Salazar, Chu Announce Major Offshore Wind Initiatives

Strategic plan, $50 million in R&D funding, identified Wind Energy Areas will speed offshore wind energy development

Source: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement

NORFOLK, VA - Unveiling a coordinated strategic plan to accelerate the development of offshore wind energy, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced major steps forward in support of offshore wind energy in the United States, including new funding opportunities for up to $50.5 million for projects that support offshore wind energy deployment and several high priority Wind Energy Areas in the mid-Atlantic that will spur rapid, responsible development of this abundant renewable resource. 

Deployment of clean, renewable offshore wind energy will help meet the President's goal of generating 80 percent of the Nation's electricity from clean energy sources by 2035.

"The mid-Atlantic Wind Energy Areas are a key part of our 'Smart from the Start' program for expediting appropriate commercial-scale wind energy development in America's waters," Secretary Salazar said. "Through the Strategic Work Plan, the United States is synchronizing new research and development initiatives with more efficient, forward-thinking planning so that we can help quickly stand up an American offshore wind industry. This initiative will spur the type of innovation that will help us create new jobs, build a clean energy future, and compete and win in the technologies of the 21st century." 

"Offshore wind energy can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, diversify our energy supply, and stimulate economic revitalization," said Secretary Chu. "The Department of Energy is committed to working with our federal partners to provide national leadership in accelerating offshore wind energy deployment."

Hi-tech buoy to test ocean winds for turbines

World's largest offshore wind farm opens off Kent

Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, will open Thanet wind farm in the English Channel off Foreness Point.

The 100 turbines, each measuring more than 300ft, will power more than 200,000 homes. It will increase the amount of energy generated from offshore wind in the UK by a third to 1,314MW, compared to 1,100MW in the whole of the rest of the world.

Mr Huhne said the UK is leading the world in an exciting new technology that will cut carbon emissions and boost green jobs.

However experts are concerned that Britain is relying on a power source that must be backed up by other technologies because the wind does not blow all the time.

Thanet wind farm, built by Swedish energy giant Vattenfall, increases the number of large scale turbines off the coast of Britain to 436. There are already 2,640 on land.

Furthermore there are almost 1,000 turbines being built in the UK offshore and onshore and a further 2,300 with planning consent.

Univ. of Memphis to exhibit new water turbine

Geoff Greene saw the power of water currents up close 15 years ago, when a 25-foot boat he was riding in the Mississippi River was nearly dragged underwater when its anchor snagged on the bottom and pulled down on the back of the vessel.

A question then popped into Greene's brain: How can I harness that underwater energy?

'A lot of power there, I've got to look into this,' Greene recalls thinking. 'It evolved into this wonderfully simple wheel.'

Using water's movement to generate energy is certainly not an original thought -- dams and hydroelectric power plants fill that role. But Greene's challenge was to create a new way to produce clean energy and avoid the costly and time-consuming effort of building a dam or power plant.

Enter the Greene Turbine, a 15-year labor of science, engineering and love that will be exhibited starting Monday at the University of Memphis. Greene, a 46-year-old high school graduate with no college degree who earns his living as a handyman, has a vision of installing his turbines in rivers and oceans to add juice to the nation's electrical grids."

The Mountain West Can Lead The Way On Energy Innovation

The United States Mountain West has long been a hotbed of experimentation and innovation, due in no small part to a decades-long partnership between government, universities and private enterprise. Throughout the 20th century, the federal government invested in dams, transportation infrastructure and military installations that facilitated economic expansion and the emergence of new private industries.

Community taps wind to shore up school funds

UNION CITY, Ind. (AP) - A wind energy project that started as a high school science lesson could bring in $3 million for an eastern Indiana school district and city over the next 25 years.

Two 1-megawatt turbines were installed this summer in Union City, making it the first Indiana community with commercial-sized turbines owned by the local government and school system.

The turbines were born of an idea from Randolph County high school science teacher John Zakelj, who proposed putting a small wind turbine outside the classroom to help teach students about science and math."

U.S. energy use in record drop

Wind power increased significantly in 2009, even as overall energy consumption fell by the largest margin since records have been kept.
Energy use in the United States fell nearly 5% last year, marking the largest annual drop on record, according to an analysis of federal data by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.


Total U.S. energy use fell in 2009 to an estimated 94.6 quadrillion British Thermal Units, down from 99.2 quadrillion BTUs in 2008. To put that in perspective, the average room air conditioner uses about 10,000 BTUs.


