Techdiplomacy

Calloway Nuclear Power Station Fulton, Missouri

This is not a new subject for me I wrote a piece called Nuclear Power is Not Renewable Energy, last year, check the archives October 16, 2008, it’s there.

Now the Nuclear Power industry is actually challenging Solar and Wind power, they are claiming that they are far more ‘green’, than is the traditionaly accepted renewables, solar and wind.  This is almost criminal and I cannot see where this information has it’s basis in fact. 

I would like to reprint part of my post from October 16, 2008, in order to reinforce my thoughts, (I have done research!) there are a number of underlying problems that I don’t touch

I suscribe to Power Engineering, “the magazine of power generation”, (self described motto), most of it’s subscribers work in the fossil fuel and nuclear power industries, they often have heated discussions on this topic.  I used to work with these guys, I know the mind set.  They actually did a poll in which they asked the question, “is nuclear power a renewable energy resource”, the majority said, “yes it is”, I was not all that surprised.  This is giving a knee jerk opinion because you pay your mortgage by working in these industries.  You would like to believe that you’re doing good rather than destroying your environment.  These are not ‘bad’ men, simply ill informed.  They don’t spend a lot of time researching the topic, for the most part.  I’m not saying, no one does, just that, most don’t.  This is a subject that begs research, and there is a lot of information out there in this electronic age.

Please take a little time to read part of my post from October 16, 2008, the information still applies.  This has to do with the problem of bringing the nuclear power plants in operation up to speed.  I said this in regard to the costs associated with bringing our aging nuclear ‘fleet’ up to modern standards

The owners of some plants want to replace low pressure steam paths with higher pressure steam flow equipment. This theoretically could result in higher output. The emphasis on theoretically is mine. I have worked in the nuclear power industry as an engineer and one thing is certain, and that is nothing is certain. It is hoped that this solution will address reliability issues with these existing steam turbines.

The retrofit that most are opting for would include installing new low pressure rotors, rotating and stationary blades, inner casings and blade carriers. The scope of this type of retrofit would be large and costly. They would have to install or replace: high efficiency, integrally shrouded, reaction type blading for their front stages; longer last stage rotating blades to reduce the energy content of the steam leaving the turbine, thereby increasing turbine output; provide consistent and predictable vibration characteristics, snubbers at three quarter height will need to interconnect the last stage rotating blades and the second to last stage blades will need to be linked by integral tip shrouding; provide reduced stage leakage due to better sealing and reaction characteristics over the length of the blade; and select materials to provide erosion corrosion characteristics.

I at the time emphasized that I didn’t want to confuse anyone by using a lot of technical jargon to indicate that just updating a small portion of that which is huge, is a large almost impossible task.  I said that owners of utilities would better serve the public by investing in a new power grid, not endless repairs of our aging nuclear power stations. 

The current effort to paint themselves green is an effort to get the go-ahead to build new plants.  We are already paying dearly for the plants already in operation, by our rising costs for electricity.  The supporters of this notion are for the most part, people engaged in the nuclear power industry.  I once made a good living as a design engineer in this industry.  So I understand, I just don’t approve of this line of thinking. 

Renewable energy by it’s very name is energy that can be obtained in a fairly passive manner.  If you have to mine it, process it, or burn it, then it isn’t renewable.  Even the uranium required for nuclear power is not renewable and it is not forever.  The sun and the wind will be with us as long as man exists, for exist we will not if we don’t have these sources.  Solar power is from renewable sources, wind turbines spin because of a renewable source of energy.  The sun and wind are virtually omnipotent, uranium is not.

I won’t repeat the problems of nuclear waste, only to say that nothing has changed.  We still have no idea as to what to do with the waste or how to solve the problem that one of the components of nuclear waste is weapon’s grade plutonium.  I am researching this situation further, some strides have been made by the French, however there are still problems associated with nuclear power and the reactors required to operate these systems.

