No fuel. Wind power has unique characteristics: it has zero fuel price risk, zero fuel costs and extremely low operation and maintenance costs. In addition, wind power provides total protection and zero risk from carbon costs, and zero geo-political risk associated with supply and infrastructure constraints or political dependence on other countries. Wind power has no resource constraints; the fuel is free and endless. Unlike conventional fuels, wind energy is a massive indigenous power source permanently available. Wind power stations can be constructed and deliver power far quicker than conventional sources. Here is an inspiring video.

Current trends in energy supply and use are patently unsustainable – economically, environmentally and socially. Without decisive action, energy-related emissions of CO2 will more than double by 2050 and increased oil demand will heighten concerns over the security of supplies. We can and must change our current path, but this will take an energy revolution and low-carbon energy technologies will have a crucial role to play.

Wind energy is perhaps the most advanced of the “new” renewable energy technologies, but there is still much work to be done. This roadmap identifies the key tasks that must be undertaken in order to achieve a vision of over 2 000 GW of wind energy capacity by 2050.

Dear readers and visitors of the OliNo.org website, I would like to share another part of my experience as a Dutch visitor, when I was travelling in the warm and deep South of the USA during October until January of 2009. In January I was riding on interstate highway 10 between Whitewater (CA) and North Palm Springs (CA) I passed a windmill farm: a beautiful sight with a large number of propellors forming a visual show in the sky. I did a little investigation about numbers and megawatts.

Would a “50% of electricity generated by wind scenario” work in North America by 2030? In this post, I make a rough cut estimate of what might be required to make such a transition in about 20 years time.

Most proposals that are being made rely on a very big increase in carbon free energy, both to charge electric vehicles (EV’s) and to replace oil and natural gas (NG) presently used for hot water and space heating. In this post, I lay out a path by which 50% of North American energy might come from wind by 2030, including replacement of a large share of oil and natural gas use by electricity.

‘The large-scale integration of wind energy in our electricity supply is technically very well feasible. The existing power system is able to cope at any time in the future with variations in demand for electricity and supply of wind power, as long as use is made of up-to-date wind forecasts. Furthermore, no facilities for energy storage need to be developed.’ These are the most important conclusions of my Ph.D. thesis, which I have successfully defended at Delft University of Technology. Below I will explain in ten minutes of reading time how I have arrived at these conclusions after four years of Ph.D. research.

Small wind turbines are turbines with a maximum blade-height of 49 feet (15 meter) and generate relative low power. Their purpose is to use them in urban areas, but can be placed in any location. They claim to (partially) provide power for peoples own household.

Little is known about the real performance of these small wind turbines. So 4 Dutch groups decided to start a project to test these small wind-turbines. Recently the first test results were published on the internet. After some calculations by OliNo we got some interesting results. The results show that a photovoltaic (PV) system is more cost effective than the best performing small wind turbine….

Read more… “Test results small wind turbines”

De Windvogel and Eneco start pilot for active citizen participation in wind turbines
Green power generated by and for the customer. Participants in the pilot thereby conserve the environment and, in addition, can save up to 150 euros per year.

The worldwide market for wind energy has been growing faster than any other form of durable energy. Its installed power grew from only 4,800 MW in 1995 to 59,000 MW at the end of 2005. That is an increase of more than 1200 % in ten years. In the mean time, there are three scenarios worked out about how we can further expand wind energy and what benefits this will bring.

The results are impressive. In the expanding scenario we could deliver 34 % of our electricity with the help of wind energy by 2050. The cost price of wind energy could drop to 3 cents / kWh, the amount of jobs in wind energy will result in a growth of 2.1 million and the CO₂ emissions decrease by 3,100 million tons…

In Germany,  the world’s highest wind turbine has been put into action. It has a hub height of 160 m and the whole turbine is mounted on a frame with a base of 30 m and a weight of 347 tons. The rotor diameter is 90 m and its power rated at 2.5 MW. The estimate is that it will generate a yearly 7 million kWh.