Wind energy technician training program announced in New England

christina — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:08:31 -0500

The Northern Maine Community College has announced approval of a wind power technology program on its campus. The program is designed to train wind power technicians to operate, maintain and repair wind turbine generators.

Initial courses are expected to start early next year, with the full program available next fall. You can read the press release here.

Community Wind 101: A Primer for Policy-makers

christina — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:26:32 -0500

Released by the 25' X 25' Alliance, The Energy Foundation and Harvesting Clean Energy, this report makes clear that community wind must be an integral part of the nation's energy strategy and lays out a set of public policies designed to grow local wind investment and ownership.

Specifically, Community Wind 101 finds:

Wind power economic benefits from local ownership can be multiplied in the range of two to three times or more compared to standard development models.
Community wind can play a pioneering role for all wind power and accelerate wind development by vastly diversifying the range of players who can invest.
Smaller investors cannot fully access federal tax incentives vital to wind development. Broadening the usefulness of these incentives and/or targeting incentives to community wind would significantly expand local investment and ownership opportunities.

You can access the excutive summary here and read the full report here.

Rural Wind Energy Development Revolving Loan Fund

melissa — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:40:49 -0500

The Minnesota Department of Commerce, Office of Energy Security has a Rural Wind Energy Development Revolving Loan Fund. The purpose of the program is to provide financial assistance to owners of eligible community-based wind energy projects for wind studies and transmission interconnection studies. Loan proceeds must be used to fund wind studies and transmission interconnection studies only. Eligible loan applicants must:

Complete an adequate interconnection feasibility study that indicates the wind project may be interconnected to the transmission system with system upgrades of less than ten percent (10%) of the estimated total project costs;
Sign a power purchase agreement with an electric utility or provide evidence that the project is under serious consideration for a power purchase agreement; and
Qualify for status as a community-based energy development (“C-BED”) project under Minn. Stat. §216B.1612 and commit to obtaining and maintaining C-BED status.

The interest rate for loans shall be 1.5 percent per annum. Loans may not exceed $100,000 to any one project or entity. Loans must be repaid upon the earlier of: (i) thirty (30) days after commercial operation of the wind project or (ii) two (2) years after the date the loan was issued.

Loans will be awarded to eligible applicants on a first-come, first-served basis so long as the Minnesota Office of Energy Security (“OES”) determines adequate funds are available. Funds will only be released following the proper execution of all applicable loan agreement documents and satisfaction of other conditions set forth in the program’s policy or otherwise required by the OES.

Loan proceeds will be dispersed within ten (10) days after the applicant submits a payment request demonstrating a payment due to the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (“MISO”).

For additional information on the program, please contact the Southwest Initiative Foundation at windloan@swifoundation.org (preferred method) or via phone at 800-594-9480.

WoWE Minnesota Chapter visit the Grand Meadow Wind Farm

melissa — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:18:48 -0500

On Thursday, September 4, the Women of Wind Energy (WoWE) Minnesota Chapter visited the Grand Meadow Wind Farm located about 27 miles southwest of Rochester. The Grand Meadow Wind Farm will be the first wind farm owned and operated by Xcel Energy in the state of Minnesota. The project consists of 67 1.5 Megawatt GE turbines and will generate enough energy for 33,000 Minnesota homes. The ladies of WoWE were fortunate enough to visit the wind farm during a day of construction, allowing them to watch as a crane slowly assembled the wind turbines. First, carefully placing the nacelle on top of a 80 meter tower, next, with the help of an additional crane the rotor was lifted up into the sky and secured to the nacelle, creating a complete wind turbine. The day was complete with a look inside a wind turbine tower and a photo opportunity along side a 123 foot wind turbine blade.