I wanted to say this because I believe to seriously give the nuclear power industry free rein, would harm mankind and our environment in the long run.  Any thoughts?  Make a comment, we’ll print it and we will answer any questions put to us, see you around the galaxy…

Solar Power in urban areas is becoming more viable, and therefore more common. The following excerpts from various papers and magazines tell the story of the growth of urban solar power. Expanding America’s power grid to connect wind and solar power plants to the urban areas they fuel will require thousands of miles of transmission lines. Most of it will be built in rural areas where locals are not likely to be very welcoming, since this power will be used in urban areas. 30 June 2009 - 1:00pm The Daily Yonder Getting Solar Power Rolling This profile from Miller-McCune looks at a Berkeley, California official who made use of a 100-year old funding mechanism to take the city solar. 25 June 2009 - 6:00am Miller-McCune Closing the Loop on Energy Use Architect Michael Palwyn is designing sustainable architecture that combines solar power and seawater into an ultra-efficient loop of resource conservation. 22 June 2009 - 6:00am. GOOD Magazine Renewable Energy System is on the Way President Obama plans to spend billions on building an interstate highway-style system for energy. 17 June 2009 - 11:00am. Discover Magazine. Smart Grid for a Smart City Amsterdam has taken its smart grid live, installing solar panels and 300 electric car recharging stations throughout the city. 11 June 2009 - 5:00am. Business Week A Solar Car By 2010? Italian car designer Pininfarina has announced that it will release a fully-electric, partially solar-powered car in Europe in 2010. 9 June 2009 - 2:00pm. Inhabitat Making Brownfield Sunny A manufacturer of solar systems has planned to develop the country’s largest urban solar power plant at a brownfield in Chicago. 5 June 2009 - 9:00am The Architect’s Newspaper Train to Run on Sunshine? An Arizona company is proposing a solar-powered elevated train running between Tucson and Phoenix. 10 May 2009 - 1:00pm Arizona Star Making Clean Energy Reliable Clean energy is a major component of the Obama Administration’s plans for an upgraded electricity grid. But with variable outputs, clean energy generation from solar and wind will need to be augmented, according to this piece from NPR. 1 May 2009 - 10:00am. NPR Building the Smart Grid Smartly In the sixth of a ten-part series, National Public Radio investigates the sustainability of smart grid technology in the places where its likely to be applied. 1 May 2009 - 7:00am National Public Radio Vatican Reveals Solar Plant Plans Vatican City has plans to build the largest solar plant in Europe, which will supply enough power for 40,000 households in a state of 900 inhabitants. 23 April 2009 - 2:00pm. Bloomberg The Planetizen News Brief - 4/23/09 [1pixelout.swf] 4:25 minutes (4.05 MB)Condos converting to affordable housing in New York, bankrupt developments converting to parks in Florida, and solar power heads to the Vatican, all on this week’s Planetizen News Brief, airing weekly on the nationally-syndicated radio show “Smart City”. 23 April 2009 - 5:00am Vatican Embraces the Power of the Sun The Vatican has announced plans to build Europe’s largest solar plant to power the state. 21 April 2009 - 9:00am Bloomberg Solar City in the Works Developers in Florida have announced plans to build a new 17,000 acre city that will run entirely on solar power. 12 April 2009 - 5:00am The Miami Herald California Desert A Hotbed for Alternative Energy On the state’s path towards drawing 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by the end of 2010, California is focusing on its southern desert as the site of this alternative energy generation.

The final analogy is that we will see solar power being generated in our urban areas more and more. Whar are your thoughts on the subject, submit a comment, let’s talk. See you around the galaxy…

This post will try to increase awareness of the benefits of wind energy and the possibility of using it in an urban environment.  Hopefully this post could provide an overview for individuals and groups who are interested in setting up an urban wind energy project, and covers the sorts of issues that will need to be addressed, including, but not limited to, technological environmental, political, and financial issues.  Urban wind energy has not been widely used as wind farms in rural areas and now offshore, where large turbines in very windy locations have the capacity to generate significant amounts of electricity. Urban wind projects, out of necessity will encompass projects that are smaller in scope and therefore require more installations of turbines. This is by comparison with large installations in offshore or rural areas. There are opportunities to harness the wind in our towns and cities.  Urban wind energy will help to reduce our energy demand, provide a source of clean, local power, and provide an education concerning the importance of renewable energy and the need to power our society using wind and solar power. The following technological advance will enable urban wind project managers connectivity to the grid. This solution is being utilized by wind turbines all around the world, in more traditional settings.

