Grenbird captures world land speed record for wind powered vehicles
Mar 29, 2009 Auto Tech, Green Technologies
Greenbird
Richard Jenkins, a British engineer recently rewrote the world land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle. He reached 126.1mph (202.9km/h) in his Greenbird car on the dry plains of Ivanpah Lake in Nevada. American Bob Schumacher set the previous record of 116 mph in 1999, driving his Iron Duck vehicle.
The Greenbird was a carbon fibre built vehicles, with a solidwing, instead of sails to harness the power of winds. It weighed just 600 kg, but at high speeds, created enough downforce to avoid being flippping over.
Though wind powered vehicles may not be practical in real life, such initiatives will help focus public attention on alternate sources of energy. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: land speed record, wind energy
Wind and solar powered gadgets from CES
Jan 11, 2009 Information of the Day
Kinesis K2
CES 2009 is here. And while consumer electronics has not put been spouting the green mantra as frequently as car makers, few altrenatively powered gadgets were on display.
If you are the one who wants a greener option of recharging all the devices that you carry, have a look at the Kinesis K2 - it is a charger that uses solar as well as wind energy. About one hour of good sunlight is enough juice to give your phone a 30-minute charge. There’s no word yet on how much steady wind it takes to charge it up.The manufacturer suggests that when the device is fully charged it will have enough energy to recharge the average cell phone roughly 5 times. and you could also plug it into an AC outlet to reenergize the thing.
Another company, Miniwiz cames up with the very stylish looking Solarbulb, which allows you to reuse your old bottles.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: CES 2009, Kinesis, MiniWiz, recycling, Solar Energy, wind energy
Nicaragua set to get a 40MW wind farm next month
Dec 29, 2008 Green Technologies, Information of the Day
Windy days
Nicaragua is close to making operational a $90 million wind farm project by the end of January, that will contribute 6 percent of the country’s total energy needs. India’s Suzlon Energy has installed windmills near Lake Nicaragua.
This is part of Nicaragua’s efforts to reduce its dependence on oil-based energy to just 3 percent by 2013. The country has also turned to geothermal power from volcanoes, hydroelectric power generated by rivers and sugarcane based ethanol. Those sources provide 34 percent of Nicaragua’s energy.
It is encouraging to see that developing countries are embracing green initiatives on their own. Nicaragua’s case is even more special when you consider the fact that it gets majority of its oil from Venezuela, mostly at a discount. Renewable energy is not about cutting emission anymore, but being energy self-dependant and thus being less exposed to the vagaries of geopolitical ( like the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline caught in the rut) and other situations. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Nicaragua, Suzlon, wind energy, Wind farm
Exciting times for small wind turbine makers that can be used by households
Dec 23, 2008 Green Technologies
Nikko
These are exciting times for the small scale wind power market! Japan’s Nikko said last week that it plans to mass-produce a 1Kw wind turbine for home use by October next year.Nikko claims their new wind turbine unit will cost somewhere between $5,600 and $6,700 and is just 2 meters in diameter.Nikko claims the new model can generate more electricity than a comparable solar power system as long as average wind speeds are faster than 4-5 meters per second. Nikko hopes to sell 200 units initially and then increase this number tenfold by the end of 2010.
Mariah Power, a company with a small vertical-axis turbine that can generate electricity from low-speed gusts of wind raised an undisclosed amount in its second round of funding.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Crunchgear, Mariah Power, Nikko, wind energy
FloDesign claims to double efficiency of wind turbines
Dec 2, 2008 Green Technologies
FloDesign Turbine
FloDesign Wind Turbine has developed a wind turbine that could generate electricity at half the cost of conventional turbines.The company’s design takes inspiration from jet engines to overcome few limitations of conventional wind turbines.
Typically, as wind approaches a turbine, almost half of the air is forced around the blades rather than through them, and the energy in that deflected wind is lost. At best, traditional wind turbines capture only 59.3 percent of the energy in wind, a value called the Betz limit. FloDesign surrounds its wind-turbine blades with a shroud that directs air through the blades and speeds it up, which increases power production.
The new design generates as much power as a conventional wind turbine with blades twice as big in diameter. The smaller blade size and other factors allow the new turbines to be packed closer together than conventional turbines, increasing the amount of power that can be generated per acre of land.The company recently raised $6 million in its first round of venture financing and has announced partnerships with wind-farm developers.
