LONDON (AFX) - Talisman Energy (UK) Ltd, a wholly-owned unit of Talisman Energy Inc, said it has received UK government approval for the development of a deepwater wind farm demonstration and research project adjacent to its Beatrice oilfield, 25 kilometres off the east coast of Scotland.

"By being 25 miles offshore it doesn’t have any visual impact and the wind is steadier there," he added.

"The wind industry's central tenet now is that bigger is better," said John O. Dabiri, an aeronautics professor who runs Caltech's Center for Bioinspired Engineering. "It certainly goes against conventional wisdom, but we're taking the opposite perspective."

“It’s not damage, it’s wear and tear the sort of thing you expect with a new plant.'’ Each turbine is 70m tall and has 35m blades. “It’s a major job it’s a big piece of equipment.'’ He said “less than a dozen'’ of the 55 turbines at the site need replacement parts to be ordered from their Danish manufacturer. The damage is to “gearboxes mostly, and a couple of blades'’, which developed hairline fractures.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, such gasification plants emit about 65% less mercury and 75% less sulfur dioxide than conventional plants, while nearly eliminating particulate matter, the fine particles linked to heart and lung disease. But perhaps more important, coal-power experts say, the Edwardsport plant's gasification design would enable Duke to capture the plant's carbon-dioxide emissions, then inject them underground where they cannot affect the atmosphere, a process known as carbon capture and sequestration. Coal-fired power plants account for a third of U.S. CO2 emissions, the primary gas blamed for global warming, about as much as every plane, train and automobile in the country combined. Yet, most energy experts say the nation can't meet its energy demand for decades, at least, without a lot of coal. Deploying coal gasification technology at power plants such as Edwardsport could be a crucial first step toward solving that conflict ...

Now staff at Canterbury University reckon they have got a better way using technology and international weather data. Professor Andy Sturman says the data is run through a computer and combined with the local topography to give wind direction, strength and variability.

"When you gasify coal and burn the resulting gas, you can easily remove the hazardous materials from it, such as mercury. We have already developed the gasification technology needed for the power generation. What we need to do is to pull down the cost and find good business partners in Korea, Japan and China."

Two companies developing more than 600 megawatts of wind generation along the Texas coastline aren't daunted by threats of hurricane damage or opposition from environmentalists and powerful ranching interests, executives said Thursday. ...The Texas Public Utility Commission on Wednesday blocked a coalition of environmental groups, backed by the powerful King Ranch interests of South Texas, from intervening in a case related to the siting of a transmission line to move power from the two coastal wind farms to the Texas grid.

Texas is in a nationwide race for a giant new U.S. Department of Energy-backed wind turbine research and development center.

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas will bid for a proposed Department of Energy wind turbine research and development facility, the state's land commissioner said Thursday. The facility would be able to test wind turbine blades reaching 230 feet. Applications for the site are due Oct. 2.

When Rudolph Diesel unveiled his new engine at the 1900 World's Fair, he made a point of demonstrating that it could be run on peanut oil. "Such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time," he said. And so it has come to pass that US President George Bush has decreed that America must wean itself off oil with the help of biofuels made from corn, sugar cane and other suitable crops. At its simplest, the argument for biofuels is this: By growing crops to produce organic compounds that can be burnt in an engine, you are not adding to the overall levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The amount of CO2 that the fuel produces when burnt should balance the amount absorbed during the growth of the plants. However, many biofuel crops, such as corn, are grown with the help of fossil fuels in the form of fertilisers, pesticides and the petrol for farm equipment. One estimate is that corn needs 30 per cent more energy than the finished fuel it produces. Another problem is the land required to produce it. One estimate is that the grain needed to fill the petrol tank of a 4X4 with ethanol is sufficient to feed a person for a year.

"Well-meaning voters and legislators come up with things like 33 percent renewables in California by 2020," said Maurice Gunderson, senior partner at the venture capital firm CMEA Capital in San Francisco. "Well, it sounds like a good idea, but you really have to be a utility geek to get into the details and realize that it simply cannot be done without storage." Mike Gravely, an energy research manager at the California Energy Commission, agreed.

Can the United States, the first nation to put a man on the moon, develop deepwater wind turbines capable of harnessing the ocean’s vast wind resources? The answer is "yes." Unfortunately, it’s not the right question, because the real puzzler is whether deepwater technology can be made cost-effective. If it can - and experts believe the answer to that question may be at least a decade away - deepwater wind farms could offer a real alternative to fossil fuels or nuclear energy.

Coal, the nation's favorite fuel in much of the 19th century and early 20th century, could become so again in the 21st. The United States has enough to last at least two centuries at current use rates — reserves far greater than those of oil or natural gas. And for all the public interest in alternatives like wind and solar power, or ethanol from the heartland, coal will play a far bigger role.

Clipper Windpower Plc has announced that under a supply Agreement with UPC Wind, eight of the company’s first commercially-available 2.5MW Liberty wind turbines will be utilized in the Steel Winds Wind Farm, the first wind power project to be built on the US shores of Lake Erie.

In Laasow, about 20 km west of Cottbus, Brandenburg, the FL 2500/2,5MW, developed by the engineers of W2E Wind-to-Energy on the 160 meter SeeBa world-record-tower, will now produce green energy.

If, as Jon Grisham predicts, energy costs rise in the coming years, adding the turbine will save the family money. That's all assuming the family stays in the house for another couple of decades. "Technology that cost about $60,000 10 years ago costs about [$15,000] to $18,000 all of a sudden," he said. "It's worth a home equity loan for the investment."

DENVER — Mercury Cafe owner Marilyn Megenity, a self-styled energy activist, drives a biodiesel-fueled car, conserves electricity at her business and voluntarily buys wind power. But by the end of this month, she expects to have something rarely seen in Denver: two power-generating windmills atop her popular downtown restaurant. "I'm very concerned about our nation's energy use, and I want to do something about it," Megenity said. Not yet a trend, not even a fledgling movement, small-scale wind power in urban areas is beginning to grab the attention of a handful of committed energy-efficiency enthusiasts and environmentalists. Last year, 8,400 small wind-powered structures were sold, compared with 4,700 in 2004, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

The land around him stretches open and bare except for the single wind-reading tower. But the accumulated data has confirmed the area's potential, and, soon, PPM Energy, Baker's boss and one of the nation's largest wind developers, plans to erect 147 turbines, each 30 stories high, a massive project by industry standards. His job isn't just about the wind. It's about converting wind speeds into kilowatt-hours. It's about pricing each of those units of energy. It's about the money. "We sell electricity, not miles per hour," Baker explains.

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.