Renewable energy commercialization
As of 2014, the wind industry in the USA is able to produce more power at lower cost by using taller wind turbines with longer blades, capturing the faster winds at higher elevations. This has opened up new opportunities and in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, the price of power from wind turbines built 300 feet to 400 feet above the ground can now compete with conventional fossil fuels like coal. Prices have fallen to about 4 cents per kilowatt-hour in some cases and utilities have been increasing the amount of wind energy in their portfolio, saying it is their cheapest option.
Portoscuso Wind Farm
The Portoscuso Wind Farm is a proposed wind power project in Portoscuso, Sardinia, Italy. It will have 39 individual wind turbines with a nominal output of around 2.3 MW each which will deliver up to 90 MW of power, enough to power over 70,000 homes, with a capital investment required of approximately €100 million. The wind farm will have an electricity production of 185 GWh per year that will save the emission of 130,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
ReNew Power
ReNew Power Ventures Pvt. Ltd. is an Indian renewable energy company headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is an Independent Power Producer (IPP) of clean energy with an installed capacity of more than 1000 MegaWatt across the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Gujarat, ReNew Power commissioned its first wind farm project in Rajkot district in Gujarat in 2012. Shri. Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, inaugurated the 25.2 MW wind farm at Jasdan.
Wind power in the United States
In 2016, Nebraska became the eighteenth state to have installed over 1,000 MW of wind power capacity. Texas, with over 20,000 MW of capacity, had the most installed wind power capacity of any U.S. state at the end of 2016. Texas also had more under construction than any other state currently has installed. The state generating the highest percentage of energy from wind power is Iowa. North Dakota has the most per capita wind generation. The Alta Wind Energy Center in California is the largest wind farm in the United States with a capacity of 1548 MW. GE Energy is the largest domestic wind turbine manufacturer.
Altamont Pass wind farm
The Altamont Pass wind farm is located in the Altamont Pass of the Diablo Range in Northern California. It is one of the earliest wind farms in the United States. The first wind turbines were placed on the Altamont in the early 1980s by Fayette Manufacturing Corporation on land owned by cattle rancher Joe Jess. The wind farm is composed of 4930 relatively small wind turbines of various types, making it at one time the largest wind farm in the world in terms of capacity. Altamont Pass is still one of the largest concentration of wind turbines in the world, with a capacity of 576 megawatts (MW), producing about 125 MW on average and 1.1 terawatt-hours (TWh) yearly. They were installed after the 1970s energy crisis in response to favorable tax policies for investors.
Spain
Spain is one of the world's leading countries in the development and production of renewable energy. In 2010 Spain became the solar power world leader when it overtook the United States with a massive power station plant called La Florida, near Alvarado, Badajoz. Spain is also Europe's main producer of wind energy. In 2010 its wind turbines generated 42,976 GWh, which accounted for 16.4% of all electrical energy produced in Spain. On 9 November 2010, wind energy reached an instantaneous historic peak covering 53% of mainland electricity demand and generating an amount of energy that is equivalent to that of 14 nuclear reactors. Other renewable energies used in Spain are hydroelectric, biomass and marine (2 power plants under construction).Non-renewable energy sources used in Spain are nuclear (8 operative reactors), gas, coal, and oil. Fossil fuels together generated 58% of Spain's electricity in 2009, just below the OECD mean of 61%. Nuclear power generated another 19%, and wind and hydro about 12% each.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is the nation's third-largest producer of natural gas, fifth-largest producer of crude oil, and has the second-greatest number of active drilling rigs, and ranks fifth in crude oil reserves. While the state ranked eighth for installed wind energy capacity in 2011, it is at the bottom of states in usage of renewable energy, with 94 percent of its electricity being generated by non-renewable sources in 2009, including 25 percent from coal and 46 percent from natural gas. Oklahoma has no nuclear power. Ranking 13th for total energy consumption per capita in 2009, Oklahoma's energy costs were 8th lowest in the nation.