American Superconductor Corporation, a leading energy technologies company, recently announced that it has received an order worth more than $10M from ACCIONA Energy, a division of ACCIONA SA and a world leader in renewable power, for its new Dynamic VAR Ride Through (D-VAR RT) solution. Building on AMSC’s highly successful D-VAR platform, which provides critical dynamic reactive compensation required to connect many wind farms around the world to the power grid, the company’s D-VAR RT product enables individual wind turbines to continue operating smoothly by “riding through” voltage disturbances on power grids that might otherwise interrupt their operation. The D-VAR RT product meets stringent grid interconnection requirements, including Spain’s new Procedimiento de Operación 12.3 requirement for both existing and new wind turbines. According to the Global Wind Energy Council, Spain was the world’s third largest wind power market at the end of 2008 with an installed base of more than 16,000 megawatts (MW). Disturbances such as momentary voltage dips can disconnect many wind turbines and cause instability on the transmission grid.  Developed by Spain’s transmission system operator Red Electrica de España (REE), P.O. 12.3 requires that wind turbines remain connected to the grid through such events. After extensive field testing and operation by an AMSC-ACCIONA Energy team at a wind farm with one of Spain’s most difficult climates, the D-VAR RT solution recently received official certification of compliance. ACCIONA Energy has initially ordered D-VAR RT solutions for an important amount of first-generation “squirrel-cage” wind turbines that are currently providing more than 250 MW of electricity in Spain to meet P.O. 12.3. AMSC will deliver all of the D-VAR RT solutions covered under this contract to ACCIONA Energy over the next few months. The D-VAR RT solution can be installed inside or outside the tower of any wind turbine, enabling turbine manufacturers as well as wind farm developers, owners and operators to easily add the systems to new wind turbines or retrofit existing turbines. Utilizing AMSC’s PowerModule PM3000W wind turbine converter, this scalable solution is designed for a wide range of wind turbines with power ratings from 500 kilowatts (kW) up to 10 MW. This is the technology that will enable wind turbines to be deployed in urban areas. The powerful, cost-effective technology provides low and high voltage ride through capabilities to keep wind turbines running through grid disturbances. This product is based on AMSC’s patented D-VAR platform, which is supporting more than 3,300 MW of power at 40 wind farms around the world. “With more than 6,000 megawatts of wind power installed and more than 15,000 additional megawatts in development, ACCIONA Energy is a global clean energy powerhouse and is an ideal first adopter for our new D-VAR RT solution,” said Timothy Poor, AMSC’s Vice President of Global Sales and Business Development. “We see great potential for this product in Spain and other countries that adopt similar standards in the years ahead as wind power continues to play a more prominent role in the world’s electricity supply. ” ACCIONA Energy has been a renewable energy pioneer in its home market for well over a decade. In 1994, the company established its first commercial wind farms.  ACCIONA has contributed decisively to the growth in wind energy by developing and adapting innovative solutions that enable wind to become a main energy contributor. In this context, Acciona Energy has been involved in several technical working groups and committees with the aim of developing these new ride through capabilities.  This technology is key at this time to making urban wind generating projects a viable option immediately.

There are several companies manufacturing wind turbines that are  acceptable in urban settings.  There are critics of this technology, however their arguments are not reasonable or based on proven facts.  I read one critic of urban wind turbines whose main argument was he had done some calculations based on a lot of his own interpolation, and he had proved (to himself mostly) that you cannot have urban wind generating projects that produce enough electricity to make them viable options.  If we had listened to people like this we would not have air travel or vechicle travel not dependant on horses or other livestock.  We have the technology to generate wind power in urban settings, we need only implement this technology and work towards making this venture successful.  We are Americans and from the beginning we have been innovators.  Our President Barack Obama is a man who has taken responsibility to lead us through a period of change and transition.  He was and is the perfect choice for this moment in time, this is a period of transition.  We can and will use wind in urban settings for electrical power.  If someone says we can’t they are betting against American ingenuity.  It is not a good bet we will succeed in this as we have in all of endeavors that we attempted in order to improve the quality of life for Americans.  There is no choice, we have polluted our environment, used our natural resources, (oil, coal, etc.) until the resources have been depleted.  The only option is to look to renewable energy sources, wind, solar, and geothermal power are all we really have left.

