REALITY CHECK #3
Right in line with my thoughts on Civic Energy and definition of Clean Energy comes this press release about what could almost be called
homestead wind power, and from which I would like to quote:
“…Americans are increasingly
installing wind turbines near their homes, farms and businesses to generate
their own energy, concludes a new report released today.
The 2012 Market Report on Wind
Technologies in Distributed Applications is the first comprehensive analysis on
a growing field called distributed wind, which involves generating wind energy
close to where it will be used instead of purchasing power from large,
centralized wind farms. Distributed wind can range from a small, solitary
turbine in someone's backyard to several large turbines that power a
manufacturing facility or a neighbourhood.
‘The public often pictures large
wind projects with long rows of turbines when they think of wind power,’ said
the report's lead author Alice Orrell, an energy analyst at the Department of
Energy's Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory. ‘But this report provides detailed data that
shows this image is incomplete. Many of the nation's turbines are for
distributed, not centralized, wind projects.’
Some of the report's findings
include:
-- 68 percent of all wind turbines installed in
U.S. between 2003-2012 were distributed wind turbines, representing about
69,000 turbines that can generate 812 megawatts combined
-- About a third of all wind turbines installed in
the U.S. in 2012 were distributed wind turbines, representing about 3,800
turbines that can generate 175 megawatts combined….”
And what is more, scaled battery power appears on its way,
if Donald Sadoway wins through: http://t.co/80eC2rA6ba
***
The PNNL press release can be
found at
...and the full report is at
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wind/pdfs/2012_distributed_wind_technologies_market_report.pdf
Civic Energy Link:
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/wind/pdfs/2012_distributed_wind_technologies_market_report.pdf
Civic Energy Link:
A quotation from http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/08/energy-storage-technology-at-renewable-markets-edge appears apposite:
ReplyDelete"The rising development of microgrids is the single greatest factor that will drive the energy storage industry, suggests Christopher Kuhl, the team leader for global sales at ZBB Energy Corp., in Menomonee Falls, WI., one speaker at the symposium. “The microgrid is the next step in the value chain of renewables and energy storage. Unfortunately it has taken a couple of disasters to show people what they are worth,” he says. Following the grid outages caused by Hurricane Sandy, several communities and states in New England are developing microgrids for emergency planning. “Connecticut alone is investing $30 million in microgrids now,” he points out. Such emergency planning projects will not be as sensitive to battery cost reduction as more commercial clients, and thus are a strong niche for early adoption."