 3-4 year period with no capital expenditures, and identify needless operating and capital expenses resulting from energy consumption — before you invest millions in IT. The event, to be held on April 13-16 in New York, will feature speakers including Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas L. Friedman, Google Energy Czar Bill Weihl, and many more. Earth2Tech readers can get $1,000 off the full ticket price with discount code “09SYMP1595.” Register now!
New Rules for Offshore Clean Power On the Way
David Ehrlich - Big Green
Some long-awaited rules and regulations related to offshore renewable development could be introduced in the U.S. this year, potentially cutting the red tape for startups looking to put their wind, wave, or tidal projects in the water. Ken Salazar, the new head of the Department of the Interior, announced this week that he plans to set a framework for offshore renewables “in the coming months.”
The rules were supposed to be finalized a few years ago as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, with the offshore renewable guidelines required to be issued within nine months of the bill being signed into law. “The Bush administration was so intent on opening new areas for oil and gas offshore that it torpedoed offshore renewable energy efforts,” said Salazar at a news conference in Washington.
Offshore wind energy is only just beginning to make headway in the U.S. The 420-megawatt Cape Wind project in Massachusetts received a favorable review from the Minerals Management Service — part of the Interior Department — last month, after more than seven years of environmental review.
While Salazar’s new guidelines could come too late to help Cape Wind, there are at least two more big offshore wind projects on the way in the Northeast that could benefit from a streamlined bureaucracy — a 400-MW project in Rhode Island from Deepwater Wind, and a 350-MW project in New Jersey from Deepwater Wind and the Public Service Enterprise Group.
The bigger benefit could be for the nascent ocean power industry. Still unproven on a large scale, there are only a handful of projects worldwide currently in the ocean and feeding energy into a grid. In the U.S., there’s a confusing, and sometimes contradictory, array of federal regulations for ocean power, according to the New York-based Environmental Defense Fund, which had a chat with the then-incoming Obama administration late last year on wave and tidal power.
One big issue Salazar may need to tackle in his new framework is a jurisdictional dispute between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Minerals Management Service. Both agencies have claims on ocean power projects in certain offshore areas.
Clearing up that interagency squabble could be a boon to Lockheed Martin and Ocean Power Technologies. The two announced plans last month to work together on a utility-scale wave power project that would be located off the coast of California or Oregon.
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Daily Sprout
Josie Garthwaite - Misc
Finavera Forfeits Wave Power Permits: Finavera Renewables plans to give up its FERC license for two Pacific Coast wave energy pilot projects so it can focus on developing wind power in British Columbia and Ireland. — Energy Business Review
Can You Charge Me Now? Good: Evan Thornley of Better Place Australia breaks down the plan for Down Under in a detailed interview, and says the country will have 99.8 percent network coverage within two decades. — CNET Australia
Electric Cars to Be Made in China, Sold at Wal-Mart: Mexico-based GS Motors plans to sell China-made electric vehicles at big box retailers like Costco and Wal-Mart in the U.S. within five years. — Cleantech Group
Aliens Off the Hook for Turbine Damage: Remember the mysteriously snapped wind turbine we covered last month — the one that locals thought might have had something to do with a UFO? Turns out it was worn out bolts. — NYT’s Green Inc.
Cities Get Smart: A growing movement in Europe envisions futuristic “smart cities” — self-sufficient energy systems where construction firms (would rival power suppliers. — Reuters
Hey Green:Net Startups, Deadline is Friday Night to Submit
Katie Fehrenbacher - Misc
- The idea or product should be good. We want gems, folks.
- The startup should be less than 12 months old, or if older explain why you've been dragging your feet.
- The innovation needs to help fight global warming in a substantial way. No green-washed goods.
- Preference given to companies that launch their ideas at Green:Net.
- Someone from the company must be able to attend the ceremony in person.
- Funding status is immaterial.
The bad news is you only have until this Friday at midnight to submit your company (do it here). The LaunchPad10 will get to showcase their startup or project on the mainstage in front of hundreds of industry thought leaders — our speaker list is chock full of folks who are charging ahead at this intersection, including Saul Griffith, co-founder of Makani and WattzOn; Bob Metcalfe, Ethernet inventor turned greentech investor; Rob Bernard, the chief environmental strategist at Microsoft; and three Google execs working on the search engine giant’s various green projects. It’s gonna be fun — you’ll want to be there. Enter your company now! You can also buy a ticket here
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
Tesla Talks Up $350M in Loans, But Lingers in Limbo at DOE
Josie Garthwaite - DoE
When reading the newsletter that electric car startup Tesla Motors sent to customers this morning, you could hardly be blamed for thinking the company had a Department of Energy loan in the bag. “Regarding funding,” writes CEO Elon Musk, “I am excited to report that the Department of Energy informed Tesla last week that they expect to disburse funds from our $350M Model S loan application within four to five months.”
But in fact Tesla has not yet been awarded any funds, and its application remains in the “financial viability and technical merit stage” of evaluation, which involves opening up the company books to the government, according to spokesperson Rachel Konrad. At this point, Konrad said, the DOE will find one cash-flow positive unit (powertrains). And while the company as a whole will not turn a profit in 2009, the Roadster unit is on track to become cash-flow positive this summer.
Still, the 4-5 month timeline comes as welcome news for Tesla — and the dozens of other companies vying for funds under the $25 billion DOE loan program for advanced vehicle manufacturing. It’s not the four weeks Energy Secretary Steven Chu was hoping for, but it’s an improvement over what Konrad said was starting to look like a year-and-a-half time frame just a few weeks ago.
Tesla’s V-P of corporate development, Diarmud O’Connell, revealed in an interview last fall that the company had applied for $400 million in low-interest loans, with slightly more than $200 million requested for building the Model S factory, and slightly less for battery development. Konrad said today that Tesla has requested roughly $100 million for the battery. The DOE is still in the early stages of evaluating that application.
Other tidbits from Musk this morning: The company has nailed down a date — March 26 — to show the Model S prototype in Southern California. It also plans to open showroom/service centers in Chicago, Manhattan, Miami, Seattle, London and Munich by year’s end. Finally, for everyone who’s been wondering about the lifespan of the Roadster battery pack, Musk said it “should last approximately seven years or over 100,000 miles under normal use.”
Hear Microsoft, IBM, Dell and Cisco execs at GigaOM’s Green:Net.
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