Video: Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (w/clock)

I recently recorded this short video of a grid-tied vertical-axis wind turbine and accompanied clock at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Although it sounds very windy in the video, I would guess it was gusting to only 12-14 knots. Running time is 50 seconds [please pardon the excited whimpers of my Labrador who knows he's going to play with the tennis ball].

Five of the Best Micro Wind Turbines

I recently published a list of five of the top 'micro' wind turbines at CleanTechnica.com. Despite it's billing as a 'top-five,' this short piece was intended to showcase five very different products, sizes, and applications.It wasn't scientifically rigorous, but it was hardly random. Please use this information with caution: you must not cloud your judgment with images of backward-spinning electric meters and negative utility bills, as the economics will be different for everyone. Interconnection laws vary by country, state, province, municipality, etc. So, before spending ANY money on one of these gizmos, be certain that you have an adequate wind resource, and if you are planning on connecting to the grid, that you understand the interconnection standards that apply.

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Denver council to ease turbine, solar restrictions

Good to see the city of Denver being proactive about potential land use planning conflicts and micro renewable installations. Although the AWEA does not seem terribly excited about the proposal, saying that it is unnecessarily restrictive on wind turbine heights.

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Small Wind Remains in Farm Bill

Renewable energy advocates are clearly disappointed with the recently passed version of the 2007 energy bill. Yes, there is an important increase in auto fuel efficiency, but considering that CAFE hasn't been upped in nearly 30 years, I don't think Congress should be patting themselves on the back too hard for that one. However, a little piece of renewable energy legislation may have sneaked into the farm bill without too many Republicans noticing, and it just might have a chance of getting passed into law.

The version of the farm bill passed by the Senate on Friday contains a small wind tax provision - the first in more than 20 years. The provision is a 30% investment tax credit (up to $4,000) for the installation of small wind systems. The credit is available for farmers, small businesses and homeowners for new wind systems up to 10 kw. This may be another piece of evidence of a farm bill in energy bill's clothing.

The tax-credit has remained a part of the farm bill despite an attempt to scuttle it. Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) and others defeated an amendment sponsored by Lamar Alexander (R-TN) that would have limited the small wind investment tax credit to farmers and small businesses, thus excluding owners of rural residential property and commercial property suitable for small wind from taking advantage of what has traditionally been viewed as a burden. It comes as no surprise to see Sen. Alexander championing the anti-wind cause once again. The Senator from Tennessee has been surprisingly outspoken about wind energy policy in the U.S., even going as far as suggesting that it ruins mountaintops (to say nothing of the practice of 'mountaintop removal' in TN and other coal-heavy states). It is also interesting to note that Alexander owns property on Nantucket Island in MA, not far at all from the proposed Cape Wind project. Coincidence?! I think not.

I suppose I shouldn't be trumpeting this small victory too loudly, President Bush hasn't signed the bill into law yet, so I suppose there is also a chance that the small tax credit will get axed from the bill just like all of the other renewable energy legislation.

An Energy Bill in Farm Bill's Clothing?

If you have ever gone on a whale-watching trip, then you have an idea what it is like to try and follow the elusive politics of energy during this 110th Congress. If I may elaborate; every once in a while you can follow a whale as it swims along the surface just long enough to spout a burst of effluent and pose for a couple photos before it disappears into the darkness. But most of the time is spent waiting, not watching. Waiting and staring in the direction of where you last saw the whale, expecting it to resurface. The whale eventually resurfaces, but it is nowhere near where you were looking, perhaps even on the other side of the boat. You assume, correctly, that while underwater the whale must have been swimming. But it must have done so differently than you expected it to, for it to have ended up where and when it did. Before I beat this metaphor to death, let me just add that while it is hardly uncommon for deal-making and deliberating to occur behind closed doors, one can easily get caught off guard by only looking in one direction waiting for something to resurface.

Reports spinning in the blogosphere have indicated that renewable energy provisions are in danger of being removed from the energy bill by congressional leaders, who are willing to cede the bill’s better provisions in order to get it passed. All this is occurring while numerous energy issues have surfaced and are bubbling around the Senate Farm Bill.

This is where it gets a little tricky. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) wants to migrate two of his favored energy provisions -- the ethanol mandate and $50 billion in nuclear power loan guarantees -- into the more viable farm bill. Big-Ag has been lobbying heavily in support of the restructuring, but opponents fear that transferring the ethanol mandate to the farm bill would weaken bipartisan support for the energy bill and doom it to failure.

But also buried away in the farm bill is the often overlooked small wind tax credit. This year, identical bills were introduced in the Senate by Salazar (D-CO) and Smith (R-OR) and in the House by Blumenauer (D-OR) and Cole (R-OK) that would provide an investment tax credit of $1,500 per ½ kilowatt of capacity for small wind systems. This incentive could make small-scale wind energy generation viable for many, but it would not create the same kind of explosive growth in large-scale wind installations that an RPS or feed-in tariff would.

Late Tuesday, Blog for Rural America reported that the Senate Ag. Committee had agreed upon a list of amendments, and that debate on the farm bill should proceed in the morning. The first thing to be debated in the morning will most likely be the hotly contested Dorgan-Grassley amendment that would close loopholes for corporate farmers and put a 'hard cap' on farm subsidies at $250,000. Roughly half of the suggested $1.15 billion savings would be spent on social programs like emergency food assistance and food stamp enhancements. The rest of the money would be invested in programs for beginning farmer development, rural microenterprise assistance, farmers markets, organic certification cost share, community food grants, grasslands reserve, and farmland protection.

Not willing to give up hope for a more robust renewable energy program, Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO) has said that he will meet with Speaker Pelosi on Wednesday to talk about the future of the wavering energy bill. Co-chair of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus, Udall is also meeting with senators to share his experiences with Colorado's successful Renewable Electricity Standard. Udall is positioning himself to run for the senate seat being vacated by Republican Wayne Allard, so he will do whatever he can to keep renewable energy targets in the energy bill – he could certainly use a legislative victory to earn some political capital to spend in the upcoming campaign.

Small Wind on the Cape: A Joke or a Stroke of Political Brilliance?

[Here's some more juicy Cape Wind fodder]

Is Christy Mihos joking or is he using some some of that well placed "strategery." Mihos owns two properties on Great Island in West Yarmouth, supposedly within sight of the proposed Cape Wind location. And now the former gubernatorial candidate of Massachusetts, and present co-chair of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound has suggested an alternative to the original Cape Wind plan. Mihos has volunteered the sites of his convenience stores as spots for wind turbines. Here's the details from the AP: "The turbines proposed for Mihos’ Hyannis store will rise 31 feet above the pavement, according to plans filed with the town. Each turbine would generate about 2,600 kilowatts per year."

Wendy Williams, co-author of the unambiguously one-sided book, Cape Wind, believes Mihos is setting up an elaborate practical joke. She writes in an e-mail: "Let's do the math. One of Cape Wind's 3.6-megawatt turbines in Nantucket Sound would be equal to how many of Christy Mihos' 1.5-kilowatt toys? About 2,400. So to replace the [Cape Wind] project, Mihos would have to put up about 312,000 of his little jokes all around the Cape."

However, I'm not so sure that Ms. Williams gets it. Quite often, political strategy is considered "political theater," and this is a perfect example By showing that he is willing to erect small wind on-site at his many stores, he is publicly displaying that he is not opposed to (the concept) ofwind energy as a potential power source. Said Mihos: "I think wind power is a wonderful idea."

Whether or not I agree with Mr Mihos' politics, I think it is a rather brilliant move on his part.

Stay tuned for more on small wind v. big wind...