Construction sector firms are helping corporations and utilities navigate low-cost clean-energy sources and distributed generation in a changing electricity marketplace.
While wind energy may still seem like a relatively new technology, it has matured to the point that consultants expect owners will invest about $2 billion a year to partially repower older turbines and make them more efficient.
The windswept fields and gusty greens of Ireland’s County Mayo are perfect places for a kite or a glider, or, in the case of energy partners E.ON and Ampyx Power, a large flying wing tethered to a drum, which will drive an experimental, portable power-generating turbine.
Three offshore wind developers have submitted bids to Connecticut as the state becomes the latest to look to that renewable power source in the energy-constrained New England corridor.
Oregon’s loss could turn into California’s gain as Principle Power Inc., the lead on a stalled Oregon offshore wind project, has entered into an agreement with a wholesale power company to install a 150-MW public-private project off the Humboldt County coastline in Northern California.
Construction is underway off the northern coast of the U.K. for Ørsted’s planned 1.2-gigawatt wind farm, with 174 8-MW turbines expected to be planted and operational by 2021 in a field about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from shore.
The University of Maine’s Volturnus offshore floating wind-turbine design has passed a two-year review by the American Bureau of Shipping, the university announced in a Sept. 14 statement.
