December 22, 2007

Wind Harvest's "Wind News"
A compilation of story leads from around the world.
By:  Kevin Wolf <kwolf@windharvest.com>

Note:  These story titles and lead paragraphs predominantly come from Energy Central's daily posting of the world's energy stories. Others are sent to me by subscribers of Wind News.  Energy Central requires paid membership to read full stories.  You can often paste the headline into Google and find the original source of the story. You are welcome to share this with others. This is a free service from Wind Harvest.   Thank you. Kevin
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WIND PICKS UP IN MICHIGAN AS MORE FARMERS PLANT TURBINES

  At a time when most people choose to avoid the harsh winter winds
  that roar past corn stubble and whip up billowing dust clouds over
  table-flat fields, farmers in the Thumb of Michigan now talk about
  catching the wind and all the money that comes with it. - (YellowBrix)
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DUKE ENERGY CONTINUES COMMITMENT TO WIND ENERGY WITH CONTRACT TO
PURCHASE 150 MEGAWATTS OF WIND TURBINES

  Duke Energy is  expanding its renewable energy portfolio through a
  contract to purchase 100  wind turbines from General Electric. - (COMTEX)
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NEW MASSACHUSETTS REGULATIONS WOULD AID PROPOSED WIND FARM

  The road for Cape Wind Associates may get smoother if proposed
  regulations released yesterday by the state's Department of
  Environmental Protection pass muster. - (Knight-Ridder)
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New Southern California Edison Renewable Energy Contracts Increase Nation's Largest Portfolio

ROSEMEAD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Southern California Edison (SCE), the nation¹s leading purchaser of renewable energy, has signed two new contracts that could provide the utility¹s customers with more than 185 megawatts of environmentally friendly generation ‹ enough power to about 120,000 homes at a point in time.

The 20-year agreements, subject to approval by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), are for geothermal and wind generation.

³We hope to add even more prospective contracts to our renewable energy portfolio from our 2007 competitive solicitation,² said Stuart Hemphill, SCE¹s director of Renewable and Alternative Power. ³Renewable energy is important to our power portfolio. We¹ve worked hard to become the nation¹s leading utility in renewable power, and we¹ll keep striving to expand our portfolio.²

The new contracts result from SCE¹s 2007 competitive renewable energy solicitation launched on March 12. SCE plans to submit the agreements to the CPUC in the near future for review and approval. SCE anticipates seeking offers for its 2008 solicitation during the first quarter of 2008.

Daggett Ridge Wind Farm (an affiliate of AES Corp.)
Barstow, Calif.
Potential MW  - 85.5
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MCLEAN COUNTY ADDED TO WIND FARM LAWSUIT

  McLean County has been added as a defendant to a lawsuit filed by
  a group of homeowners hoping to halt a planned wind farm near
  Carlock. - (Knight-Ridder)
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WIND POWER PROJECT GOOD FIT FOR SKAMANIA, OFFICIAL SAYS

  The proposed Saddleback Mountain wind project lies outside the
  boundary of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area -
  barely. - (YellowBrix)
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WINTER STORM DELAYS FIRST DELIVERY OF WIND FARM ELECTRICITY

  The weather giveth, and the weather taketh away.   And so it is
  that the Smoky Hills wind farm, which was slated this week to
  start delivering electricity spun from the prairie wind, will
  likely not deliver any electricity until January, a delay caused
  by the severe winter storm that set in more than a week ago. - (Knight-Ridder)
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UPC WIND POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENT TO SUPPLY WIND POWER TO THE CITY
OF LOS ANGELES APPROVED BY MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL

  UPC Wind, a leading North American wind power company, today
  announced  the approval of a 20-year power purchase agreement to
  supply the City of  Los Angeles with clean, renewable wind power
  from its Utah-based Milford  Wind Corridor project. - (YellowBrix)
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WIND FARM SIDES LOOK FOR ANSWERS IN NEW REVIEW

  An environmental report due out by year's end on a wind farm
  proposed for Nantucket Sound promises answers. - (Knight-Ridder)
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PIONEERING VENTURE TO BRING WIND POWER TO AMERENUE CUSTOMERS ANNOUNCED

  Ameren  subsidiary AmerenUE, announced today its first-ever
  venture into wind power. UE has chosen to purchase 100 megawatts
  (MW) of wind power from Horizon Wind Energy's Rail Splitter Wind
  Farm located near Delavan, Illinois. - (YellowBrix)
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PROGRESS MADE TOWARD GALLOO ISLAND WIND FARM

  Upstate NY Power Corp. has been testing the winds on Galloo
  Island. But that's not the only progress toward a wind farm on the
  property. - (Knight-Ridder)
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NATIONAL WIND RAISES CAPITAL TO EXPAND COMMUNITY-OWNED WIND PROJECTS
INTO SOUTH DAKOTA

  National Wind, LLC, the leading developer of large-scale
  community-owned wind projects, announced today that it has
  received a significant private equity investment from Harmony
  Equity Income Fund, a South Dakota fund managed by McGowan Capital
  Group. - (YellowBrix)
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XCEL ENERGY ISSUES REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS FOR 500 MEGAWATTS OF WIND POWER

