Additional 10% bump in renewable energy generation to meet 2020 goal for the state's renewable energy portfolio standard.

California committed to getting a third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 in a Monday executive order by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. This expands on the earlier commitment to produce 20% of its power from renewables such as wind and solar by 2010 as part of its plan to cut emissions of carbon that contribute to global warming.

Read more at California Green Solutions

Shippers: Offshore Wind Farms May Cause Hazards, Increase Emissions

The British government has set a target of having wind generate at least one-third of all its electricity within 12 years. It also wants 33 gigawatts of electricity-generation capacity to be built in the seas around the country by 2020. But the Department for Transport has told the wind industry that shipping operators are concerned about plans to build offshore wind farms to meet the government’s targets, Telegraph reports.

The London Array project plans to erect a constellation of more than 340 wind turbines in the outer Thames Estuary, roughly seven miles off the Kent Coast. It is expected to become the world’s largest offshore wind farm when completed, Array will generate more electricity than the largest offshore farm operational today — Denmark’s Middelgrunden offshore wind farm.

Shipping Dangers from Offshore Wind Farms

Shipping operators fear the wind turbines, some times more than 600 feet tall, will be a navigation hazard in areas that are already busy. In addition, they say diverting ships around the wind farms may lead to an increase in CO2 emissions and cancel out much of the wind farm’s CO2 savings.

Research also suggests that such large structures may interfere with ships’ radar and make it hard to spot other ships.

"This is the breakout growth sector of the next generation," said the author of Next 10's report, "Energy Efficiency, Innovation, and Job Creation in California".

David Roland-Holst, a professor of agriculture and resource economics at UC Berkeley. "We cannot afford to miss this market opportunity."

California's per-capita electricity use is about 40% less than the national average, Roland-Holst said, largely because of government-mandated energy efficiency standards for utilities, buildings and appliances put into effect over the last four decades.

Roland-Holst found that the lower use has enabled Californians to save $56 billion on energy since 1972. That money was spent in the local economy, he said, instead of on imported oil, out-of-state electricity or building new power plants. The result: 1.5 million additional California jobs with a total payroll exceeding $45 billion.

Programs like AB 32 will have a multiplier effect

Next 10's report calculates that energy innovation required by AB 32 will create 403,000 green-collar jobs over the next 12 years as companies spend big on renewables and energy efficiency. Roland-Holst said that would increase household income in California by as much as $48 billion by 2020 and boost the state domestic product by $76 billion.

California's Environmental Innovation Advantage

Some of California's leading companies agree with Roland-Holst's assessment that environmental innovation could become a pillar of the California economy.

Read more about the report: Energy Efficiency, Innovation, and Job Creation in California (by David Roland-Holst, UC Berkeley, Oct. 2008)

The MOU between DOE and the six major turbine manufacturers demonstrates the shared commitment of the federal government and the private sector to create the roadmap necessary to achieve 20 percent wind energy by 2030, DOE Assistant Secretary Karsner said. “To dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance our energy security, clean power generation at the gigawatt-scale will be necessary to expand the domestic wind manufacturing base and streamline the permitting process.”

Today’s agreement builds on the recently released DOE report 20 Percent Wind Energy in 2030 that examines the technical feasibility of harnessing wind power to provide up to 20 percent of the nation’s total electricity needs by 2030.  Most notably, the report finds that by using wind power to meet 20 percent of our nation’s electricity needs, we can eliminate 7.6 cumulative gigatons of CO2 by 2030 and 825 million metric tons in 2030 and every year thereafter.

Under the MOU, DOE and the six turbine manufacturers (GE Energy, Siemens Power Generation, Vestas Wind Systems, Clipper Turbine Works, Suzlon Energy, and Gamesa Corporation) will collaborate to gather and exchange information to define specific needs for achieving 20 percent wind energy by 2030. The MOU addresses the following areas:

• Turbine Reliability and Operability Research & Development to create more reliable components; improve turbine capacity factors; and reduce installation and operations and maintenance costs.
• Siting Strategies to address environmental and technical issues like radar interference in a standardized framework based on industry best practices.
• Standards Development for turbine certification and universal generator interconnection.
• Manufacturing advances in design, process automation and fabrication techniques to reduce product-to product variability and premature failure while increasing the domestic manufacturing base.
• Workforce development including the development, standardization and certification of wind energy curricula for mechanical and power systems engineers and community college training programs.

