Recently in Wind
Wind:
The Feds have just released the final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for wind project near the mouth of the Grand Canyon that may pose a threat to the Canyon's population of reintroduced California condors.
Wind:
After one of its wind turbines threw a ten-ton blade in Imperial County, Siemens Energy has shut down all its turbines worldwide that use the same blade.
Wind:
The 315-megawatt Ocotillo Express Wind project in Imperial County is shut down today after a 10-ton blade came loose from one of the project's 112 Siemens wind turbines, landing about 100 yards away on a public road.
Wind:
In a reversal that has outraged environmentalists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced it will not penalize a Southern California wind operator if its turbines kill or injure one California condor.
Wind:
In an era when many mainstream green groups seem willing to turn a blind eye to wind power development near our national parks, NPCA has been a voice for caution. Now its recent president is paid to advocate for 1,200 wind development companies.
Wind:
The federal government has been sued over a recently-approved wind project in Nevada. Plaintiffs charge the federal government conducted an inadequate review of the project's likely effects on desert wildlife.
Wind:
Wind facility developers wanting to install several hundred turbines at a go may be faced with disappointing power output unless our computer models get a lot better.
Wind:
More wind power than ever has powered the state in the last few days, according to the California Independent System Operator (CaISO), which runs the electrical power grid covering most of the state. On Sunday, wind power production reached an all-time peak of 4,196 megawatts -- nearly twice the output of the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant.
Wind:
Researchers in the Netherlands are developing a bladeless wind power generation technology. While there are some persistent issues to work out, the concept is potentially promising.
The Grid:
We can run our grid on renewable power effectively, say the authors of a study released this month, without massive storage capacity. The key is building out about three times as much renewable generating capacity as the grid needs to meet peak demand.
Wind:
A Maryland-base company wants to build two 2,250-foot-tall solar wind generating tunnels in the Arizona desert that would use downdrafts to provide a gigawatt of renewable energy to the grid. The towers, which would be the second-tallest structures in the world, would occupy public land just outside San Luis, AZ and use desalinated water from the Sea of Cortez to generate the downdrafts.
Wind:
Even a resource as unpredictable as wind power -- which can fluctuate statewide in an hour or two -- isn't that hard to incorporate into a grid the size of California's.
Wind:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has asked the public for help in gathering information on eagle mortality in the wake of the death of a golden eagle at the North Sky River wind facility on January 29. The eagle was found near a North Sky River turbine just one month after the facility started operation in December 2012.
Wind:
A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed two lawsuits against the Ocotillo Express Wind project in Imperial County.
Wind:
A U.S. District Court judge will hear arguments Friday that construction on the Ocotillo express Wind facility in Imperial County should be stopped.
Commentary:
It's become clear that developers are increasingly eyeing the area just north and east of the Mojave National Preserve.
Wildlife:
ReWire reported that we'd learned the North Sky River wind facility in Kern County had been the site of an eagle death. North Sky River's owner offered us a comment on the eagle's death.
Wildlife:
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is considering eliminating most public oversight of wind turbine impacts on protected bald and golden eagles by offering developers 30-year permits to kill eagles by accident, as opposed to the current 5-year permits. What's more, they're shaping the implementation of that proposed policy change in a series of private "stakeholders'" meetings to which the public is not invited.
Wind:
The North Sky River Wind project, which attracted fierce opposition from environmental groups concerned about potential threat to eagles and California condors, was the site of a golden eagle death in January.
Wind:
A proposed wind turbine installation in North Dakota poses a threat to the critically endangered whooping crane, of which fewer than 400 remain in the wild.
News and analysis about renewable energy in California. Blog host Chris Clarke is an environmental writer of two decades standing. He currently lives in Joshua Tree and can be contacted at: rewire@kcet.org.
- Wind Power
- PV and Solar Thermal
- Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI)
- Watts and Watt-Hours, Kilo and Mega
- 'Enough To Power X Thousand Homes'
- The Grid
- Distributed Generation
- Conservation and 'Negawatts'
- Grid Storage
- PACE Loans, Feed In Tariffs and Net Metering
- Base Load and Peaking Power
- Capacity Factor
- Renewable Portfolio Standards
- Biomass
- Transportation and Renewable Energy
- Geothermal