The following is just one example of an urban wind turbine by virtue of it’s design.

This is a different design from the usual turbines seen in rural areas

The blades of the QR5 are gently tapered, to minimise noise – the blades being constructed from carbon fibre.

The QR5 also adheres to the principles of simplicity, sacrificing the complexity of a gearbox, for a direct-drive motor. The design aims to reduce maintenance costs by making all moving parts sealed units. The design incorporates a 6kW generator, and operates in wind conditions between 4 m/s and 16 m/s.

The design has an operational life of 25 years and has been constructed to be relatively maintenance free during that period. 

Assuming an average wind speed of 5.8 m/s, with 10, 000kWh being generated each year, the turbine will have a financial payback period of 15 years – however, as the price of oil continues to spiral, there is no reason why the turbine could not pay for itself in less time.

Vertical Shaft Turbines For Urban Use

This is a no brainer, we can and we will use wind power in our cities and towns.  There is simply no alternative.  I only hope that we will not listen to those who would tell us that we cannot do this for vague and dubious reasons.  We have proved time and time again that as Americans we can do anything we want. 

Once again, I invite anyone to comment on this (or any other) post and we will print your comments and try to engage you in a discussion, in the meantime, see you around the galaxy…

There is some conversation about money when people discuss renewable energy. They want to know if they can in some way profit from the industry.

Renewable energy provides several ways to make an income from this new and vital industry. The opportunities are there, we simply must find an opening. Solar and wind generation devices must be manufactured, and renewable energy must be installed, so to speak.

Wind turbine power is an industry that saw widespread growth last year. How does one make money from any of this? There is a need to seek that which has not been “done to death”. You could invest, or you could involve yourself in the manufacturing/installation end of the business. Once again seek “the road least traveled by.” I will attempt to provide useful information to anyone desiring a way to success in renewable energy.

The branch of renewable energy that is very busy now is wind power. It’s the first source we will investigate. Generation of wind power is usually expedited by the use of wind turbines. The ways to profit from this are infinite. We’ll take a look at all of them, if we can. The obvious ways are not necessarily the best ways. I will take you through the steps that will gain us the best results. I hope you will gain some insight from this post, it is information gleaned from the top marketing and manufacturing experts in the US.

Manufacturing wind turbines is an employee dominated avocation. By that I mean a large number of people are required to manufacture the turbines and to install them. The first thing you have is marketing the product or concept. You advertise and you sell people your idea or product. Renewable energy does not need hard sell tacticts. We’ll stick to the facts. With wind turbines we’ll need to find an acceptable way to present our product to our target group of consumers.

If you want to keep your operation small, then any advertising you do should only include your local audience. By that I mean, use the local newspapers and magazines for your print ads, and call local radio and any TV stations operating in your area.

Before we go any further, let me say that in this post I won’t tell you how to manufacture or install anything. I will provide information that will enable you order inexpensive E-books that will give you that kind of instruction. Otherwise this would go on forever.

When you you advertise make sure that you inform your potential customers who will be responsible for the work. That is to say, you will be responsible for all of the work, it does’nt matter who actually does the work. You will hire private contractors to do your work, just make sure they have good reputations.

Let’s take a look, you may save them a great deal of money, simply by installing a wind turbine . There is not a city in the country that will not grant the permits. That being the case you will have free reign to sell your product. You would be surprised at the number of customers you will have.

So advertise and I guarantee that you will make money. The next step is to educate yourself about your product. The more you know about your product, the better. Don’t assume anything, let everyone know that you are an expert in your field. People will have faith in your product and make a purchase if you seem to be an expert.

