Archive for April 20, 2012

Vestas Reaches 50 Gigawatts Wind Capacity

Congratulations to wind turbine manufacturer Vestas on their remarkable milestone of 50 Gigawatts wind generation capacity installed to date, reached in the first quarter this year.

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Photo Courtesy of Vestas Wind Systems A/S

The threshold was passed in the first quarter of 2012, with the completion of the Knäred wind project in Laholm Municipality in Southern Sweden. Knäred is a 20MW project from Vestas key account E.ON, and features 10 V90-2.0MW turbines which provide enough energy for approximately 10,000 Swedish households

Fifty GW amounts to more than 46,000 turbines, close to a fifth of total global capacity, and generates enough clean energy to power 19 million European households, saving the world from 55 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year.

Congratulations to Vestas!

Vestas do say they had a little help…

Reaching 50GW has only been possible through the commitment and vision Vestas employees has shown in collaboration with our customers, suppliers and investors over the last 30 years.

Plus European public policies and citizenry demand for clean energy that acknowledge the costs of pollution, has helped create level playing fields for renewable energy, also hasn’t hurt.

You can read more here:
Vestas reaches 50GW of installed capacity

Windmade: The Live Event

Ok, so- no, it’s not an actual event, but the launch of the concept surely is to us here at All Our Energy.

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As a follow up to our previous post Windmade: Change You Select, the European (EWEA) Wind Energy Association are putting forth a new concept: make your event Windmade.

The Windmade concept is an alternative driver to not only create a market for, but to help make available wind-powered electricity. They market to manufacturers who can then label amd market their goods as “Windmade” also letting the public choose to purchase products made with true clean energy (and by rights implying the consumer should consider how other products are made). We really like both ideas.

EWEA is showing how it’s done at their own “EWEA 2012” annual conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. All the electricity used will be purchased and used specifically for the event What better place than the world’s leading country for wind turbine manufacturing, community owned wind projects, and
Samsø:Denmark’s Renewable Energy Island

(We’ll also reference you to wind leader Paul Gipe’s Wind Works
article on Samsø: Denmark’s Renewable Energy Island)
And this awesome children’s book about it

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Energy Island: How one community harnessed the wind and changed their world by Allan Drummond

We believe the answer to expanding renewable energy is in getting the public involved and aware of renewable energy and help give them access to it, and this project wins on both fronts.

Just imagine… And let us know:
What else could be Windmade?

Care To See the Wind?

Check out this new map from Hint.fm which artfully shows the living wind around us.

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Always said in the renewables community: “if the public could just see the pollution in the air from fossil fuels, we would have full scale renewable energy tomorrow”.

I also think, “If they could only see the invisible power of the wind, just waiting to be harnessed, it could spark public interest; the imaginations of young and old alike, and demonstrate what awaits if we just act and demand wind energy.”

What a beautiful depiction of the resource in a way that serves as a great beginning toward better awareness of what is… and what could be.

If we would all just care to see the wind.