NRG Systems this week introduced a 34-meter system to support small-scale wind energy projects and wind energy research. The 34-meter complete system includes a tubular tilt-up tower, a SymphoniePLUS 15-channel data logger, three NRG #40C anemometers, a wind vane and parts.  permaLink:1268111000-6719

Energy Smart Students Workshops These FREE workshops are open to K-12 teachers, educators in not-for-profit agencies, pre-service teachers, college professors, and other educational professionals. They offer FREE NY State Ed Dept-aligned curriculum, Professional Development credit, and refreshments! 4Es of Energy (Grades K-6): March 20, 8:30am-3:30pm at Solar One Focus on Solar (Grades 5-12): April 12, 8:30am-3:30pm at Solar One Energy Trilogy (Grades 7-12): May 1, 8:30am-3:30pm at Solar One Integrate energy education into your lesson plans.Register today at GetEnergySmart ,1-877-NY-SMART, or info@nyess.org ___________________________________________________________ Wind Energy in the Classroom Teacher Training Workshop Wind Wisdom for School PowerNaturally (sm) offers a hands-on introduction to the technology and engineering involved in renewable wind energy and provides a context for teaching scientific principles related to properties of the wind, energy transformations and electricity. At the workshop educators who serve students in Grades K-6 will receive hands-on science and engineering activities, a free wind energy education kit, and curricular units for K-4 and 5-6. Wind Wisdom Workshop: April 15, 4:00pm-6:30pm at Solar One To Pre-Register (required): visit NESEA Educators Events and click on the date of the workshop you wish to attend (4/15). Email registration form to agrindrod@nesea.org or fax to 413-774-6053.  permaLink:1268030000-3594

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and DOE's Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program announced the selection of four partners to establish small wind Regional Test Centers (RTCs) to conduct tests on small wind turbines to meet national and international standards.  permaLink:1268024000-9219

AWEA and the wind energy industry reacted strongly to an initiative by four Senators that would suspend crucial renewable energy development incentives in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that the industry views as a huge success and a lifeline in the economic crisis.  permaLink:1268024000-8750

Kahuku Wind Power has just become the newest in a line of eight innovative companies and projects now receiving large loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy.  permaLink:1267978000-1719

The Blog Prof links to Chris Horner's article at Pajamas Media that details how Barack Obama, George Soros, and wind energy lobbyists colluded to hide the details of two economic studies that showed the wind energy programs in Spain and Denmark didn't help the economy and create jobs as the president said they did.  permaLink:1267947000-3281

Las Vegas Sun It's man vs. bird in quest for power Las Vegas Sun The BLM has processed at least 41 wind energy applications and 361 geothermal leases in Nevada. NV Energy and LS Power have rights of way to build a large... and more »  permaLink:1267870000-0273

An official announcement is set for today about a $90-million deal to put the mothballed TrentonWorks railcar plant in Nova Scotia back on track, creating hundreds of jobs.  permaLink:1267837000-2969

Wind power in Croatia REVE The geothermal energy content of the medium temperature reservoirs (between 100 and 200C) can be converted into electric energy, while that of the low... DALEKOVOD to construct a wind power plant in Croatia Balkans.com Business News all 2 news articles »  permaLink:1267787000-2617

On Feb. 9, 2010, The U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and DOEs Wind and Hydropower Technologies Program announced the selection of four partners to establish small wind Regional Test Centers (RTCs) to conduct tests on small wind turbines to meet national and international standards. These awards provide funding, training, and technical support for each Regional Test Center to conduct testing of two small wind turbines to support the burgeoning U.S. small wind turbine market.  permaLink:1267772000-5859

CNN has a photo gallery of wind power generation in Denmark. The country produces about 20% of its electricity from wind.  permaLink:1267769000-1499

Suzlon Wind Energy Corp. said it plans to develop 728 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy projects in the U.S. in 2010. The company plans to put nine projects on the ground in 2010, which will include 351 newly installed wind turbines in seven states.  permaLink:1267765000-1758

Washington DC - U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu today announced that the Department of Energy has offered a conditional commitment on a $117 million loan guarantee to finance the construction and start-up of an innovative 30 megawatt (MW) wind energy project in Kahuku, Hawaii.  permaLink:1267765000-9141

