Wind Energy Event Held Earlier this Month in Stockholm, Sweden-
In the broadcast, the European Wind Energy Association pushes vigorously to begin developing offshore wind farms around the continent. The proponent organization goes on to claim that the green energy resource holds the ability to power Europe 7 times over; adding that it is “Europe’s largest domestic energy resource” and would offer new green jobs as well as energy independence.

WePOWER’s Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines Offer Clean Energy & Windvertising™ Options-

Working along the progressive tide of green energy applications – WePOWER – a leading global manufacturer of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT), has devised a compact commercial-scale wind turbine which truly offers low maintenance, high-yield wind energy that can surpass any major player in the industry. The company’s comprehensive VAWT product lineup has exceeded the demanding specifications of the California Energy Commission, achieving the CEC’s approval to be placed on the List of Eligible Small Wind Turbines. “This certification assures consumers that WePOWER’s equipment has been thoroughly tested for safety and performance and meet the requirements of the CEC and California Public Utility Commission (CPUC),” said Howard Makler, WePOWER’s Executive Vice President. The recognition has enabled the company to qualify for rebate payments, as well as immediate acknowledgment by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) as being a “commercially proven equipment provider.” WePOWER’s VAWT line undoubtedly distinguishes itself from the rest, presenting the most diverse products in the small wind industry, including the Falcon – available in 1.2kW, 3.4kW, 5.5kW and 12kW generating models. The company is also working to implement its revolutionary Windvertising™ branded media platform to enable the placement of advertising on WePOWER’s PacWind turbines (video below). The initiative would generate clean energy to power corresponding advertising billboards, as well as offer commercial practicability for businesses looking to neutralize their carbon footprint while promoting their trade. “Windvertising™ will transform the outdoor advertising industry and help corporations achieve their carbon-neutral goals,” said Marvin Winkler, CEO of WePOWER. “For the first time, outdoor advertising will help to save the planet by reducing carbon emissions and will save money for businesses through tax incentives, energy rebates and carbon credits. It is truly a win-win situation for consumers and corporations.” Advertising on a moving wind turbine may seem alien to most, but the process is rather simple; each of the proprietary air foil blades will reflect an image, and as the turbine blades spin on their vertical axis, the images will come to “life” and appear as if they are moving. “I always tell people to think of Windvertising™ as a flipbook that you played with as a child,” stated Marvin Winkler. “You simply apply a specific image on each turbine blade, the turbines spin and you get this amazing, moving advertisement – that also makes clean electricity to provide power to a traditional advertising billboard!” Click below to view a short video of WePOWER’s PacWind turbine at work in New York’s Times Square.

Indiana Farmers Rewarded for Use of Wind Power-

Perdue University Extension renewable energy specialist, Chad Martin, explains the rewarding potential that wind power holds for agricultural farmers with extra land to spare, professing that commercial-scale wind farms present rural property owners with the chance to gain residual income as well as produce clean, alternative energy. He considers the wind energy industry a once-in-a-lifetime prospect for the agricultural population, claiming that some farmers are receiving up to $10,000 annually for installing these renewable energy manufacturers on their land. Martin goes on to say that, instead of utilizing land for crops which won’t make too much cash in the long run, farmers should transition to wind energy on their properties which would potentially turn more of a profit. “There aren’t many opportunities that will come along in a generation such as what we’re finding with the wind industry… For the agriculture community, development companies are offering lease payments to farmers for the use of their land for wind farms.”

These payments can help preserve farmland but then, too, help sustain a family farming operation and provide some additional revenue,” said Martin. Utility-scale wind farms are sprouting throughout the Indiana countryside, with more than 310 turbines in two separate counties turning out more than 500 megawatts of renewable electricity per year. Benton and White counties are also currently working to install approximately 175 new turbines, which are projected to produce around 200MW of renewable energy. Corresponding with an American Wind Energy Association report, wind energy capacity and growth is lead by Indiana, which is creating more of an elevated demand in windy areas that are closed to transmission entry. “The base lease payment per turbine has definitely increased,” Martin maintains, “For national average figures, we’re talking $3,000 to $5,000 per year per megawatt of production. And some people are getting up into the $10,000 range per year per turbine.” Wind energy is undoubtedly a worthwhile investment for farmers, especially as green energy credits are becoming easier to obtain with state and federal government loans. “Turbines take about one to two acres of land out of production. So when you’re looking at raising corn as opposed to putting a turbine up on those two acres, there’s no question that there’s more profit potential with the turbine.”

