MORE NEWS, 5-12 (VESTAS BUILDING WIND BOOM IN COLORADO; CHINA SOLAR PANEL MAKER TO BUILD IN U.S.; WIND CUBE)

VESTAS BUILDING WIND BOOM IN COLORADO
Vestas Makes Colorado a Clean-Energy Hub
Jeremy Miller, May 5, 2009 (NY Times)

"Vestas, a wind turbine manufacturer based in Denmark, is helping Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter get a little closer to realizing his vision of establishing the state as a hub of the “New Energy Economy.”

"Last year, Vestas opened a blade-manufacturing plant in Windsor…Later this year, the company will open a tower-manufacturing factory in Pueblo…When completed, the Pueblo factory will be the largest wind tower-manufacturing facility in the world, turning out 900 towers a year…A third Vestas plant producing blades and nacelles (the energy-generating parts of the turbine) will be opened next year in Brighton. At full operation, Vestas’s three Colorado plants are expected to employ 2,500 workers statewide."

click to enlarge

"Vestas is just one of a handful of wind turbine manufacturers – including Polymarin Composites, Wind Water Technologies, Brevini, Moventas and TPI Composites – that have announced the opening of plants in various states over the last year…

"…Colorado held particular appeal for the company because of its central location, proximity to transit links, qualified workforce and a supportive regulatory regime…[Vestas also sees] Colorado, which ranks eighth nationally in wind capacity, and has an estimated 122 gigawatts of potential in solar and wind energy, as a large potential market for renewables."

click to enlarge

"But rapidly increasing the nation’s clean energy capacity means building miles of transmission lines from thousands of remote generators. A report from the energy department released last year said that in order for renewables to meet the federal target of providing 20 percent of the Unites States’ energy by 2030, $60 billion must be invested in the nation’s transmission lines.

"…[Vestas believes] building a domestic supply chain for the 8,000 or so precision parts used in wind turbines – bolts, ball bearings and gears – is also vital to a fully mature and sustainable American wind industry, which the Department of Energy estimates could employ as many as 180,000 workers by 2030…[M]ost of the precision components for wind turbines are made in Europe and Asia…Vestas [is also opening] a purchasing office in Chicago…"


CHINA SOLAR PANEL MAKER TO BUILD IN U.S.
China's Suntech to set up U.S. factory
Nichola Groom (w/Bernard Orr), May 11, 2009 (Reuters)

"Chinese solar panel maker Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd…plans to establish a manufacturing facility in the United States, though it has yet to choose a location.

"The company said it is exploring opportunities in several states as it seeks to expand its presence in the U.S. solar market. It plans to make a decision on the location in the next six months."

click to enlarge

"Suntech Chief Executive Zhenrong Shi said in a statement that strong growth in solar demand from U.S. utilities and federal incentives for solar power had helped lead to the company's decision to set up a U.S. production plant.

"With [the] announcement, Suntech joins a growing list of overseas renewable energy companies who are setting up production plants in the United States.

"…Germany's Schott Solar unveiled a plant in New Mexico that will produce both solar thermal and photovoltaic solar components…[and] German conglomerate Siemens AG said it would build a wind turbine equipment factory in Kansas, its second U.S. wind turbine facility."


WIND CUBE
‘Wind Cube’ Marks New Phase in Wind Power Amplification
11 May 2009 (The Hot Spring)

"The wind-power generation paradigm is wind turbines turning due to the pressure of oncoming winds. The standard is a single fan with three blades that turns at a relatively slow and constant rate to maximize energy extraction from wind currents passing over the blades and turning the turbine. The ‘WindCube‘, however, fits a wind-amplification paradigm, a possible first-step to a new era in wind-turbine technology.

"The average US household is estimated to use about 11,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year. A single installed WindCube turbine is reported to be able to produce up to 160,000 kWh per year with an average wind-speed of 15 mph. In most areas, average wind-speed is not that high, but where it is, the WindCube could be…incredibly effective…"

click to enlarge

"One installation could power 10 homes or run a good-sized small business…The device captures wind that would normally pass beyond the reach of the fan-blades, concentrating the air pressure onto the central fan-blades, allowing the turbine to turn under the pressure of an amplified wind-pressure, yielding more electricity…"

click to enlarge

"…[T]he WindCube can capture enough wind energy at 5 mph speeds to generate a continuous flow of electricity…[The] patented “shroud” … optimizes wind-energy extraction. The shroud is designed to double wind-speed by the time it hits the 5 blades of the rotating turbine. At double the wind-speed, the device is able to produce up to 8 times the electric power generation…[P]laced on the roof of a building, even in crowded urban areas, [this allows for] the efficient, cost-effective, clean generation of renewable energy, which can be resold to the power grid and give industrial companies the freedom to sell carbon credits for additional revenues.

"The ease of application and scalability of this wind-energy system presents one of the first viable opportunities for mass distribution of wind-power generation facilities across the commercial and residential markets."