Wind Power News: General News
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are reproduced here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
The reason renewables can’t power modern civilization is because they were never meant to
Over the last decade, journalists have held up Germany’s renewables energy transition, the Energiewende, as an environmental model for the world. “Many poor countries, once intent on building coal-fired power plants to bring electricity to their people, are discussing whether they might leapfrog the fossil age and build clean grids from the outset,” thanks to the Energiewende, wrote a New York Times reporter in 2014. With Germany as inspiration, the United Nations and World Bank poured billions into renewables like . . . Complete story »
Around the world, buyer’s remorse sets in for costly clean power
Two decades ago, governments and utilities around the world began offering above-market rates and contracts to fuel the rise of clean energy, helping wind and solar become some of the cheapest power sources. Now, these pacts are under attack. In Canada, Ontario Premier Doug Ford killed hundreds of contracts for planned wind and solar farms. Spain pulled back subsidies, yanking the rug from projects already up and running. And in the U.S., bankrupt California power giant PG&E Corp. could soon . . . Complete story »
Cheap wind power distorting power market pricing, leads to legislative interest in study
Renewable energy developers receive federal subsidies to build solar farms and wind farms, incentives that have helped spur so much wind development over the past few years that abundant wind energy from West Texas has made Texas among the cheapest states for power. Texans paid 8.4 cents per kilowatt hour last year for electricity, according to the Energy Department. Only six states paid less for power. The Texas Legislature recently took a step to eliminate the cost advantage in renewable . . . Complete story »
Wind energy resources declining in northern hemisphere: study
A widespread decrease in surface winds has led to a rapid decline of wind energy resources in the northern hemisphere in recent years, according to a recent study led by Chinese researchers. Wind power is one of the most important renewable energy sources, but it is a fairly unstable natural resource. Previous studies have focused on the assessment of wind energy reserves. However, little research has been done on how wind energy resources evolve over time. Researchers from the Institute . . . Complete story »
It takes power to make power: Temporary power keeps wind turbines spinning
As the fourth largest source of power in North America, wind energy continues to be an essential part of the renewable energy story. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Vision report expects wind energy to supply 10 percent of the United States power needs by 2020, 20 percent by 2030 and 35 percent by 2050. To keep up with the ambitious growth trajectory, the size of wind turbines is also growing. So, engineers are turning to more powerful temporary generators . . . Complete story »
Wind farms can act like apex predators in ecosystems, study finds
The impact of wind farms on flying species has been well documented, with turbines reducing the number of birds and bats in an area and disrupting migration routes. But a new study finds that the impacts of turbines are more far-reaching than previously thought, acting almost like a new apex predator in an ecosystem. Ecologists from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore looked at how wind farms in India’s Western Ghats, which have been operating for 16 to 20 . . . Complete story »
Wind turbines acting as ‘apex predators’ by driving down bird numbers, study finds
Wind turbines can act as top predators in ecosystems by driving down populations of birds and triggering knock-on effects across food chains, according to a new study. Scientists found that predatory raptor birds were four times rarer in parts of an Indian mountain range covered in wind turbines, suggesting they were avoiding the structures. The same areas saw an explosion in numbers the raptors’ prey, fan-throated lizards, which also became more confident and less scared of humans due to the . . . Complete story »
Wind farm ‘predator’ effect hits ecosystems: study
Wind farms act as a top “predator” in some ecosystems, harming birds at the top of the food chain and triggering a knock-on effect overlooked by green energy advocates, scientists said Monday. Wind is the fastest-growing renewable energy sector, supplying around four percent of global electricity demand. Close to 17 million hectares—an area roughly the size of Tunisia—is currently used for generating wind energy worldwide, and researchers warned that developers had “greatly underestimated” the impact the technology has on wildlife. . . . Complete story »
Wind farms: where kites stay away, lizards play
On the Western Ghats, biologists have discovered that wind farms reduce the abundance of predatory birds and increase lizard populations, triggering a cascade of changes in the food chain whose long-term consequences remain unclear. A study by ecologists from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, has revealed that predatory birds such as buzzards, hawks and kites avoid areas around wind turbines and allow lizard populations there to thrive. The scientists found that the population densities of the most common lizard . . . Complete story »
New enemy of birds of prey: wind farms
There’s a new super-predator in Maharashtra’s Chalkewadi plateau. With their constantly-whirring blades, wind turbines have decreased birds of prey here, finds a study published in Nature Ecology and Evolution on November 5. It also proves, for the first time, that the ramifications of wind farms run much deeper across the food chain: superb fan-throated lizards – small, colourful reptiles that the birds prey on – increased in number and showed altered behaviour, physiology and even less-flamboyant body colours. Wind farms . . . Complete story »