This was the largest year-over-year drop since the government began keeping track in 1949, said A.J. Simon, an energy analyst at LLNL.


'Energy use tends to follow the level of economic activity, and that level declined last year,' he said. 'Simply said, people are doing less stuff. Therefore, they're burning less fuel.'


Despite the drop in overall energy use, Simon said the study also showed a substantial increase in alternative sources of energy, including gains in solar, hydro and wind power."

West can lead the new energy economy

The West, with its wealth of wind, solar, geothermal and other clean, renewable energy resources, is poised to lead the nation toward a new energy future. But achieving that vision will require continued collaboration and a balanced approach that offers tremendous new economic and environmental benefits.

Recently, Sen. Harry Reid, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a pilot solar project on federal land in Nevada. This is a great example of a good project in a good place. The federal agencies, state and local governments, utilities and other involved stakeholders agreed to build the project on a so-called “brownfield,” a place that has already been disturbed. In this instance, the site had been used for nuclear testing; the Department of Energy now plans to develop and test innovative solar energy projects there.

Wind turbine company to plant 600 jobs in Michoud

In what Gov. Bobby Jindal called 'a great win for the New Orleans area' and Mayor Mitch Landrieu termed an 'incredibly exciting announcement,' officials announced Tuesday that a British wind turbine company will begin manufacturing turbine blades and components in part of the rapidly emptying Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans.

Theo Botha, co-founder of Blade Dynamics, announces plans for the company to take up residence at the Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans.

Blade Dynamics Ltd., a 3-year-old company based on the Isle of Wight off the southern coast of England, designs and manufactures advanced blades designed to increase the efficiency and performance of very high power wind turbines."

A (Load) Balancing Act: The Challenge Of Clean Power : NPR

Solar and wind power are booming in California, but there are times when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow. So California utilities are looking to smooth out those bumps by doing something rarely done on the grid today: storing electricity."

The California Independent System Operator is the traffic cop of the state's electrical grid. Its job is to forecast how much electricity the state needs — every four seconds — and to make sure it's supplied. Inside an unmarked building outside of Sacramento, dozens of people are glued to computer screens, and on one wall, there's a display plotting a big red line showing how much electricity California is using right now, in real time.

Alternative Energy: Will U.S. Lead or Follow?

Oil Spill Turns American Minds to Renewable Power Sources As Inventors, Investors Wait for Gov't to Get Serioust

• 
   (AP)

• INTERACTIVEEnergy Ed.
  A look at our sources of energy and how we use them to live and work.
• INTERACTIVEAlternative Energy
  Learn about the types of renewable energy that are used in the U.S. and the regions of the country considered to be most suitable for each kind.

(CBS)  Imagine a future in which abundant energy could be ours, simply by harnessing the wind, or capturing sunlight, or tapping into the heat of the Earth itself. Seth Doane explores America's alternative energy hopes and challenges: 

In the wake of the Gulf oil disaster, calls for cleaner, greener energy, are growing louder.

"Now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to unleash America's innovation to seize control of our own destiny," President Obama said in June.

If that rallying cry sounds strangely familiar, it should.

In January of 2006, Mr. Obama's predecessor George W. Bush said America "must move beyond a petroleum-based economy to make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."

In June 2000, then-President Bill Clinton stressed the need to, "maximize conservation and maximize the development of alternative sources of energy."

Going back even further, Richard Nixon declared in January of 1967 that the U.S. would "break the back of the energy crisis" by the end of the decade.

Read more at CBS NEWS

Wind vs. Coal: The Fight for a Mountaintop

Mountaintop removal and other surface mining have redrawn landscapes in the West Virginia-Kentucky border region. Environmentalists propose a wind farm to ensure one mountain’s future.

LORELEI SCARBRO’S husband, Kenneth, an underground coal miner for more than 30 years, is buried in a small family cemetery near her property here at the base of Coal River Mountain. The headstone is engraved with two roosters facing off, their feathers ruffled. Kenneth, who loved cockfighting, died in 1999, and, Ms. Scarbro says, he would have hated seeing the tops of mountains lopped off with explosives and heavy machinery by mining companies searching for coal.

Critics say the practice, known as “mountaintop removal mining,” is as devastating to the local environment as it is economically efficient for coal companies, one of which is poised to begin carving up Coal River Mountain. And that has Ms. Scarbro and other residents of western Raleigh County in a face-off of their own.