OwnEnergy and Horn Wind have completed development of a 51-megawatt (MW) wind power project in Texas. The Windthorst-1 project is located near Windthorst, Texas, just outside of Greater Dallas, in the ERCOT North Zone.  permaLink:1267765000-2344

Behavioral economics is used to examine how consumers make decisions about everything from their life savings to which brands of jam they select in a supermarket. Hunt Allcott, a behavioral economist with a two-year appointment as the Energy and Society Fellow in MITs Department of Economics and the MIT Energy Initiative, wants to apply his fields insights to the realm of energy use. In the latest issue of Science , Allcott and co-author Sendhil Mullainathan, of Harvard, advocate passage of a bill currently in Congress that would fund more behavioral research about energy consumption. The authors also note initiatives like that of OPOWER, a Virginia company, which has found that the user-friendly energy reports it sends to consumers can influence behavior enough to reduce household energy use by 2 percent, at minimal cost (OPOWER is an affiliate of Ideas42, an MIT-linked think tank to which Allcott also belongs). MIT News spoke with Allcott about how behavioral economics addresses our energy needs. Q. Why should we invest in behavioral research pertaining to energy efficiency, and what are the specific kinds of research we can do right now? A. Its an economic argument. There are lots of different technology-centered R&D investments that we can and do make: Fuel cells, hybrid vehicles, wind power. But we can also invest in new social science research that can inform policies and programs that encourage people to consume energy differently. The argument Sendhil and I make is that we have to compare across all of these classes and say, Whats cost-effective in terms of achieving our goals? We use the results from recent large-scale energy conservation programs that were motivated by behavioral science to show that behavioral science R&D is an underexplored and potentially cost-effective approach. Let me give you two examples of how economics can inform energy efficiency policy. First, much of the policy-oriented research in behavioral economics has been about identifying barriers in individual decision making that....  permaLink:1267765000-7578

Britains decision to rely on wind farms for a third of its energy from 2020 will provide a huge opportunity for Aggreko, the temporary power group, in the next five to ten years.  permaLink:1267747000-0479

Wind farms and other forms of renewable energy will provide Aggreko with a huge new opportunity in the next five to10 years, the temporary power group thinks.  permaLink:1267718000-8047

David De Rothschild and friends have been tooling around for some time on an ambitious project to build a seaworthy boat out of recycled plastic bottles. Late last week, the crew finally shared their vision, The Plastiki, to the world in San Francisco Bay. The Plastiki will sail 11,000 miles from San Fran to Sydney, Australia to raise awareness about plastics as a pollutant and its value as a recycled product. The sailboat is made from 12,500 recycled plastic bottles and an innovative, buoyant and exceptionally strong material made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a polyester resin commonly used in plastics. The mast is reclaimed aluminum irrigation pipe and the sail is handmade from recycled PET as well. While engineering the boat, the crew of designers also developed an interesting new organic glue made from cashew nuts and sugar cane a product, said De Rothschild to Treehugger , that could remove epoxies from boatbuilding. It is that spirit of ingenuity that was the inspiration for the Plastiki project. What started out as an idea to build a boat from plastic bottles to raise awareness about plastic in our oceans and landfills (some 80 percent of plastic bottles still reach landfills rather than recycling plants, says De Rothschild) grew into a movement addressing problems and discovering solutions about what we can do with all that plastic floating through our economies, resting in our landfills and bobbing on our waterways. As if 12,500 recycled plastic bottles didn't make the Plastiki green enough, it is also primarily powered by renewable energy. That includes solar power panels , wind turbines, trailing propeller turbines and bicycle generators. It also uses urine-to-water recovery and rain catchment systems to produce fresh water and even comes equipped with a rotating cylinder hydroponic garden. Last week, the Plastiki crew christened the boat with a traditional Polynesian ceremony at the Marina in San Francisco. Right now, they are working on final preparations for their trans-Pacific journey.....  permaLink:1267689000-4453

WASHINGTON Four Democratic senators on Wednesday implored the Obama administration to stop spending federal stimulus dollars on renewable energy projects whenever the bulk of solar cell and wind turbine manufacturing is done overseas.  permaLink:1267684000-2344