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Western Wind Powers California

Wind is not only the cleanest source of energy available to humanity, it is also the world?s fastest growing source of electrical power. But the United States has been slow to adopt. A Canadian company is changing that though ? one wind farm at a time.

Western Wind Energy Corp (TSX.V:WND) is North America?s largest publicly traded pure wind energy producer, currently providing 34 megawatts of wind turbine-generated electricity to the California electrical grid. Right now, it is the only publicly traded company in North America deriving its income exclusively from the sale of electricity generated from wind power.

With the announcement on February 14th of the successful acquisition of a 100 MW wind and solar energy site near Barstow, California, Western Wind has an additional 1,300 MW in its pipeline of expansion sites throughout the state.

The company now has over $1 billion of power sales agreements totaling 155 megawatts from the sale of wind energy electrical generation to two separate utilities.

In the United States during 2007, 5,244 megawatts of generating power was installed by the wind energy industry, breaking all previous records and growing the U.S. national wind generating capacity by 45%.

The new wind projects account for about 30 percent of the entire new power-producing capacity added nationally in 2007 and will power the equivalent of 1.5 million American households annually.

American wind farms will generate an estimated 48 billion kilowatt-hours of wind energy in 2008, just over one percent of U.S. electricity supply, powering the equivalent of over 4.5 million homes.

California is, as might be expected, is a leader among states for installed megawatts of wind generated electricity with 2,439 MW of installed capacity, second only to Texas.

Nancy Rader, executive director of the California Wind Energy Association said, ?I think that wind could realistically provide 20% of the state?s electricity needs 13 years from now ? up from less than 2% today, which would be about 20,000 MW of capacity.?

Western Wind Energy is perfectly positioned to capture a big piece of that evolving capacity for one simple reason: the management team has 24 years of continuous wind installation operating experience ? more than any other company within the industry.

The secret to creating profitable wind installations is in the siting of the turbines. Meteorologist Rich Simon, a consultant to Western Wind, has chosen the locations of over 40,000 turbines, or 10,000 MW of generating capacity around the world. He is one of the industry?s few ?go-to? guys, responsible for siting 10% of the world?s turbine capacity since 1977.

As wind resource areas vary, so does the cost of generation. A wind farm operating in a 15 mph yearly average wind speed may have total costs of 6.8 cents per kilowatt-hour. That same wind farm, operation in a 20 mph yearly average wind speed, may have total costs of only 4.9 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Like most major forms of electricity generation, wind power is capital intensive. In economic terms, wind power has an extremely low marginal cost and a high proportion of up-front costs. The energy consumption for producing, installing, operating and eventually decommissioning a wind turbine is typically earned back within three months of operation.

At a robust wind location in the state of California, for each one megawatt installed, or

US$2 million capital invested, $400,000 is generated annually in energy sales with a further $80,000 in annual federal tax credits (Production Tax Credit or PTC).

The Senate Finance Committee last month included an extension of the expiring tax credits for wind, solar, and other renewable energy technologies as part of its economic stimulus package now working its way through Congress.

Western Wind is not content to remain a ?wind-only? company, and recently announced a cooperative agreement with Solon America Corporation to develop 5 to 40 megawatts of photovoltaic ? solar energy projects in California and an additional 5 ? 40 megawatts of photovoltaic ? solar energy projects in Ontario, Canada.

Solon America is the subsidiary of $1.2 billion German solar energy equipment manufacturer Solon A.G.

The company was founded in 1998 by CEO Jeff Ciachurski, who has negotiated more than 200MW of off-take agreements and raised over $50 million to acquire real estate and develop the company’s projects.

His objective?

?To grow Western Wind Energy into a mid-size wind developer and operator with a market capitalization of between US $1 billion and US $4 billion.?

Given the company?s success to date, that doesn?t come across as just a lot of wind.

Get Grants For Using Alternative Energy

In his State of the Union Address for 2007, President George W. Bush called for a 22% increase in federal grants for research and development of alternative energy. However, in a speech he gave soon after, he said to those assembled, I recognize that there has been some interesting mixed signals when it comes to funding.

Where the mixed signals were coming from concerned the fact that at the same time the President was calling on more government backing for alternative energy research and development, the NREL-the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of Golden, Colardo-was laying off workers and contractors left and right. Apparently, the Laboratory got the hint, because soon after the State of the Union Address, everyone was re-hired. The second speech of the President’s was actually given at the NREL. There is almost unanimous public support for the federal backing through research grants, tax breaks, and other financial incentives of research and development of alternative energy sources.

The NREL is the nation’s leading component of the National Bioenergy Center, a “virtual” center that has no central bricks and mortar office. The NREL’s raison d’etre is the advancing of the US Department of Energy’s and the United States’ alternative energy objectives. The laboratory’s field researchers and staff scientists, in the words of Laboratory Director Dan Arvizu, “support critical market objectives to accelerate research from scientific innovations to market-viable alternative energy solutions. At the core of this strategic direction are NREL’s research and technology development areas. These areas span from understanding renewable resources for energy, to the conversion of these resources to renewable electricity and fuels, and ultimately to the use of renewable electricity and fuels in homes, commercial buildings, and vehicles.” The federally-backed Laboratory directly helps along the United States’ objectives for discovering renewable alternative fuels for powering our economy and our lifestyles.