  Xcel Energy today issued a Request  for Proposals for 500
  megawatts of wind power to help it meet  Minnesota's Renewable
  Energy Standard. Under  the company's preferred option, once
  built,  project ownership would be transferred to Xcel Energy.
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US TIMKEN TO CREATE WIND ENERGY JV IN CHINA

  US-based Timken Company (NYSE: TKR) will create a joint venture
  with Xiangtan Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (SHSE: 600416)
  through its Hong Kong arm under an agreement signed on December
  10, 2007, announced the Chinese company on December 11. - (COMTEX)
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HOTEL TO HARNESS WIND, SUN

  A Christchurch developer is spending hundreds of thousands of
  dollars putting a wind turbine and solar panels on the roof of a
  new high-rise. The move does not stack up economically and it will
  take years for the systems to pay for themselves, but Ernest Duval
  is doing it anyway. - (YellowBrix)
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FOCUS ON TURBINES SWITCHES TO NORTH SEA

  North Sea wind farms could be powering homes across the country by
  2020, after the Government unveiled a new focus on offshore
  turbines. The commitment to offshore wind power could bring
  thousands of jobs to the region, as leading renewable energy
  companies prepare to bid for bigger contracts. - (YellowBrix)
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BRITAIN LOOKS TO WINDS FOR POWER

  Britain unveiled plans Monday to generate enough electricity
  through offshore wind farms to power every home in the country by
  2020, increasing production more than 60-fold and changing the
  look of its coastlines. - (YellowBrix)
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JUDGE RULES AGAINST WIND PERMITS

  Citing violations of the state's open meetings and environmental
  laws, a state Supreme Court justice has annulled special-use
  permits that would have allowed private electric utility Iberdrola
  to erect 49 wind turbines in the towns of Stark and Warren in
  southern Herkimer County. - (Knight-Ridder)
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TWO WIND PROJECTS ARE SET FOR TAKEOFF

  In Dakota County, two wind turbines are expected to go online this
  week -- a symbolic first step, say county officials, toward
  generating "green" energy across the metro. - (Knight-Ridder)
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SSE RECEIVES PLANNING PERMISSION FOR ACHANY WIND FARM

  Scottish and Southern Energy has been granted planning permission
  to develop a 40MW wind farm at Achany in Sutherland, Scotland.
  When Achany is commissioned, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE)
  will have 275MW of installed wind farm capacity. - (YellowBrix)
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WIND POWER MAY ALSO BE A CASH GENERATOR

  Government plans to create even more wind farms around the coast
  of Britain will not only help the environment but could also
  assist manufacturers in the Midlands, according to Birmingham
  Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Enough electricity to power
  every home in the UK could come from these wind turbines by 2020.
  Up to 7,000 turbines could be installed around the UK's coastline
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GAZ DE FRANCE TO ACQUIRE FRENCH WIND ENERGY FIRM

  Gaz de France has finalized the acquisition of a 100% stake in
  Eoliennes de la Haute-Lys from Sechilienne-Sidec and Sofinerg,
  which respectively owned 40% and 60% of the company. Eoliennes de
  la Haute-Lys operates a 37.5MW wind farm in the Pas-de-Calais
  region of France. - (COMTEX)
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Britain seeks to build enough wind turbines to power all its homes by 2020
 The Associated Press
Monday, December 10, 2007

Britain unveiled plans Monday to generate enough electricity through offshore wind farms to power every home in the country by 2020, increasing production more than 60-fold and changing the look of its coastlines.

Britain's wind-swept coasts and shallow waters are ideal for offshore turbines, but wind generated power currently accounts for less than 2 percent of its energy generation.

Business secretary John Hutton said the government planned to reach the target through a fourfold increase in the amount of space off Britain's shores allocated for wind farms.

The move would change Britain's coasts, Hutton acknowledged, but said the need for energy self-sufficiency left the country no choice. He said the plans would depend on environmental impact studies.

"But if we could manage to achieve this, by 2020 enough electricity could be generated off our shores to power the equivalent of all of the U.K.'s homes," Hutton said in a statement.

The British Wind Energy Association, a trade body that represents the country's wind and marine energy industries, welcomed plans for more offshore wind farm sites, but it said it would be difficult to raise Britain's wind power production from half a gigawatt currently to 33 gigawatts by 2020 ‹ the equivalent of the energy now consumed by every British home.

Eight gigawatts' worth of wind generation projects are already planned, but the group said the limited supply of turbines meant the amount of wind energy produced by 2020 would likely be closer to 20 gigawatts.

"We'd really be struggling from a 'Where can we get the turbines?'" point of view, the association's economics director Gordon Edge said.

Environmental campaigners and opposition lawmakers welcomed the plan, but some noted that wind generated power is expensive. Wind power-generated electricity is currently costlier to generate than its coal- or gas-generated counterpart.

Massive new offshore wind farms, such as the 1 gigawatt London project planned for the Thames estuary in the country's southeast, are due to go online by 2014. According to the BWEA, the country is on track to overtake Denmark as the world's largest generator of offshore wind power next year.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/10/news/Britain-Wind-Energy.php
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