World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

October 10, 2004 – Vol.9 No.29

WORLD WIND WATCH.

Eventually, perhaps decades from now, the massive megawatt-class wind turbines now being planted will be obsolete and worn out. No longer reliable they’ll have to be taken down. Hopefully the steel and cast iron parts will be recycled as will certainly be the copper wire in the generator windings.

But what will happen to the epoxy, plastic and glass-fiber blades? For the most part glass reinforced plastic (GRP) is not recyclable. Unless new recycling processes for composites like GRP are proven and inexpensive then the huge blades will be cut up and buried in a landfill dump.

Future generations of turbine blades, now in development, may be recyclable adding a new level of greenness to wind energy. Irish company Gaoth Tec Teo (Gaoth is Irish for “the wind.”) has signed Cooperation Agreements with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan and with Cyclics Corporation of the U.S. to build wind turbine blades using Cyclics’ CBT (tm) thermoplastic resins.

The companies believe blades made from the resins and reinforcing additives will be safer to produce (no dangerous epoxy resins) be more efficient to build (read less expensive) and in the end of life, be recyclable.

The initial project will be a 41-foot blade, but the companies believe all megawatt-class turbines could have thermoplastic resin blades. Visit Cyclics at http://www.cyclics.com/ and Gaoth Tec Teo at http://www.gaoth-tec.com/

Russia is has large numbers of skilled scientists and engineers who were once busy designing missiles aimed at the United States. Today they could sell their skills to any nation wanting to develop weapons of mass destruction.

The U.S. would rather that didn’t happen.

As part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP) program, scientists at DOE’s Berkeley Lab are working with scientists at the Makeyev State Rocket Center near Miass, Russia, and with Empire Magnetics of Rohnert Park, California to develop two small wind turbine prototypes intended for commercialization.

And commercialization may be easy. Even without a finished product - a small vertical-axis turbine - the scientists have received more than 450 orders. One initial market will be for the nomads living on the remote, windy steppes of Mongolia.

DOE says that ultimately, the better the turbines sell, the less likely the Russian scientists are to revert to their old trade. Visit Berkeley Lab’s Science Beat at http://enews.lbl.gov/ .

Remote communities, too far away to connect with the grid, are ready markets for renewable energy. Instead of relying only on shipped-in diesel fuel for generators, wind energy can be tapped to supply electricity.

Northern Power Systems has received a $1.9 million contract from the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC) to supply seven 100-kilowatt Northwind (R) 100 turbines to be installed in three villages. The project could be expanded to more of the 51 villages AVEC supplies power to.

Diesel power will still be needed, but the supplemental wind energy will reduce fuel consumption. Visit Northern Power at http://www.northernpower.com/ .