Klondike, Oregon
Klondike is an unincorporated community in Sherman County, Oregon, United States. It is near the Wasco, Oregon site of the Klondike III Wind Project, Oregon's largest wind energy farm with 176 turbines for wind energy.
Wind power in Indiana
Wind power in Indiana was limited to a few small water - pumping windmills on farms until 2008 with construction of Indiana's first utility - scale wind power facility, Goodland (phase I) with a nameplate capacity of 130 MW. As of September 2017, Indiana had a total of 1897 MW of wind power capacity installed, ranking it 12th among U.S. states.
Wind chill
In November 2001, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom implemented a new wind chill index developed by scientists and medical experts on the Joint Action Group for Temperature Indices (JAG / TI). It is determined by iterating a model of skin temperature under various wind speeds and temperatures using standard engineering correlations of wind speed and heat transfer rate. Heat transfer was calculated for a bare face in wind, facing the wind, while walking into it at 1.4 metres per second (5.0 km / h). The model corrects the officially measured wind speed to the wind speed at face height, assuming the person is in an open field. The results of this model may be approximated, to within one degree, from the following formula:
Portugal
Portugal has considerable resources of wind and river power, the two most cost-effective renewable energy sources. Since the turn of the 21st century, there has been a trend towards the development of a renewable resource industry and reduction of both consumption and use of fossil fuels. In 2006, the world's largest solar power plant at that date, the Moura Photovoltaic Power Station, began operating near Moura, in the south, while the world's first commercial wave power farm, the Aguçadoura Wave Farm, opened in the Norte region (2008). By the end of 2006, 66% of the country's electrical production was from coal and fuel power plants, while 29% were derived from hydroelectric dams, and 6% by wind energy.In 2008, renewable energy resources were producing 43% of the nation's consumption of electricity, even as hydroelectric production decreased with severe droughts. As of June 2010, electricity exports had outnumbered imports. In the period between January and May 2010, 70% of the national production of energy came from renewable sources.Portugal's national energy transmission company, Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN), uses sophisticated modeling to predict weather, especially wind patterns, and computer programs to calculate energy from the various renewable-energy plants.
Wind power in Iowa
Wind farms are most prevalent in the north and west portion of Iowa. Wind maps show the winds in these areas to be stronger on average, making them better suited for the development of wind energy. Average wind speeds are not consistent from month to month. Wind maps show wind speeds are on average strongest from November through April, peaking in March. August is the month with the weakest average wind speeds. On a daily cycle, there is a slight rise in average wind speeds in the afternoon, from 1 to 6 p.m. Estimates by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) indicate Iowa has potentially 570,700 Megawatts of wind power using large turbines mounted on 80 meter towers. Iowa ranks seventh in the country in terms of wind energy generation potential due to the strong average wind speeds in the midsection of the U.S. The Iowa Environmental Mesonet distributes current weather and wind conditions from approximately 450 monitoring stations across Iowa, providing data for modelling and predicting wind power.
Renewable energy commercialization
Some of the second-generation renewables, such as wind power, have high potential and have already realised relatively low production costs. Global wind power installations increased by 35,800 MW in 2010, bringing total installed capacity up to 194,400 MW, a 22.5% increase on the 158,700 MW installed at the end of 2009. The increase for 2010 represents investments totalling €47.3 billion (US$65 billion) and for the first time more than half of all new wind power was added outside of the traditional markets of Europe and North America, mainly driven, by the continuing boom in China which accounted for nearly half of all of the installations at 16,500 MW. China now has 42,300 MW of wind power installed. Wind power accounts for approximately 19% of electricity generated in Denmark, 9% in Spain and Portugal, and 6% in Germany and the Republic of Ireland. In Australian state of South Australia wind power, championed by Premier Mike Rann (2002–2011), now comprises 26% of the state's electricity generation, edging out coal fired power. At the end of 2011 South Australia, with 7.2% of Australia's population, had 54%of the nation's installed wind power capacity. Wind power's share of worldwide electricity usage at the end of 2014 was 3.1%. These are some of the largest wind farms in the world:
Granite Reliable Wind Farm
Granite Reliable Wind Farm is a 99-megawatt wind farm, opened in 2011 in Millsfield and Dixville, New Hampshire, in the northeast United States. Owned by Brookfield Renewable, it is the second major wind-power installation in the state of New Hampshire. Most of the electricity generated will be sold to utilities in Vermont, Central Vermont Public Service and Green Mountain Power. Power from the wind turbines is connected through three 34.5 kV lines to a substation and from there through a 115 kV line. The wind farm was constructed by Madison, Wisconsin-based RMT Inc.
