Wind and environmental studies will be conducted to determine if two 120-metre dormant smokestacks in Coniston can be retrofitted with wind-powered generation systems. The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. is investing $100,000 in the studies to be done at the former Inco Ltd. smelter in Coniston. The studies will explore the potential for renewable energy production in Greater Sudbury, said Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci, who announced the funding. Environmentally sustainable energy production is essential to making the North an attractive place to live, work and do business, said the Sudbury MPP, who chairs the NOHFC. Funding is being provided through the fund's Renewable Energy Program as part of the Ontario government's Northern Prosperity Plan. The plan aims to strengthen the North, listen to and serve northerners better, help the North compete globally and provide opportunities for northern residents.

Hans-Armin Ohlmann had hoped his experimental and unusual wind turbine would usher in a revolution in energy production. But progress has been slow for the Ayr resident -- the wind just isn't there. "We've had very bad wind capacity -- exceptionally unfortunate," said Ohlmann, principal owner of Ventax Wind Power Inc. in Ayr. Stretching 90 feet high, the tube-like prototype sits on a farm just west of Ayr in Blandford-Blenheim. It is clearly visible from Highway 401, sitting on a hill on the farm of Phil Schiedel on Concession 11. Schiedel is a three per cent owner of Ventax and paid $120,000 toward the test wind-turbine project, said Ohlmann, who footed the remaining $130,000. There are no external propeller-like turbines on this design. They are internal, and flipped 90 degrees so they face upward. The mechanical energy of two vertical rotors is converted into electricity.

In contrast to the town's hesitancy to dive headfirst into wind energy projects proposed for Nantucket Sound - 61 percent of the voters in a special non-binding referendum at the April 11, 2006 town election said no to wind energy in Nantucket Sound - all the commissioners expressed their excitement for the emerging field of tidally generated electricity.

A Santa Barbara company may have a simple solution for wind energy -- all from taking a look at a different part of the plane. While most wind turbines these days are built as propellers, Gene Kelley is convinced that wings are a better answer for capturing wind energy. Though the physics and work that has gone into his invention can get complex, the underlying concept of his "WindWing" is basic enough for a child to understand. Anyone who has stuck a hand out of a car window has felt how the WindWing works. As the hand is tilted upward, the wind pushes the hand up. As it tilts downward, the wind pushes it down. The resulting up-and-down motion, or oscillation, is what gives the WindWing its power.

3M has announced the availability of their new Wind Tapes 8608 and 8609, which provide long-lasting protection from damage caused by sand, rain, moisture ingression, insects, and airborne particles. The new tapes are also formulated to resist the damage and weakening effects of ultraviolet rays.

A discussion was held in the Common Council Chamber at City Hall Monday that could make the City of Oswego the first place in America with a design of electric-generating wind turbines only seen in Belgium. Bruce Cranston, representing the New England Windpower Corporation (NEWC), presented preliminary details on the scheme that is more efficient and affordable than the traditional wind turbines common in wind farms across the world. Instead of a large fan-like device, which once moved by the wind generates electricity, the new design resembles a tube with up to ten fans inside of it.

Dr Williams argues that those calling for carbon-emission cuts of 25 per cent by 2030 do not understand what it would cost. "We would need an extra 4500 two-megawatt wind turbines, 20 biomass generators, 30 new gas-fired base-load power stations and 12 best-of-breed coal-fired plants," she says. "It would require $60 billion in new infrastructure costs to build these." Instead, she advocates replacing old coal-fired power plants with new ones, rather than "squeezing everything you can out of old assets" and looking at energy resources that have not been considered. "What the council seeks is more investment in research, particularly in the sectors that it makes sense to invest in," she says. "Investment needs to be made in technology that can produce viable returns."

A grandiose plan to link Europe's electricity grids may recast wind power from its current role as a walk-on extra to being the star of the show. Plug in your toaster-or your television or your vacuum cleaner-and the electricity that surges through it is an alternating current. The question of whether the world would be powered by direct current (DC), in which electrons flow in one direction around a circuit, or by alternating current (AC), in which they jiggle back and forth, was decided in the 1880s. Thomas Edison backed DC. George Westinghouse backed AC. Westinghouse won. The reason was that over the short distances spanned by early power grids, AC transmission suffers lower losses than DC. It thus became the industry standard. Some people, however, question that standard because over long distances high-voltage DC lines suffer lower losses than AC. Not only does that make them better in their own right, but employing them would allow electricity grids to be restructured in ways that would make wind power more attractive. That would reduce the need for new conventional (and polluting) power stations.