Windustry at the 2008 Minnesota State Fair

Marin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:48:16 -0500

Thank you to all of our partners and volunteers for making the Wind Energy Center at the Minnesota State Fair a great success! Some highlights from this year:

Trying out different careers in the wind energy industry.
Climbing inside a replica turbine tower section and seeing a video of what it's like to be inside a real wind turbine.
Getting your wind energy questions answered by an expert.
Pickicking up a wind energy bookmark to take home.
Experimenting with blade design and participating in other fun activities in the Renewable Energy Kid's Corral.
Learning about home- and farm-scale wind turbines.

We had over 100 volunteers and more than 350,000 visitors during the twelve days of the fair. Stay tuned for next year's opportunities and in the meanwhile, enjoy some photos!

2008 Partners

We couldn't do it without our partners! Thank you to everyone who helped us bring the Wind Energy Center to hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans in 2008!

Vanguard Partner

Gold Partner

Jeffrey C. Paulson and Associates, Ltd.

Fryberger, Buchanan, Smith and & Frederick PA

HDR, Inc.

RES Americas Inc.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Renewable Energy Business Education Announcement

Windustry — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 08:39:37 -0500

Windustry has a variety of connections to the many organizations that encourage the growth and expansion of community wind energy development. Saint Francis University in Loretto, PA is one such institution. Their announcement of a new educational program which we thought might be of interest to many visitors to our website follows.

Saint Francis University Graduate School of Business, Loretto, Pa. is pleased to announce it will be offering a new course - Wind Energy Business. This pioneering curriculum is the first in a timely series of four courses in a renewable energy business development certificate program. Beginning September 11, 2008, this offering will be presented on-line, with no on-campus requirements and is tailored for professionals interested in this exciting new field.

The on-line series begins with a course entitled "Introduction to Wind I" which will consist of 10 weekly two hour on line live sessions presented by Mr. Dan Ancona (an internationally recognized renewable and wind energy expert). Each session will be archived so that students may view the sessions at any time (24/7) if they are unable to participate in the live session. Also, the programs will be accessible from any location that has internet access.

Academic credit is available to those enrolled in graduate or undergraduate program at Saint Francis University.

For more details (including a biography of Mr. Dan Ancona) regarding this innovative and timely program, please visit the Saint Francis University website at http://www.francis.edu/mbahome.htm

USDA Seeks Input on Climate Change Research, Education and Outreach Priorities

christina — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:30:46 -0500

The United States Department of Agriculture ("USDA") is seeking comments from the public on its proposed strategic goals and planning priorities for climate change research, education and outreach programs.

The USDA announced on August 6, 2008 in the Federal Register that it will be taking public comments on its work analyzing the impacts of climate change on agriculture. (Read the announcement here) The Department will use these comments while creating a Strategic Plan for Climate Change Research, Education and Extension. The goals for the plan are to:

Understand the effects of climate change on natural and managed ecosystems
Develop knowledge and tools to enable adaptation to climate change and improve the resilience of natural and managed ecosystems
Develop knowledge and tools to reduce the contribution agriculture, forestry, and other land management practices to the build of up greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
Deliver climate change science and technology to USDA agencies, stakeholders and collaborators for improved decision making.

Comments are due by September 19, 2008 and will be available by request. The USDA will publish the final version of the Strategic Plan on their website.

Great Lakes Tall Tower Wind Monitoring Project

Windustry — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 08:31:54 -0500

Grant Applications are now being received for the Great Lakes Tall
Tower Wind Monitoring project. The project is funded through the U.S.
Department of Energy.

The program's scope of work requires the State of Wisconsin to use the DOE funds to award a total of two grants for:

Lake Michigan Project: collect and analyze 12 months of tall tower
data from an existing 100 meter tall site within .5 miles of Lake
Michigan

Lake Erie Project: collect and analyze 12 months of tall tower data
from an existing 100 meter tall site within .5 miles of Lake Erie

For more information about the grant application and selection process, please contact Preston Schutt, WI PSC, Preston.Schutte@psc.state.wi.us or 608-266-1462