http://www.winddaily.com/index.html Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST en-us The US Department of the Interior has approved construction of a 315-megawatt wind energy facility on more than 10,000 acres of public lands near Ocotillo, Calif. The project is expected to provide enough electricity to power 94,500 homes and create up to 350 jobs at peak construction. The project is expected offset approximately 288,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. ]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST The only independent wind turbine testing site in the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein will soon be ready to accept its first wind turbines. The test field, which has been developed by GL Garrad Hassan, GEO (Gesellschaft fur Energie und Oekologie mbH) and Burgerwindpark Janneby e.G, received final building approval and will launch testing activities at the end of 2012. The openin]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST A Texas region containing four of the world's largest wind farms showed an increase in land surface temperature over nine years that researchers have connected to local meteorological effects of the turbines. The land surface temperature around the west-central Texas wind farms warmed at a rate of .72 degrees Celsius per decade during the study period relative to nearby regions without win]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST Large wind farms in certain areas in the United States appear to affect local land surface temperatures, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The study, led by Liming Zhou, an atmospheric scientist at the State University of New York- (SUNY) Albany, provides insights about the possible effects of wind farms. The results could be important for developing effi]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST The Navy released a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed by officials from the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of the Navy and Texas Wind Group (TWG) that outlines a mutual approach to enable a renewable energy developer to build and operate wind turbines at planned locations in Kleberg County, Texas, while reducing the potential for those turbines to affect flight operations at NAS ]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST British engineer Offshore Group Newcastle announced on Friday that it would create up to 1,000 jobs after receiving a government grant to help build offshore wind farms. OGN said in a statement that it had been handed a grant worth Pounds 640,000 (774,454-euro, $1.02-billion) to help stimulate employment prospects in Tyneside, northeast England, where the group is based. "OGN has received a vo]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST Cape Wind has selected a joint venture team of Flatiron Construction Corp., Cal Dive International, Inc. and Cashman Equipment Corp. as its construction contractor to build a wind power facility off Massachusetts' Nantucket Island. The offshore renewable energy project stirred fierce community debate, partly because of expected impact on the scenic beauty of an area visible from Cape Co]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST The State of Illinois is facing an important renewable energy deadline in 2025, and Northwestern University's Harold H. Kung has a piece of advice for Springfield to consider now: Investment Tax Credit. Illinois is obligated to begin increasing its production of electricity from renewable sources, and a significant chunk of that will be wind power. Wind farms are expensive to build, result]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST In Normandy, GDF SUEZ Chairman and CEO Gerard Mestrallet, VINCI CEO Xavier Huillard, CDC Infrastructure CEO Jean Bensaid and AREVA CEO Luc Oursel highlighted their energy, economic and social plan connected with the call for bids to site 3,000 MW of wind power off France's coasts starting in 2015. They were greeted during the day by Le Havre Mayor and metropolitan area Chairman Edouard Phi]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST The production of wind-derived renewable energy is growing, and so, it's important to help wind farm owners operate at higher efficiencies with lower costs. In fact, figures from the World Wind Energy Association report that installed global capacity for wind-energy production was approximately 240,000 megawatts of power in 2011, up nearly ten fold since 2001. That growth, which is expecte]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST French energy giant GDF Suez said Monday that its bid to build hundreds of wind turbines off France's Atlantic coast and in the English Channel would create 6,000 local jobs. "This represents 6,000 direct and indirect jobs during the construction phase," GDF Suez CEO Gerard Mestrallet told a press conference. The company is leading a consortium of bidders including Areva and Vinci for th]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST The Danish Parliament has overwhelmingly passed an ambitious green energy agenda that includes the building of two large-scale offshore wind farms. The center-left ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt's Social Democrats as well as the Liberal Party, the Danish People's Party, the Danish Red-Green Alliance and the Conservative Party united Friday to approve what ]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST A new assessment of wind energy in India by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found that the potential for on-shore wind energy deployment is far higher than the official estimates- about 20 times and up to 30 times greater than the current government estimate of 102 gigawatts. This landmark finding may have significant impact on India's renewable energy strategy as it attempts to ]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST Politics aside, most energy experts agree that cheap, clean, renewable wind energy holds great potential to help the world satisfy energy needs while reducing harmful greenhouse gases. Wind farms placed offshore could play a large role in meeting such challenges, and yet no offshore wind farms exist today in the United States. In a study just published in Geophysical Research Letters, a te]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST A newly released NOAA study will help New York state officials make advances in managing their coastal waters and guiding future development of offshore wind energy projects. The study, A Biogeographic Assessment of Seabirds, Deep Sea Corals and Ocean Habitats of the New York Bight, will help the state identify favorable wind energy development sites in the Atlantic and protect critical of]]> Thu, 17 MAY 2012 14:55:29 AEST