Summary: As tax credits expire for wind energy, the ability to compete with established energy sources is critical. All wind turbine manufacturers are examining their next generation turbines with an eye towards reducing their cost, increasing energy production, and improving reliability. Because the drive train accounts for such a large part of the rotor nacelle assembly cost, it has become a prime target for design change. Drive train innovations which reduce cost, increase energy...

As lithium-ion battery technologies mature, the size and energy of these systems continues to increase for emerging applications in transportation, grid storage, military use and aerospace. In fact, broadening the application space for lithium-ion batteries from the consumer electronics industries to these emerging markets increases their size from 1-50 Wh batteries for smart phones and laptops to >50 kWh for electric vehicles (EVs) and MWh scale for utility storage systems. As these...

Summary: The electric power system is currently composed of generators with large spinning masses whose speeds are tightly coupled together. These masses offer a store of rotational kinetic energy that naturally gives inertia to the average speed of the system. This inertia offers a first line of defense that is tapped during sudden power imbalances. Installing a large fleet of wind farms will result in hours of the year when many traditional generators are turned off. The result may be a...

Wind energy is recognized worldwide as cost-effective and environmentally friendly and is among the world's fastest-growing sources of electrical energy. Despite the amazing growth in global wind power installations in recent years, science and engineering challenges still exist. Megawatt wind turbines are large, flexible structures that operate in uncertain, time-varying wind and weather conditions and lend themselves nicely to advanced control solutions. Advanced controllers can help...

Community college program trains future wind power technicians Soon, 44-year-old Brad Clark will begin his second career, 300 feet off the ground. "About a year ago, I got laid off from my position in high tech," explains Clark. "I'm an engineer by education and training, and once I got laid off, I had to think, what do I want to do? What's going to be a business that is going to be around? So I was part of a government retraining program." For more Science Nation, go to...

Summary: In our work at E Source we analyze lots of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and demand response technologies. The first thing we do is determine whether or not they are technically capable of providing the benefits that their vendors claim. That’s the easy part. We also have to make some judgment regarding whether the companies providing these technologies are likely to succeed at bringing them to market. Will they successfully attract, sell to, and serve large numbers of...

Summary: This talk looks at how energy politics change over time and the factors that influence how struggles over energy play out. I start out by building on two competing theories from environmental sociology that provide political economic explanations of environmental degradation and improvement: ecological modernization (EMT) and treadmill of production (TOP). Ecological modernization theory predicts that as capitalist nations develop the environment will improve. Treadmill of...

Summary: Through the development and analysis of in-depth case studies of the emergence of wind power industries in industrialized and emerging economies, a model of sustainable energy industry development is proposed. The model demonstrates that fundamental economic indicators are insufficient for explaining new industry development. Environmental, institutional and cultural factors idiosyncratic to individual jurisdictions play important roles in the emergence of renewable energy...

Robert Gramlich is Senior Vice President of Public Policy for the American Wind Energy Association, the national trade association of approximately 2,500 entities involved in all aspects of wind energy production, based in Washington D.C. Rob joined AWEA in 2005 and now leads the association’s strategic initiatives related to federal and state legislation, industry information and analysis, and regulatory policy. He has published articles on wind integration, carbon taxes, market power...

Summary: Diesel generators are the traditional means by which people generate electricity in remote locations. Throughout the world, there are many thousands of off-grid communities, industrial sites, and government facilities relying entirely on diesel generated electricity. At $4/gallon, the fuel component alone of diesel-generated electricity is high, about $0.30/kWh. Some remote locations pay over $8/gallon or $0.60/kWh. With diesel fuel prices projected to rise even higher in the long...