Read more about ‘20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030.’

Read more information about DOE’s Wind Program.

Full text of the Memorandum of Understanding.

3TIER Completes 5 km Wind Maps for Canada and Alaska

FirstLook Assessment™ helps developers prospect for wind energy

SEATTLE (April 8, 2008) – 3TIER  announced the addition of Canada and Alaska to its FirstLook Assessment™ tool, providing online access to the world’s first geographically seamless 5 km wind data set for the continental United States and Canada.  At the same time, 3TIER announced a deal with GENIVAR, a Canadian-based engineering firm, the first customer to use FirstLook Assessment for exploring Canada’s wind energy potential.

To find out more about FirstLook Assessment visit: www.firstlook.3tiergroup.com.

“At a 5 km resolution, FirstLook now provides developers with a powerful tool to quickly and cost-effectively prospect wind energy potential for the continental U.S., Alaska and Canada,” said Pascal Storck, president of 3TIER, one the largest independent providers of global renewable energy assessment and forecasting.

“With the attention we received after the announcement of FirstLook U.S. last June, we expect more developers will take notice and begin exploring wind potential in Canada and Alaska – all at a tenth of the price of a traditional wind assessment.”

GENIVAR, a Canadian leader in consulting engineering, signed a FirstLook Assessment bundled contract to help clients explore Canada’s wind energy potential.

“With the capabilities and reliability of FirstLook, what was once a complex process is now streamlined to deliver the information our clients need to move quickly on a project,” said David Baker, vice president, Wind Power of GENIVAR.  “We look forward to using the Firstlook tool to be able to quickly estimate the wind resource potential where there is limited or no meteorological data available.”

The 5 km mapping of the continental U.S. and Canada is part of 3TIER’s “Remapping the World,” a longer-term, global initiative launched in March when 3TIER unveiled the first-ever seamless global wind map at a 15 km resolution.

3TIER’s REmapping the World initiative is focused on accelerating the development of renewable energy projects globally by providing information, publicly accessible on the Internet, about where global wind resources potentially exist.

“REmapping the World is meant to answer initial questions about what kind of wind potential exists globally,” said Kenneth Westrick, 3TIER CEO and founder. “The free map provides enough resolution so countries and organizations can begin to look at the potential wind resource at a regional level. If we want developing nations to ‘leapfrog’ over fossil fuels, they need information about what renewable energy resources exist.”

Over the next 21 months, 3TIER plans to continue to map the world for wind at 5 km, country by country, based upon a priority order that takes into account such issues as renewable energy policies, availability of the wind resource and economic development status.

The 5 km maps will be available through the FirstLook Assessment online tool.

Many FirstLook contracts are bundled deals where companies or organizations are purchasing multiple reports for a discounted price. Individual FirstLook Professional reports cost $2,500.

Additionally, customers can augment FirstLook’s wind assessment by purchasing geographic information system (GIS) layers to evaluate annual average wind speeds at specific grid points and at certain heights, allowing customers to customize the FirstLook data to more rapidly prospect and map potential wind power sites.

Technical highlights of FirstLook include:

• Accessible via the Internet 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
• A simple two-step, point-and-click process on a Web-based interactive map.
• Results are presented in a practical PDF format report.
• Uses 3TIER’s advanced numerical weather prediction (NWP) modeling technology.  Model simulations were made at a spatial resolution of 5 km and are interpolated for specific areas.
• The 5 km map of the U.S. and Canada was based upon observations from 2,000 meteorological towers, which were used to correct the simulations and provide customers with a unique confidence rating for each report. FirstLook Canada and Alaska reach as far north as the 70th parallel.

To learn more about REmapping the World visit: www.remappingtheworld.com.

In addition to wind assessment services, 3TIER provides a full suite of assessment and forecasting services for wind, hydro and solar energy projects.  3TIER uses its knowledge about weather, climate and their impacts on weather-driven renewable energy resources to help customers make better decisions about their investments – before, during and after their projects are built.

Procter & Gamble has reached an agreement in principle to connect P&G’s paper products manufacturing plant in Mehoopany, Pennsylvania to a proposed BP wind power facility.

The plant currently gets half of it’s 100 megawatts of energy from an onsite gas turbine. BP’s proposed facility would cover the other half.

Last summer, BP erected at least five test towers about five miles from the P&G substation with an interest in possibly building a 30-90 wind turbine facility.