No one would spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build a coal, gas, or nuclear power plant and then leave it idle two-thirds of the time. Yet that's the prospect faced by wind-farm operators, who consider themselves lucky if there's enough wind to keep the turbines spinning eight hours a day. Wind is one of the cleanest and cheapest of clean-energy sources, but it's also one of the least reliable. And that means wind-farm operators often can't sell power at the times of day when demand-and prices-are highest.

Geothermal, or earth energy, is perhaps the most underutilized renewable source of energy. Whether using the earth's naturally stable temperature to provide heating and cooling, or harnessing extreme heat from deep below the earth's surface to generate electricity, the potential of geothermal energy has until now been largely untapped. But the geothermal marketplace is growing fast. Understanding the current technologies involved and the economics behind them can help building designers, business executives, and homeowners to take advantage of this renewable, clean and efficient energy source. There are two types of energy under the geothermal category, each markedly different from the other.

Residents of the Grassy Ridge Road area near the Dominion Power Plant at Mount Storm want to know who is going to repair the roadway into their summer cabins and residential communities and when. The road is being damaged by heavy equipment use during the construction of the NedPower wind project.

WASHINGTON - For years, the United States has looked to the sun and the wind as renewable energy sources. But legislation moving through Congress would authorize $250 million in federal grants to develop ocean wave energy. The measure would be the nation's first major investment in wave energy, which converts the rise and fall of ocean swells into electrical power. A related technology, tidal energy, extracts energy from the movement of the sea's tides.

VANCOUVER, CANADA, July 23 /CNW/ - The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced a proposal to shorten the permitting process for pilot ocean energy projects to as little as six months. As part of its proposal, FERC will convene a public hearing on licensing pilot projects in Portland, Oregon on Oct. 2, 2007. Finavera Renewables (TSX VENTURE:FVR) CEO Jason Bak said, "We look forward to the hearing in October and want to extend our thanks to the FERC commissioners and staff for the tremendous commitment they've shown to offshore wave energy development. This decision shows strong leadership in promoting a clean, environmentally friendly renewable energy source that has the potential to satisfy a significant portion of the total energy demand in the United States."

"We would like the money (the county gets from windmills) to come back and take care of our county roads out here instead of for Packer Stadium or something," Collins said. "A lot of (county tax revenue) goes to the city."..."They take our taxes but they don't return anything," Kittell said. He said road maintenance and police protection in the rural areas are poor.... "I told him we should get the money back," Collins said. "We have to put up with the windmills."

The race to build new sources of alternative energy from the wind is running into a formidable obstacle: not enough windmills...Numerous wind-power projects from Virginia to California have been stalled due to the shortage. But for some renewable-energy companies in Europe, where wind power has been in vogue for almost two decades, the logjam is a lucrative opportunity. These firms anticipated a shortage of turbines and locked in orders with makers. They're now using their considerable buying power to gobble up smaller utilities in the U.S. that couldn't otherwise get their hands on turbines.

CHEERLEADERS for renewable energy are fond of pointing out that patches of desert receive enough energy each year from sunlight to power the entire world. But few deign to explain how the construction of the millions of solar cells required to convert that energy into electricity would be financed. Utility bosses and policymakers tend to dismiss wind and solar power as noble but expensive distractions, sustainable only through lavish subsidies. But new studies suggest that renewables might not be as dear as sceptics suspect...These figures, of course, rely on all sorts of questionable assumptions.

It's extremely important but, no, conservation isn't enough. The biggest reason is that energy demand is accelerating; even with conservation, it will double by the year 2050...In order to become a society that produces less CO2, there has to be a new mind-set. All the recent hype about renewables and about being "carbon neutral" doesn't change the reality of what we face, but it does help with short-term awareness.

Having been working in the cleantech field for almost decade, it is rare anymore for me to see or hear about something that I find revolutionary. However, a recent article in The Economist profiled a new technology concept that threw me for a loop: a multi-pronged wind turbine contraption floating aloft like a kite, six miles in altitude in order to capture the winds of the jet stream, tethered to the ground via a transmission cable.

Power-generating wind turbines will soon have to comply with tough new technical standards to ensure they can withstand typhoons, lightning strikes and other extreme weather conditions. Wind-power generation is a major pillar in the government's push to use alternative energy sources to fight global warming. In recent years, however, storms have caused extensive damage to many wind turbines. International standards drawn up in Europe are not sufficient to protect wind turbines from Japan's weather patterns, according to officials of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, an arm of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

The US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Denmark's Risø National Laboratory, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), signed an agreement to cooperate closely on improving wind energy technologies.