Follow this link for more.
Tags: FloDesign, MIT, turbines, wind energy
New wind turbine design promises 50% efficiency improvement
Nov 21, 2008 Startups
New generator design
A new wind turbine design promises to increase efficiency by 50% on average and even double the annual production in some places. A startup called Expro has unveiled a generator design that will increase the turbines’ efficiency over a wider range of wind speeds.
While wind turbine makers have tried to make blades that change their pitch to make the turbines work better in different wind conditions, Expro has tried a different approach.The generator has a conventional arrangement of magnets attached to a rotating shaft that create a current as they pass stationary copper coils arranged around the shaft. In a normal generator all the coils are switched on. When turning too slowly, this can cause excess resistance, decreasing the generator efficiency.
The coils on ExRo’s generator are not on by default, but are controlled electronically based on wind speed. At lower speeds only a couple coils are on, producing optimal efficiency, and as speeds ramp up, more coils are turned on to for peak efficiency. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Expro, wind energy, Wind energy generation, Wind turbine
Wind turbine giant Suzlon mulls foray into solar power
Nov 18, 2008 Green Technologies, Stars, Policy and Finance
Tulsi Tanti - Suzlon
Suzlon Energy, one of the largest manufacturers of wind turbines is now planning forays into solar energy. “We are exploring the solar energy sector as India has enormous opportunity in solar and wind power,” Suzlon Energy Chairman and Managing Director Tulsi R Tanti told reporters on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit.
The company plans to leverage its infrastructure and other facilities in the existing wind farms to generate 15% additional power from solar energy. Its has current installed capacity of around 4500MW. Suzlon owns stakes in RE Power of Germany and Hansen Transmission International of Belgium.
The Suzlon stock has taken quite a beating in the Indian bourses, losing nearly 85% from its highs in the last year. This has to do with its problems with faulty wind turbines as well as inability to raise sufficient funds through a rights issue for financing acquisitions. Falling crude oil prices have not helped the cause of renewable energy technology companies worldwide either.
Tags: Solar Energy, Suzlon, wind energy
Wind turbines for your home and rooftops
Nov 10, 2008 Information of the Day, Startups
Aeropoint
Wind energy has not been without its share of detractors. Its opponents say that they are unreliable, they look ugly and are noisy and they kill birds and bats. Yet there are huge windfarms being planned all across the world — onshore as well as offshore.
Interesting things are happening on the micro wind power projects — involving turbines that could be mounted on roofs of building, rather than on the countryside. In this sphere, companies are coming up with designs that are aesthetic or quieter or easier to install and so on. According to the American Wind Energy Association the small scale wind industry, which is defined as 100 kilowatt capacity or below, has been experiencing major growth in the past decade and hopes to grow at 18 to 20 percent through 2010. Here are a few hot designs:
Marquiss Wind Power has a uniquely design for small-scale rooftop wind turbines. Their Aeropoint product is based on the “ducted wind turbine” concept, is just under 20 feet tall and boasts a square-shaped frame. It can be mounted on rooftops of buildings and and is intended for businesses that want to add a bit of clean energy to the mix. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: renewable energy, wind energy, wind power, Wind turbines
Wind turbine breaks but wind farms soldier on!
Oct 30, 2008 Green Technologies
Suzlon: Searching for answers
A Suzlon wind turbine in Wyanet, US, had one of its 140-foot long blades break off this week . Suzlon is still investigating this turbine failure but it appears to be related to the blade recall announced in March which requires the retrofitting 1,251 (417 sets) blades, mostly in the US, because of a design flaw that leads to blade cracking.
The recall problem has already cost the company millions in canceled orders. The company stock also suffered in the Indian stock market this week.
Tags: California, Suzlon, turbines, wind energy
Largest sub-Saharan wind farm plans unveiled
Oct 22, 2008 Green Technologies
Wind Energy
Ethiopia may get to have the largest wind farm in Sub-Saharan Africa following an agreement between the country’s national power company, Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPC) and France’s only wind turbine maker, Vergnet.
The deal valued at more than €200m will see the installation of 120 one-megawatt turbines over three years. The first 30 turbines are expected to be in place next year, the backers claim. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Ethiopia, France, renewable energy, wind energy