Turning algae into fuel? Building a windmill on Tangier Island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay? Setting wind turbines miles off the Virginia Beach coast? The ideas might sound futuristic, but they are the primary alternative-energy projects that the state will support with $1.5 million in research grants, to be awarded next week.

PORTLAND Oregon Wind Corp. and Portland State University are testing four 40- watt vertical axis wind turbines at the school's campus this summer. The 40-inch-tall Helyx wind turbines built by Portland-based Oregon Wind Corp. can generate electricity for about $1.50 per watt, according to the company's co-founder, Toby Kinkaid. "That's pretty close to what the big boys can achieve," he says. Kincaid plans to sell the machines for $60 each by the end of 2007. One Helyx operating at full capacity can only illuminate one light bulb, but a shelving unit dubbed the WindWall can pool the energy generated from up to 36 turbines, according to Kinkaid. Oregon Wind Corp. says it needs $500,000 in equipment to enable mass production of the fiberglass blades.

An Auckland power supply company is trialling tiny wind turbines that can fit on the rooftops of homes or businesses, allowing them to generate their own power. Vector is testing 10 micro wind turbines in Wellington and Auckland in a bid to find new sources of renewable energy, before deciding future options.

BOSTON - Massachusetts will be one of two states building a state-of-the-art facility to test turbines used in wind power. The facility will place the state at the forefront of wind power and alternative energy, said U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, who outlined the facility with Gov. Deval L. Patrick at a press conference yesterday. "This will make Massachusetts a global center for clean energy technology," Patrick said. "This is a big step for us."

The world's first floating wind turbine could be generating electricity in the North Sea in 2009 under a research pact between Norwegian energy group Norsk Hydro and German engineering firm Siemens. Floating wind turbines would represent a technological breakthrough for offshore power generation, which has had to rely on shallow sites for turbines installed on the seabed.

TXU, Texas' biggest electricity producer, and the wind farms, units of Florida-based FPL Group, are suing each other over claims each failed to live up to contracts from 2001 to 2005. Dallas-based TXU says the wind farms failed to supply power. The farms say TXU gave preference to its West Texas plant, leaving them without access to power lines. The trial started Tuesday in a Dallas state court and is scheduled to last two weeks.

"Tidal power is an interesting form of renewable energy in that it is predictable. Other forms, like solar and wind energy, are less predictable," said Alex Farrell, assistant professor of energy and resources at the University of California, Berkeley. Because it is predictable, tidal power is a more dependable resource, he said.

Growth in renewable energy threatens to cripple the northwest's power grid. Industry analysts say growth in wind power is stressing the system. The constant on and off of wind power stresses the system.

Plans to build what would have been the nation's largest offshore wind farm in South Texas have been called off because the multibillion-dollar project didn't make economic sense, the developer said Monday...Babcock & Brown Ltd. is moving on with an onshore wind farm in South Texas' Kenedy County, a $700 million-plus venture that calls for 157 turbines on thousands of acres, Calaway said. He noted the expense of building an offshore farm can be more than double the cost of one on land.

Tidal power pioneers in the North-East yesterday set out their stall in the "green" battle with wind farms. Inventors such as former Swan Hunter naval architect Graham Mackie and his Evopod are bidding for a slice of a £50m Government fund to develop electricity from the ebb and flow of the tide. While battles have raged over the building of wind farms in the region, using tidal and wave power has lagged behind. But that changed yesterday when the only independent large-scale tidal testing facility in Europe went into operation.

While European governments have been putting significant funding into the construction of offshore wind farms, they will only be a viable power source for consumers if transmission systems are efficient. Current offshore wind farms are constructed relatively close to the coast, but larger farms planned for the future will need to be built further out to sea - meaning they will need a better method to transfer power. That's why German engineering company Siemens has invested millions in better power transmission systems for this market, paying particular attention to high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission technology, which is an alternative to the currently used alternating-current (AC) systems as a means for the bulk transmission of power. The huge advantage of HVDC is the ability to transmit large amounts of power over very long distances at much lower capital costs and with greatly reduced power losses than AC.

-A Massachusetts company has perfected a way to measure wind speed by sending a digital chirp into the sky - lowering development costs and improving power predictions to make the siting of wind farms easier. Second Wind Inc. is introducing the Triton® sonic wind profiler, a device designed to address the limitations of sodar technology for identifying wind farm locations. The product was introduced today at North America's premiere trade event for the wind energy industry, WINDPOWER 2007 in Los Angeles.

Like its cousin, the wind turbine, the marine turbine is a potentially inexpensive source of renewable energy. Installed in undersea locations with high tidal ebb and flow or strong continuous ocean currents, these turbines are a likely source of more consistent energy production, because, un-like wind currents, tidal flows and ocean currents are more consistent and predictable.

This pair of pioneer turbines put Springview on the map just nine years ago, as a U.S. Department of Energy demonstration site to test the feasibility of small wind farms. They were Nebraska's first commercial wind turbines. With a capacity of 750 kilowatts each, the duo generates enough electricity to power about 350 homes - less than half of what today's turbines can do. The turbines have been plagued with repair and maintenance issues, causing extensive downtime and expense.

TOKYO: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. said Wednesday it has received orders for a total of 788 wind turbine power generation systems from five U.S. companies. The order included 166 wind turbines for Edison Mission Energy, 118 for Babcock & Brown Ltd., 197 for Airtricity Inc. and 180 for Eurus Energy America Corp. Another unnamed company ordered 127 units, the Japanese company said.

A WEEK before the government publishes its long-awaited energy white paper, two of the consortium looking to develop clean coal technology have announced that they will move forward with their plans. The first to jump was Scottish Power, which said it was moving to the final feasibility study of a scheme to revamp Longannet.

The plans for the two Fife power plants involve the replacement of the current boilers with what are known as super-critical boilers, which will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20%. The technology burns coal at ultra-high temperatures and pressures. A further phase of the scheme will see carbon capture technology fitted. This will take CO2 emissions and feed them into coal seams.

This may be the moment, senior ministers say, to capitalise on one of Britain's greatest assets, the 45ft tide that races through the Severn estuary, making it the second best place in the world - after Canada's Bay of Fundy - to harness tidal energy. By building a barrage, they hope to be able to meet a large chunk of Britain's electricity needs from a single renewable, reliable source. It is just one of a number of clean energy technologies they want to employ to keep the lights on, while cutting back the pollution that causes global warming.

Energy giant BP revealed yesterday that it had brought a new partner into the project for a world-first carbon-capture and storage scheme at Peterhead. International mining group Rio Tinto of the UK has formed a new company with BP to develop decarbonised energy projects around the world. The hydrogen-fuelled power projects planned for the north-east and California will become part of the new jointly-owned firm called Hydrogen Energy.

Plans to clean up two of the most polluting power plants in the UK were revealed by ScottishPower yesterday. The £1billion proposals involve installing new turbines and boilers to cut carbon emissions by a fifth at Longannet power station, in Fife, and Cockenzie, just outside Edinburgh. The new "supercritical" turbines and boilers would burn coal at ultra-high temperatures and pressures. A feasibility study into the project was revealed yesterday as First Minister Alex Salmond visited Longannet on his first official engagement.