Hywind - World's First Floating Wind Farm to be Installed in Scotland

Statoil AS, Norway’s largest energy company wants to build a demonstration project of a floating wind farm off the Scottish coast.

Other areas considered by Statoil to test the commercial potential of the "Hywind" project are Norway and the U.S. state of Maine. The final decision on the location will be taken in 2011, said company spokesman, Oistein Johannessen.

The Norwegian company wants to build between three and five Hywind plants after it will choose the suitable site. A 2.3 MW prototype works “beyond expectations” at waters 200 metres deep, said Johannessen. The plants uses a Siemens AG turbine and a floating technology provided by France's Technip SA.

According to the company, the structure could be used in water up to 700 metres deep and is the first large-scale floating windmill in the world, Statoil said.

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Magnesium Stores 10 Times More Energy than Hydrogen

According to some researchers, magnesium could be a new way to store energy. This silvery metal is able to store 10 times more energy than hydrogen and there’s enough magnesium in seawater to generate electricity for 300,000 years.

Scientists at a Canadian company are working on a fuel cell that uses air, water and magnesium to produce energy. In the meanwhile, an Israeli researcher has developed a magnesium-based battery that could replace conventional lithium-ion batteries (used in most electronic devices). Besides this, a California researcher is working to develop a new way to use magnesium to generate hydrogen.

All of these experiments sound great but there’s a problem. To purify magnesium to a form we can use we need a lot of energy, even more than we’d get back. So, a Japanese researcher claims he found a solution to combat this problem by creating a laser powered by solar energy to purify magnesium by heating it to 6.700 ºF.

[Source: Discovery News]

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DTE and Ford to Install a $5.8 Million Solar Panel System at Plant in Wayn

DTE Energy in partnership with Ford, working to install a solar panel system at the automaker's Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne. According to them, this installation will reduce the company's energy bill with about $160,000 per year.

This $5.8-million solar panel project will capture enough energy to power more than 100 Michigan homes per year. Ford claims, the project will be the largest use of alternative power for any of the automaker's plants in the U.S and state's largest solar power generation systems.

DTE is also planning in the next five years to install enough solar panels on customer property to produce 15MW of clean energy throughout southeastern Michigan.

[Source: Freep]

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Toyota to Install a Gas-Powered Turbine for its Corporate Headquarters

According to Toyota, the company wants to make additions to its existing energy-saving paraphernalia at its Melbourne HQ’s (corporate headquarters). Dubbed Tri-generation, the new energy saving technology will be composed of a gas-powered turbine to produce clean energy for the building. The waste heat from the turbine will be also used for both cooling and heating purposes.

The company’s headquarters are also designed with an eco-friendly approach, being equipped with a 90-meter glazed atrium, solar shades, air-reticulation system and storm water recycling. According to the company, this tri-generation plant costs around 1.5 million and it will drastically reduce the building’s carbon-dioxide emissions by 210 tons per year.

[Source: Ecofriend]

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U.S. Government Property to Have Largest Solar Installation

Arizona Public Service Co. is planning to build a new photovoltaic power plant at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Ariz. It will be able to generate about 15-megawatt of clean renewable energy. According to company, the solar plant will be the largest on U.S. government property and it is expected to be ready in summer 2011.

The solar installation will be equipped with 52,000 high-efficiency SunPower solar panels. It will also have a single-axis tracking system that will let the panels to follow the sun. This way, it captures 25% more electricity than if the panels were stationary.

The plant will generate enough energy to power 3,750 Arizona homes or 50% of the Base's electricity.

[Source: MarketWatch]

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France's New Wind Farm with a 24 Megawatt Capacity Goes Online

Enel Green Power, one of the biggest renewable energy company in Italy, recently started operating a new wind farm in France. Generating a 24 megawatt capacity, the new farm will produce more than 50 million kilowatt hours of green energy a year.



According to Enel, there will be enough electricity for powering about 15,000 households. The power generated by the farm's 12 wind turbines will take the place of the emission of 40,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

Ennel officials also said that in France the total installed wind capacity reaches 92 MW. Besides this,it has an annual output of over 200 million kWh and new wind power plants with 64 MW are for the moment under construction. With a total installed capacity of more than 5,700 MW, Enel Green Power produces electricity from wind, water, sun and other new alternative energy sources.

[Source: Reuters]

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Up to 20 Percent of Iowa’s Energy is Generated by Wind

During the last seven years, the state of Iowa has been increasing its wind power capacity. So, according to a document from Iowa Policy Project, up to 20% of Iowa’s energy is generated by this new green source.

David Osterberg, the organization’s director claims that in the last two years, this state added about 2,500 megawatts of wind turbine capacity, and today it has a wind capacity nearly 6 times the size of Iowa’s lone nuclear plant.

In the future the number of green jobs could reach 10,000(only from wind energy production). Now, coal-fired power plants generate seventy-five percent of Iowa’s energy.

[Source: Care2]

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Enbridge to Build North America's Biggest Solar Plant

The Canadian company Enbridge, in collaboration with First Solar is working on the North America’s largest photovoltaic solar energy facility. The Sarnia Solar Project in Ontario is already producing 20 megawatts of energy, but Enbridge wants to make it to generate about 80 megawatts.

Project construction is scheduled to be completed in September. It will also keep about 39,000 tons of CO2 a year out of the atmosphere and will generate enough electricity to feed 12,800 homes. According to Enbridge officials, in this new facility has been invested $300 million(Canadian).

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