The next step is to network, you’re offering a product will save money for those that choose to use it. Most cities have sites on the web geared to report on local events. This is not advertising that will cost you money. This is ‘free’, and will not cost you anything. The writers for these entities will seek you out if you can generate interest in your product(s). Press releases, social media, word of mouth, are all legitimate ways to generate interest. Once again, I will provide links to material that will help you in these areas at the end of this post.

This post is not finished, it will be continued at a later date. Anyone desiring the links I referred to iin this post may write their requests in the comment area of this post. I will get them to you ASAP, see you next time. Please remember, this is the end of the beginning.

Offshore Wind Turbines

 

Renewable energy grew in leaps and bounds in 2008, and the future is promising with wind, solar and  geothermal power gaining in the foreseeable future.  You have the nuclear and fossil fuel industries saying that renewable energy is a good thought but is it economically feasible?  The answer is yes, although those industries would have the public believe otherwise.

Wind Power

In the past year we have seen wind power grow in places where there is surplus wind to be harnessed.  That would include Texas, Kansas, and Missouri.  There is a wealth of wind in Texas and they have done their best to utilize this power to grow tax revenues, create jobs, create a large tourism industry (people actually come to see the wind turbines in operation) and increase educational resources.  Towns that used to see most of their population moving on as they reached the age of the majority.  Now these towns are witnessing a rebirth of sorts as young people are staying in droves. 

The year 2008 was the best year in United States wind power history.  The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has released reports stating that the industry will easily surpass 2007, they added Wyoming and West Virginia to the list of states with the highest volume of wind power.  The AWEA revealed that only Germany, India, and Spain had more wind power capacity than Texas at the end of 2007.  They noted that West Virginia had the fastest wind power capacity growth which tripled it’s capacity.  Wyoming reportedly could have added 1,856 more turbines and around 2,800 MW of wind generation capacity. 

On the eastern seaboard offshore wind turbines seemed to be the answer according to the AWEA and is more cost effective than fossil fuel and nuclear power.  Plans have been revealed to build 96 offshore wind turbines arranged in a grid 16 to 20 miles off Cape May and Atlantic counties.

Congress has awarded wind a one-year Production Tax Credit (PTC) extension in the Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.  AWEA advocates a long term extension of the wind PTC.

Geothermal Power

The Geothermal Energy Association said 47 new geothermal projects are in various stages of development in California and Nevada.  When completed they will provide more than 2,100 MW, and there are projects getting started in Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington.  The U.S. Department of the Interior said in October that more than 190 million acres of federal land in 11 western states including Alaska will open to geothermal energy resource development. 

The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency  and Renewable Energy report “Geothermal Tomorrow 2008″ stated that improved geothermal technologies have “the potential to access vast untapped geothermal energy sources.”  One such technology, enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) involves digging wells into hot rock, fracturing it to create a reservoir and then extracting the heat with a second well, making geothermal a viable source of power generation in areas that don’t have naturally occuring hydrothermal reservoirs.  This would mean geothermal generation could take place in much of the United States. 

There was a two year congressional PTC extension for geothermal energy, however costs are becoming economical without the PTC.

Solar Power

Solar Photovoltaic Panel Roof Installation

A congressional investment tax credit (ITC) extension is helping solar’s fast track growth.  The 30 percent federal ITC is for residential and commercial solar installations, has been extended for 8 years.  The director of research, Mike Taylor at the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA), stated that was the largest solar milestone for 2008.

New Energy Finance has seen a possible change in the photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal electricity generators markets.  Some analysts think that supply will exeed demand and the result could be price decreases and consolidation. 

SEPA noted the large number of solar projects announced in 2008, both CSP and distributed PV was considered to be worthy of milestone status.  Recent estimates have CSP plants with an estimated total of 4,000 MW are in the planning stages. 