Renewable energy commercialization
In 2013, China led the world in renewable energy production, with a total capacity of 378 GW, mainly from hydroelectric and wind power. As of 2014, China leads the world in the production and use of wind power, solar photovoltaic power and smart grid technologies, generating almost as much water, wind and solar energy as all of France and Germany's power plants combined. China's renewable energy sector is growing faster than its fossil fuels and nuclear power capacity. Since 2005, production of solar cells in China has expanded 100-fold. As Chinese renewable manufacturing has grown, the costs of renewable energy technologies have dropped. Innovation has helped, but the main driver of reduced costs has been market expansion.
Renewable energy commercialization
Total investment in renewable energy (including small hydro-electric projects) was $244 billion in 2012, down 12% from 2011 mainly due to dramatically lower solar prices and weakened US and EU markets. As a share of total investment in power plants, wind and solar PV grew from 14% in 2000 to over 60% in 2012. The top countries for investment in recent years were China, Germany, Spain, the United States, Italy, and Brazil. Renewable energy companies include BrightSource Energy, First Solar, Gamesa, GE Energy, Goldwind, Sinovel, Trina Solar, Vestas and Yingli.
Windy Hill Wind Farm
Windy Hill Wind Farm is a wind power station near Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tablelands, Queensland, Australia. Windy Hill has 20 wind turbines with a generating capacity of 12 MW of electricity, providing enough power for about 3,500 homes. The cost of the project was A$20 million. It was the first wind farm to be constructed in Queensland.
Renewable energy commercialization
Worldwide use of solar power and wind power continued to grow significantly in 2012. Solar electricity consumption increased by 58 percent, to 93 terawatt-hours (TWh). Use of wind power in 2012 increased by 18.1 percent, to 521.3 TWh. Global solar and wind energy installed capacities continued to expand even though new investments in these technologies declined during 2012. Worldwide investment in solar power in 2012 was $140.4 billion, an 11 percent decline from 2011, and wind power investment was down 10.1 percent, to $80.3 billion. But due to lower production costs for both technologies, total installed capacities grew sharply. This investment decline, but growth in installed capacity, may again occur in 2013. Analysts expect the market to triple by 2030. In 2015, investment in renewables exceeded fossils.
Estonia
Estonia is a dependent country in the terms of energy and energy production. In recent years many local and foreign companies have been investing in renewable energy sources.[citation needed] The importance of wind power has been increasing steadily in Estonia and currently the total amount of energy production from wind is nearly 60 MW while at the same time roughly 399 MW worth of projects are currently being developed and more than 2800 MW worth of projects are being proposed in the Lake Peipus area and the coastal areas of Hiiumaa.
Atlantic Wind Connection
Atlantic Wind Connection (AWC) is a proposed electrical transmission backbone by Trans-Elect Development Company that could be constructed off the East Coast of the United States to service off-shore wind farms. Google Energy, the investment firm Good Energies, and Japanese trading firm Marubeni are investing "tens of millions of dollars" in the initial development stage of what could become a $5 billion project.
In terms of wind energy production, where does the state where wind power is used the most in the U.S. rank?
where is wind power used most in the united states
Iowa
where does #1 rank in wind energy production
seventh in the country