Flagstaff Firm Announces Newest Household Wind Turbine-


Southwest Windpower, the world’s largest manufacturer of small wind turbines, announced their newest residential wind turbine at the WINDPOWER 2009 conference. Thanks to a $10 million investment from GE, the company was able to assemble Skystream, a 2.4 kilowatt generating wind turbine which may help cut energy costs significantly for single-family homes by supplying anywhere from 40 to 90 percent of renewable electricity. The technology is open to homeowners with a 4-5 year payback, relying upon how ideal the site is for wind and how excessive existing energy bills are. President Obama’s federal stimulus package also includes a 30 percent renewable energy credit for those who invest in green energy, which helps immensely in start-up costs for residential wind energy.

Darrin Russell of Southwest Windpower boasts that, although the $14,000 price tag may be an issue, the benefits from installing a household wind turbine are well worth the up-front expenditure. “It’s nice watching the [electricity] meter go backward. Sometimes it gets going pretty fast when the wind blows hard.” Russell said. He also made it clear that, with federal tax credit and state rebates, there is going to be much more cash coming in than flowing out after the initial installation. Russell asserts that after the first month of turbine usage, his energy bill was zero – a breath of fresh air from standard electricity charges. Unfortunately, municipal laws often condition that one-half acre of land is needed to construct wind turbines in residential zoning areas, probably due to neighbors not too enthused about viewing or hearing a large wind turbine next door.

Despite current state laws, GE spokesperson Kevin Skillern senses huge potential for small-scale wind energy: “The market is currently just $100 million in total sales, but has been growing 40 to 50 percent a year for a handful of years. What we see is really a transition point where the combination of stimulus programs and technology advancements make this a highly economic purchase for nearly half of the U.S. population.” Wind energy installations have soared from $3 billion in 2005 to $17 billion in 2008 and are projected to decrease to $13 billion this year, according to Reuters. The wind industry is eager to receive a government-backed security that would require 25 percent of electricity generated in the United States be produced using renewable energy by the year 2025. As of April 2009, U.S. wind power installation capacity exceeds 28,000 megawatts – enough to supply over 8 million households with green, renewable energy and evade CO2 emissions by over 50 million tons annually.

Check out the demo video here: Skystream 3.7 Compact Residential Wind Turbine

First Large-Scale Rooftop Wind Power System-

Green Energy Technologies LLC, a leading supplier of municipal wind energy circuits, announced their most recent proprietary wind technology at the WINDPOWER Conference 2009. The inimitable rooftop wind turbine, called the Wind Cube, is designed specifically for on-site alternative electricity production by power consumers in metropolitan and suburban areas. Measuring a mere 22 x 22 x 12 feet, the commercial wind turbines are intended to fulfill a vast array of consumer’s energy needs; from industrial office buildings, to large-scale retailers, utility customers in isolated areas, and even university campuses. The WindCube unveils ground-breaking automation which utilizes the speed wind tunnel effect, branded in physics as the Bernoulli Principle, to capture and amplify wind power to deliver more kilowatt hours (kWh). It is available as single 60 kW or dual 120 kW systems and tower-mounted or rooftop models. The design works once wind is enveloped inside the WindCube, where the flow grows more intense and initiates amplified speed to yield more green energy. Due to this increased wind stimulation, the WindCube is capable of encapsulating wind energy traveling as slow as 5 mph and while most wind industry engineers produce energy through free-steam wind, this technology generates the same amount of power as a traditional turbine with 50 ft. diameter blades. One WindCube is said to yield about 160,000 kWh annually at an average wind speed of 15 mph. It creates electrical energy by operating its motor backwards using an impeller, which expels the need for a transmission box, significantly lowering the cost of ownership – since most problems arise due to the transmission equipment failures in conventional wind turbines.

