World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

April 18, 2004 – Vol.9 No.4

WORLD WIND WATCH.

When the Freedom Tower, the replacement for the World Trade Center buildings in New York City, was first proposed, news reports indicated that the design included a wind generation system and that system would include vertical axis (egg beater type) turbines such as those built by McKenzie Bay International.

Since then a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) has been put forth by the building’s developer, World Trade Center Properties LLC, to determine which companies could provide the installation, operation. and maintenance of a Vertical Wind Farm to be built into the upper section of the Freedom Tower.

Last week in this publication it was noted that Point Power Systems would submit a proposal for conventional horizontal axis turbines to be used in the structure.

This week McKenzie Bay has come back with its proposed configuration for the project - 30 DWT (Dermond Wind Turbine) 100 kilowatt vertical axis turbines stacked atop each other for 3.0 megawatts capacity. The company, too, will offer an additional configuration, the 30 turbines plus a back-up battery energy storage system, its Vanadium-based WindStor (sm) battery/system integrator product.

McKenzie Bay has been marketing the DWT and WindStor as a renewable energy solution for high-rise buildings. A high-profile project such as this would give considerable recognition to the company’s ideas. Visit McKenzie Bay at http://www.mckenziebay.com/ and Point Power Systems at http://www.pointpowersystems.com/ and Silverstein Properties for the World Trade Center plan, including renderings of the building and its wind generation system, http://www.silversteinproperties.com/worldtrade.htm

Worldwide, the wind energy business continues to be in slump. Plans for, and the development and construction of the large on and offshore wind farms have slowed to a trickle. Wind developers and turbine manufacturers are still hoping for politicians in Washington to extend the Production Tax Credit (PTC) to be extended before they pursue new projects in the U.S. Real and concrete signs of a growing world economy would help, as would leadership in tackling long term global environmental and energy concerns.

Still, smaller wind projects trickle in.

Gamesa has announced that it will supply 9, 2.0 megawatt turbines to the Amaral I and Caldas I projects in Portugal as well as 24, 850 kilowatt turbines to the Ningxia Electric Power Group in China for the Helanshan wind farm in a region of the same name. The order will bring capacity of the wind farm to 51 megawatts. Gamesa has already sold 137 turbines to China for an installed capacity of 113.4 megawatts. Visit Gamesa at http://www.gamesa.es/ .

Green Mountain Energy has taken Earth Day 2004 to dedicate the Green Mountain Energy Wind Farm and Brazos, Texas. Owned by Shell WindEnergy and Padoma Wind Power, the 160-megawatt facility has 160, 1.0 megawatt Mitsubishi turbines. Green Mountain is a marketer of power generated from the facility. Visit Green Mountain at http://www.greenmountain.com/ Shell WindEnergy at http://www.shell.com/renewables , Padoma Wind Power at http://www.padoma.com/ .

Community Energy also took Earth day to announce that its wind energy sales has exceeded two billion kilowatt hours and continues to expand. The company has customers in 15 states, including 20,000 residences and small businesses, 50 colleges and universities, 40 federal, state and local government agencies and six fortune 500 companies. Visit Community Energy at http://www.communityenergy.biz/ .

RG&E, an energy services company serving gas and electric rate payers in New York State has joined the long list of utility companies offering wind energy to customers. The company is offering 100-kilowatt blocks (with a minimum of two blocks per month) in a program called Catch the Wind. The wind energy surcharge is set at $2.00 to $2.50 per block per month depending on the number of blocks purchased.

An average RG&E customer uses about 600 kilowatt hours per month thus would have to buy 6 blocks to have 100 percent wind energy generated in their name. Community Energy will be supplying its New Wind Energy (tm) wind product to RG&E. RG&E customers must call 1-877-RGE-WIND to sign up.