The NREL is set up to have several areas of expertise in alternative energy research and development. It spearheads research and development efforts into renewable sources of electricity; these would include such things as solar power, wind power, biomass power, and geothermal power. It also spearheads research and development of renewable fuels for powering our vehicles such as biomass and biodiesel fuels and hydrogen fuel cells. Then, it seeks to develop plans for integrated system enginnering; this includes bringing alternative energy into play within buildings, electrical grids and delivery systems, and transportation infrastructures. The Laboratory is also set up for strategic development and analysis of alternative energy objectives through the forces of economics, market analysis and planning, and alternative energy investment portfolios structurings.

The NREL is additionally equipped with a Technology Transfer Office. This Office supports laboratory scientists and engineers in the practical application of and ability to make a living from their expertise and the technologies they develop. NREL’s research and development staff and its facilities are recognized for their remarkable prowess by private industry, which is reflected in the hundreds of collaborative projects and licensed technologies that the Laboratory now has with both public and private partners.

Wind Energy: Friend or Foe to New York Construction Workers

The energy crisis that our world has been going through in the past couple decades has really opened up our eyes to finding a solution. Scientists, Inventors, and governmental regulators have all been contemplating ideas on how this solution would be resolved. The thought of alternative energy has been in the minds of the public lately flooding with thoughts of possible solutions. Also since not only are we in a deficit but it is also one of the major issues of the 2008 election. The outcome of the election is going to greatly sway where our nation is going to turn in terms of alternate energy. This issue is a very important one because is represents how we are going to take on the future. It will show how we are going to provide for our country?s efficiencies. Recently, In New York, ?State regulators approved a deal on Wednesday that will allow the construction of hundreds of new wind turbines in New York, doubling the amount of wind power capacity within a few years.? However this dealing could only take effect if Iberdrola would be allowed to acquire Energy East. Iberdrola is an energy conglomerate based in Spain, and Energy East is a utility company doing a large amount of business in five states.

These wind tunnels in New York would allow for almost a double in wind energy to occur within the state. This would allow for a tremendous increase in energy allowance at the state level. With all of the wind tunnels advances and potential, there are some pivotal downfalls. The construction that would be needed to complete this project would be tremendous and very dangers. Since our economy has been declining, people have been putting issues such as safety and equipment aside. Putting safety and equipment aside is a very dangerous thing to do. Construction accidents involving safety and equipment are at an all time high. New York Construction accident lawyers are being flooded with people that have fallen victim to these crimes. Since construction workers have one of the most dangerous jobs you would think that safety and equipment would given to them in the most appropriate conditions.

This new proposal would allow our energy crisis to be depleted in New York. In doing this it would help out the economy as a whole and start our way to becoming more efficient with out energy. However if this plan becomes a reality it is necessary to make sure that our construction workers have the most up to date safety and equipment standards and procedures. If however safety and equipment are not prioritized, then we are going to see a lot of injured construction workers. If you are a construction worker who has been injured on a construction site, contact New York Construction Accident lawyers as soon as possible. For they have the ability to stand up for you in a court of law and make sure that your rights are being honored. IN contacting a New York Construction accident lawyer you will be taking the first step to gaining back what was taken from you.

Green Information – A Solar Charger Can Help Change The World

Looking for green information or devices like the solar charger that generate their energy on their own or can make the best of solar energy or are you trying to scout around for items that are just energy efficient or attachable to portable power packs that run are solar powered? These devices will not only save money on the electricity bill but also help save some money for spending on other energy efficient products.

It was only until the 1800s that the battery was invented. What does a battery do? It stores energy in one or more cells of electrochemical components. This stored up energy is converted to electricity by changing it to kinetic energy. Batteries are a part of our everyday lives, but it’s so ubiquitous that we don’t realize that fact! Batteries are everywhere, in torches, watches, laptops, cameras, iPods and even computers! It’s central to the way we run our business and private lives. Duracell and Energizer batteries are the best and sell billions of units a year!

Rechargeable batteries can be charged by the current passing through it which is converted to energy. Battery chargers can be used for charging batteries of laptops or even golf carts, however their chargers would be different since the charge varies according to the size of the battery and the technology required to get it up and running! Nickel-cadmium batteries are used almost everywhere nowadays since they are highly powerful batteries and are sleek and tiny and can be found in digital cameras and almost any new product in an electronics shop. Wal-mart, CVS and Target stocks and sells these chargers as a result the demands too have skyrocketed.

Digital cameras can also be charged using solar battery chargers. OEM chargers work on solar energy and second-hand chargers for brands like Nikon, Sony, Panasonic and Olympus can be bought for cheap. This is because camera makers don’t make solar chargers. While shopping for chargers like this for a camera, it’s best to check the voltage limit the camera battery can withstand and use the solar panel that corresponds to that to get it charged. These batteries can cost anywhere from between $140 to $250.

Now one can even get solar phone chargers for iPods and cell phones – you can look up your green information on teh move. These chargers can even charge PDA devices.

There are two advantages of solar battery chargers – they don’t use too much energy which people end up paying for to recharge the batteries in wall chargers and also, unlike wall charging units, these products don’t need an electric plug! The inbuilt solar panels tap the sun’s rays and convert it to electricity free of cost as long as the sun is up!

Solar battery chargers aren’t large, they’re easy to transport and can be exposed to the sun at any location. Now you can charge your batteries without a worry in the world and if you run out of charge, you can charge it again! Charge your devices for free on clean renewable energy that is environmentally friendly.

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