In 2008 utilities and the general public started to see the benefits of rooftop solar photovotaic and(PV)  installations, that was very fortunate rooftop PV installations are now in great demand.  Southern California Edison in March 2008 started to build what they said would be the largest solar cell project in the US.  This will be built on two square miles of commercial building roofs where they would generate 250 MW of advanced PV technology.  Duke Energy in North Carolina has stated they will build a 50 million dollar solar rooftop installation, they will generate 8 MW of of power from 425 sites over the next two years.  In April of 2008 the Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion (CRSP) was launched.  Fourteen companies belong to the CRSP, the newest research center of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory.

The Future of Renewable Energy

The sector will show strong growth in 2009, although it may not be a record year due the economy.  The poor economy will not affect European expansion in wind.  The US is as usual having growing pains and they need to be overcome in order for our country to keep up with our European counterparts.  The renewable energy industry need only keep up with demand for transmission, match renewables with demand response.  This is our business model for this sector.  We’ll save Americans money and we’llsave the planet as well.  We will need intelligent infrastructure from the generating station to the customer.  This fits in nicely with our next President’s (Obama) plans.  We will need to give our president help, where is the old American spirit of invention?  Donate 50 cents or a dollar, it will go to organizations involved in saving the environment.   Let’s see what we can do working together!

Winner and New Champ, Wind Power!

There have been several studies lately that have wind coming out in front of all energy sources available today.  This includes renewables such as solar and geothermal power resources.  Wind has long been known to be more efficient and cost effective than nuclear or fossil fuel power.  With the advent of issues like climate change the consensus is wind would provide an overwhelming alternative to our dependence on fossil fuel and foreign oil. 

Stanford University Researcher Mark Jacobson held a news conference in order to clear the air about some misconceptions with regard to alternative energy and it’s various sources.  He feels that the subject needed clarification in order to more effectively give our leaders input on what can and should be done about our environmental problems. 

Mr. Jacobson considered nine electric power sources and two liquid fuel alternatives. The electricity sources included solar-photovoltaics (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, wave, tidal, nuclear, and coal with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.  The liquid power fuel sources included corn ethanol (E85), and cellulosic-E85.  The electric and liquid fuel were examined by comparing their ability to power new-technology vehicles which essentially were:  battery electric vehicles (BEVs); hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs); and flex-fuel vehicles that run on E85.  After ranking each combination of energy source-vehicle type, twelve in all, with regard to any of 11 impact categories, 4 divisions of ranking, or tiers, result.  The first tier (highest ranked) includes wind powered BEVs, and HFCVs.  The second tier consisted of CSP-BEVs, geothermal BEVs, wave-BEVs, tidal BEVs, and PV-BEVs.  The third tier included hydro-BEVs, nuclear-BEVs, and CCS-BEVs.  The forth tier included  corn and cellulosic-E85.  Wind BEVs, were ranked number one in seven out of eleven categories, including mortality and climate damage that is reduced by the advent of the wind technology.  Wind HFCVs were deemed clean and although HFCVs are less efficient than BEVs, wind HFCVs were ranked second of all combinations.  The second tier options were recommended having provided ’significant’ benefits.  The third tier options proved to be ‘less desirable’, however hydroelectricity was ranked higher than coal and nuclear when load balance with climate change and health were considered and thus recommended. The tier 4 options (cellulosic and corn-E85)  were the lowest ranked in this study which considered climate, air pollution, wildlife damage, land use, and chemical waste.   Corn-E85 ranked higher than cellulosic-E85, this was largely based on consideration of a larger land use (footprint) and higher upstream air pollution over corn-E85.  In the area concerning human mortality, cellulosic-E85 seems to cause the greatest upper limit mortality risk.  However nuclear BEVs probably cause the greatest upper limit mortality risk, due to the expansion of plutonium separation and uranium enrichment in nuclear energy facilities worldwide.  Wind BEVs and CSP BEVs are the clear winners according to the paper by Mark Jacobson.  They cause the least mortality human and wildlife.  They are among the smallest comsumers of water. 

