World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

June 29, 2003 – Vol.8 No.14

WORLD WIND WATCH.

Eurus Energy Holdings, jointly owned by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) and Tomen, have announced plans to expand their wind generating capacity to 1600 megawatts by 2005 - an increase of 130 percent over current capacity and an investment of 130 -140 billion yen ($1.10 -1.19 billion).

In Japan wind capacity will be increased from 60 megawatts to 280, in the U.S. capacity will increase from 190 megawatts to 390, and in Europe from 450 megawatts to 930.

McBride Lake WindFarm, Canada’s largest wind-power project, is now operational. The 75-megawatt facility with 114 660-kilowatt turbines is built on 2700 acres of farmland east of the Rocky Mountains near Fort MacLeod in southern Alberta.

All of the wind generated electricity from the CDN $100 million ($75 million) project has been sold to Enmax, the municipal power company for the City of Calgary and will used it to power Alberta government and other public buildings. Visit Enmax at http://www.enmax.com/ .

If Cape Wind gets built it will share the waters off the south shore of Cape Cod, Massachusetts with recreational boaters, commercial fishermen, and hopefully sightseers in tour boats visiting the nearly 500 megawatt facility.

But that is a few years away.

For now Cape Wind is offering some benefits to mariners by posting real time weather information from its data collection tower for the proposed wind farm through its website. The same information developers need to determine the viability of the site for offshore wind power - surface current speed, current direction, water temperature, wind speed, wind direction, air temperatures, atmospheric pressure, wave height and wave direction is uploaded from the $2 million data collection tower every 6 -30 minutes depending on the type of data.

For those more interested in the energy potential of Cape Wind, the page also estimates the amount renewable energy that could be produced at any given moment as well as emissions that would be avoided. Visit Cape Wind at http://www.capewind.org/ (click Current Conditions, Go).

Zilkha Renewable Energy has announced plans to build a 165 megawatt wind farm in Washington State to be known as the Wild Horse Wind Power Project. To be comprised of about 100 turbines, the project is expected to be complete by the end of 2005.

Zilkha has already completed wildlife studies and meteorological surveys for the $175 million project. Other studies as well as approvals are ongoing. Visit Zilkha at http://www.zilkha.com/ .