In addition to amplified energy production, the WindCube and other small-scale renewable wind power systems provide consumers with the possibility of net metering, a simple and inexpensive method for promoting and rewarding the use of wind energy. It is utilized when a customer generates more electricity than is required for their needs, which causes the existing electricity meter to spin in reverse, assigning a monetary credit to their electric bill every month. The other advantages associated with renewable energy credits (RECs) is involved in President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which includes specific conditions granting buyers of small wind systems a federal tax credit of 30 percent of the total installed cost for systems installed and utilized between now and the year 2016. To boot, there are many states throughout the U.S. which provide some form of incentives to make the renewable power switch. The cost is figured to be around $250,000-$300,000 plus the cost of installation, and not to mention, federal and state incentives can reduce the cost by as much as 70 to 80 percent. “Now building owners anywhere can consider being a part of the renewable energy picture,” stated Mark L. Cironi, president and founder of Green Energy Technologies, and with John W. Fedor, WindCube inventor. “With WindCube, it’s not necessary to have the wind of Kansas or Nebraska to become a generator of wind power. In states with excellent renewable energy incentives, moderate wind and high electric rates, the payback can be as little as three years.” The revolutionary design behind the WindCube points to additional advancements in future wind energy science, as well as other forms of renewable sources. The initial outline may lead way to more efficient and cost-saving implementations, which will help change the way some individuals think about environmentally conscious practices – and that is absolutely priceless.

Conference Announced Poll Results; Wind Energy holds Bipartisan Backing-



The 2009 AWEA WINDPOWER Conference kicked off yesterday in the windy city of Chicago, Illinois, with some excellent news regarding bipartisan support for renewable energy. The polling was conducted by Garin Hart Yang Research Group and found that 75% of voters favored the Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), which requires utilities to produce at least 25 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by the year 2025. The polling revealed unexpected bipartisan support for the RES; 86 percent of Democrats, 71 percent of independents and 62 percent of Republicans were in favor of the proposal. Additionally, the polls revealed that establishing a national RES has tremendous backing throughout the entire country. 84 percent of Northeastern U.S. residents support the issue, 71 percent in the South, as well as ¾ of the Midwest populace. “The American people support an RES because it will create jobs and reduce carbon emissions. Our job now is to make sure that Members of Congress follow their constituents,” stated AWEA CEO Denise Bode, who spoke at the WINDPOWER conference this morning.

The WINDPOWER 2009 Conference is drawing in businesses and individuals from across the nation, who are committed to a future of renewable wind energy; from those seeking wind energy jobs, to those actually manufacturing wind turbines and scalable wind farms. More than 18,000 will be in attendance and over 1,200 companies are displaying their trade equipment. The WINDPOWER 2009 show floor is almost 300,000 square feet and is considerably larger than the 2008 and 2007 WINDPOWER display floors combined. Administration representatives and governors are also in company at the conference, addressing attendees at the opening session where the survey was unveiled. Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, is set to talk about the priority of renewable power in the Obama Administration; and Governors Jim Doyle of Wisconsin, Ted Strickland of Ohio, Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, Pat Quinn of Illinois, and Chet Culver of Iowa will also speak at the conference. In addition, Jon Wellinghoff, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman, will discuss the viability of producing significantly more of U.S. electricity from wind and other alternative energy sources. America’s necessity for resilient, comprehensive green energy policies will be a collective dialogue point during conference deliberations.

AWEA Reports Top 20 States with Wind Energy Resource Potential-

Wind energy is a renewable and cost-effective source of energy, but there aren’t too many locations in the world where this technology would be viable. Germany is considered the world’s leader in regard to installed wind power, with over 22,000 MW in place. Still, the country only has a small fraction of the wind energy capability of certain states in the U.S. The American Wind Energy Association has been a dynamic in wind energy awareness and have recently outlined the top 20 states where the wind potential is much greater than most. North Dakota is projected to produce 1,210 kWh, Texas capabilities are 1,190 kWh, with Kansas, South Dakota and Montana following close to 1070 kWh. Nebraska, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Iowa, Colorado and New Mexico able to produce between 435-868 kWh; while, Idaho, Michigan, New York, Illinois, California, Wisconsin, Maine and Missouri follow with possible 73-52 kWh production annually. According to the AWEA, installed wind energy generating capacity is now over 20,000 MW and the full amount of power that the U.S. is capable of producing has been estimated at 10,777 billion kWh annually, more than double the electricity currently produced in the U.S. If you are located in or around these high wind yielding states and would like to see wind powering your area, take action and lobby to your local government officials. You may just be one individual, but your voice can be heard if you bring educated suggestions and involve yourself in local activism. One thing is for sure; our dependence on fossil fuels and dead coal is just deepening our fiscal problems and environmental impact. Shifting our focus to green energy technologies will at least minimize our footprint on this planet and ensure a steadier, more balanced economic future.