Wind Turbine Failure Photos

Power producing wind turbines are exposed to significant material stresses. Wind turbines have been known to fail in the gearboxes, generators, and rotor blades. Overheating is a constant concern and one that will have to be addressed by the next generation of wind farms.

Offshore Wind Farm Finds Investors

The world's largest planned offshore wind farm has found new investors in the form of an Abu Dhabi investment fund.

The future of the proposed London Array wind farm has been in doubt since Shell pulled out of the project in May after estimated costs more than doubled.

Eon and Danish based DONG Energy had been seeking a new partner in the offshore wind energy farm.

The Masdar Initiative, which is funded by the Abu Dhabi government, announced that it will take a 20 per cent stake in the project.

Renewable Energy Investing Incentives

The Senate is set to vote on Wednesday on a version of financial rescue plan that includes approximately $78 billion in renewable energy investment incentives and extensions of expiring tax breaks.

This comes as welcome news to investors in the wind and solar energy sectors who have been looking to Congress for action since the tax credits were not renewed earlier this year.

The alternative energy investment tax credits are currently slated to expire on December 31.

T. Boone Pickens Plans $10B Wind Farm

T. Boone Pickens, a legend of the Texas oil industry, is planning a $10 billion wind energy project.

Pickens and his company Mesa Power plan to produce 4,000 megawatts of electricity via the vast wind farms. Mesa is expected to complete a contract for 2,700 wind turbines by May 2008. This investment is anticipated to produce the first 1,000 megawatts of electricity.

Although Pickens states that alternative energy profit margins are not equal to those of the oil and gas industry, he does expect a 25% margin on the energy produced by the wind power project.

"When I go into these markets, I expect to make money on them," Pickens said. "I don't expect to lose."

Solar Power Automobile Conversions

A new law puts Minnesota at the forefront of the renewable energy push.

Thursday, Governor Tim Pawlenty will sign into law a measure renewable resource advocates call “aggressive.”

The law requires all utility companies to be using renewable resources for a quarter of their production by 2025. The only company not required to this is XCel Energy, who will be held to a higher standard of 30 percent by 2020.

States around the nation are reaching for renewable resource solutions. Colorado, for example, put forth a 20 percent by 2020 requirement. Other states, such as New Hampshire, have taken a page from Minnesota’s book to consider the 25 by 25 requirement.

Estimates from 2004 put Minnesota’s power dependency on coal at about 50 percent of production. Only 8 percent of power production in Minnesota came from renewable resources in the same year.

The new bill sets a goal for the state’s power companies to use renewables for at least 10 percent of their production by 2015.

Nationally, advocates are pushing Congress to set goals similar to those here in Minnesota. By promoting solar power, biodiesel and wind farms, those seeking more renewable resources in national energy say utilities across the country could be focused on the 25 by 25 goal.

Ted Turner says he will launch a new business venture to provide clean power solutions. Turner plans to partner with Dome-Tech Solar, a leading solar energy developer, based in Branchburg, New Jersey to create DT Solar, a Turner renewable energy company.

DT Solar will initially focus on providing on-site solar electric power systems for commercial and industrial clients, as well as developing larger, utility-scale solar power plants in the southwestern United States.

"Our future depends on changing the way we use energy," said Turner. “We've got to move away from fossil fuels and develop long-term energy solutions that work. Using clean energy technologies, such as solar power, is the right thing to do, and it represents a tremendous business opportunity.”

The new Turner renewable energy company, DT Solar, will build off of the recent success of Dome-Tech Solar, a fast-growing top-tier provider of commercial and industrial solar power systems. The company plans for immediate expansion into several U.S. markets, including California, which has recently launched a $3 billion, ten-year program to increase the use of solar power in the state.

“We are delighted to partner with a business leader of Ted Turner’s caliber,’’ said Tom Kuster, DT Solar’s CEO. “Ted has a passion for protecting the environment, an incredible vision and a proven ability to build a successful business enterprise. We look forward to working with him to bring clean and renewable energy solutions to a broad spectrum of energy users in the U.S. as well as globally.”

Turner is chairman of the United Nations Foundation, the Turner Foundation, and co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (co-chaired with Senator Sam Nunn). He is also chairman of Turner Enterprises Inc., which oversees Turner’s two million acres of private landholdings in 14 western states, as well as his 40,000-head bison herd. In addition, Turner co-founded the restaurant chain Ted’s Montana Grill. Turner is most known as the visionary behind such cable networks as CNN, TBS, TNT and the Cartoon Network. Turner is the recipient of numerous civic and industry awards and honors, including being named Time Magazine's 1991 Man of the Year.

Dome-Tech Solar develops and builds large-scale solar energy systems for commercial, industrial and institutional clients. It was founded in 2003 and has rapidly grown into one of the nation’s largest developers of on-site solar power generation.