The paper goes on to conclude that in order to provide electricity for BEVs and HFCVs and, by extension, electricity for the residential, industrial, and commercial sectors, wind, CSP, geothermal, tidal, PV, wave and hydro should be used.  Jacobson’s research paper states that using a combination of these technologies could be solutions to the problems of global warming, air pollution, and energy security. 

I agree with this research in that nuclear power, ‘clean’ coal, bio-fuels or the rest of the false solutions for a clean environment are pointless and dangerous to consider.  We should advance the notion that renewables are the only answer, with wind in the forefront.

The state of New Jersey is helping to fund an initiative by Garden State Offshore Energy to build wind turbines 16 miles offshore. The state would like to have 3000 megawatts of wind power from offshore wind farms by the year 2020, which is 13 percent of the state’s electricity needs. The Garden State initiative will provide 350 megawatts of electrical power, and represent the US’s first deepwater wind turbines.

Proposed wind turbines in this country have been challenged diligently by the public and shipping interests and this has slowed or outright stopped some proposed offshore wind farms. With the deepwater turbines this is no longer a problem. When the turbines are closer in to shore they are visible and some feel eyesores. Shipping interests say shipping lanes are compromised by the wind turbines. The problem was that no wind farms were allowed any further out than 3-4 miles. The federal government has now agreed to open up deep ocean waters, and by new federal government rules this will create vast areas of space to place wind turbines. The area that they have agreed to let companies develop is the outer continental shelf, it extends to the edge of U.S. territory 230 miles out. These wind farms would not obstruct views, or interfere with any other activity.

The U.S. Department of the Interior, the agency that is responsible for the new rules planned to finalize to rules by the end of 2008. They will lease plots of the shelf to developers of wind farms and other renewable energy projects. These other projects include ocean current and wave-harvesting technologies. States along the northeast coast where 80 percent of the population of the U.S. lives, have decided to providing some of the funding for these wind farms in the hope that they will have some of the energy from the farms transmitted into state grids and help meet renewable energy requirements. The Ocean Renewable Energy Coalition’s founder Sean O’Neill thinks the leases may be too expensive and the environmental review process too extensive. Other groups are saying that there are too many barriers to overcome, and they want to know are these waters really open?

Opening the shelf is probably the only way to have offshore wind projects for the U.S. There have been problems in the past trying to get something like this done. Most proposed wind projects in state waters can be seen from shore, and there’s potential interference with shipping lanes. Wind turbines in these conditions have to have a smaller design and this leads to a reduction in the anticipated amount of electricity causing profits to fall. In addition no one seemed to know who had control, before the new federal government rules. As a result there is not a single offshore wind turbine operating in the U.S. today.

Nearly 80 percent of the population of the U.S. live in coastal states. In the heavily populated areas there is simply no room for wind turbine farms. Wind turbines located on the continental shelf will generate 1000 gigawatts of electricity. That number is more than the electrical capacity of the entire U.S. The U.S. is in the rear with regard to offshore wind turbines, Europe has more than 2 dozen wind parks in their waters.

New designs have to be developed for deep water wind turbines. At shallow depths it is a simple matter to drive a pole into the floor of the sea, this is called a monopile. The concept is like having to drive piles for reinforced concrete construction. Obviously they cannot have the deepwater turbines without new designs that will take the depth of the water into consideration.

Engineers and researchers are trying new designs like underwater tripods and lattice type structures called jackets. German developer Alpha Ventus is in the next few months going to build a dozen turbines with tripod and lattice structures in deep water. The leading developer in this type of technology are the engineering staff for Beatrice Wind Farm in the North Sea close to Scotland, with turbines 138 feet deep and over 15 miles from shore.

Engineers have determined these designs would be good for depths of 200 feet. The option they have for deeper water is floating structures used by the oil industry. The platforms would not be exactly the same as the oil industry has experience in using, however they would be very similar. Private developers in Europe say they are working on prototypes for this model. Otherwise this technology could take up to a decade to to get up and running.

The cost of deepwater windturbine installation is twice that of wind turbines on land. The industry here in the U.S. is being very careful, they don’t want to fail because of fear that would hamper or completely stop further offshore construction of wind turbine farms.