The WELL: inkwell.vue.105: Peter Asmus - Reaping the Wind, and special guest Randy Tinkerman

#317: David Gans (tnf) Sat 23 Feb 02 19:24

Sat, 23 Feb 2002 19:24:00 PST

Borrowed from elsewhere in the WELL:

california heroes: " .... But SMUD has done much more than encourage the introduction of electric-drive vehicles. The public utility is also a pacesetter in the installation of solar-electric and wind power technologies. It currently operates or is planning to install some 18MW of photovoltaic panels and 50MW of wind energy. It also has over 680 MW of hydroelectric capacity in the Sierra Nevada mountains to the east of the city. At present, 30% of the districts electric energy is generated from renewable sources. You can listen to DiStacios presentation in its entirety by clicking on the audio link at the top of the right-hand column. .... " http://evworld.com/databases/storybuilder.cfm?storyid=310 [Read entire topic]

#316: Peter H. Asmus (spacedebris) Thu 10 Jan 02 21:57

Thu, 10 Jan 2002 21:57:00 PST

Randy -- I want all of the details...heh.... [Read entire topic]

#315: Alpha 10 (rmt) Thu 3 Jan 02 05:10

Thu, 03 Jan 2002 05:10:00 PST

Though i'm still in Deutschland, i haven't moved yet. Still sorting out the opportunities for Protium in Europe, but the response from the Offshore Windpower conference in Brussels was more than encouraging. In fact, i was quite surprised to discover that i'm still considered something of a pioneer in Europe, and the level of respect given me was due in no small part to Peter's book. i still feel marginalized in the US, probably because i've spoken out on some important or controversial issues which the utility owned wind companies and manufacturers don't want to see addressed. But Europe for me was quite the opposite.

The plan is to spend a few more weeks sorting out the current state of the industry, visiting friends, and evaluating a move.

As for married life, you'll have to wait for email, Peter. heh. [Read entire topic]

#314: Peter H. Asmus (spacedebris) Wed 26 Dec 01 11:22

Wed, 26 Dec 2001 11:22:00 PST

hey Randy --

So good to hear from you. Shoot, if I would have known you would move to Germany, I would have been there to see you off! Oh well, I'm planning a trip to Europe in 2002 and hope to hook up!

I can hardly speak German anymore, but am considering checking out the wind power conference scheduled for 2002. The contrast between California, a state that was once the world leader, and Germany, the currend leader, is so depressing. I keep looking for a silver lining. I'm still hoping the terrorist threat can be used to build more support for renewables, particularly distributed solar, wind and feul cells.

Well, Happy New Year! Randy, how is married life? Will you ever come back to the states? [Read entire topic]

#313: Alpha 10 (rmt) Thu 20 Dec 01 15:56

Thu, 20 Dec 2001 15:56:00 PST

Here's some amazing photos of the action:

<http://www.greenpeace.org/~climate/climatecountdown/photos.htm>

<http://www.greenpeace.nl/ams/keGreenblades.shtml>

<http://www.greenpeace.nl/ams/kefotosGreenblades.shtml>

<http://www.greenpeace.nl/ams/kewindmolenverwijderd.shtml>

<http://www.greenpeace.nl/ams/windmolenverwijfoto.shtml> [Read entire topic]

#312: Gail Williams (gail) Thu 20 Dec 01 10:43

Thu, 20 Dec 2001 10:43:00 PST

That's certainly a creative Greenpeace action. [Read entire topic]

#311: Alpha 10 (rmt) Thu 20 Dec 01 05:53

Thu, 20 Dec 2001 05:53:00 PST

Some interesting nuggets...

Shell have installed two 2MW turbines in the Irish Sea, and advertise them on european television.

Greenpeace NL staged an action last summer, sinking a monopile into the depths of the North Sea right where construction was to start on a new offshore gas platform. Installed on the monopile foundation was a small wind turbine powering a computer which sent out pro-wind emails to all the Dutch politicians. (A court order forced Greenpeace to remove the turbine shortly thereafter.) [Read entire topic]

#310: Alpha 10 (rmt) Thu 20 Dec 01 05:47

Thu, 20 Dec 2001 05:47:00 PST

Interestingly, Enron Wind bought German manufacturer Tacke a few years back, stopped making their own turbine, and now markets the European design everywhere. At the Offshore Windpower conference in Brussels last week, i saw a mock-up of the new Enron (Tacke) 3.2 MW turbine designed specifically for the North Sea shallow water sites.

I'm posting this from my new home in Deutschland, a land about the size of texas, but now with more than twice the installed windpower capacity as america, 7000 MW. Europe is much more land constrained than america, so the windpower industry is moving to the shallow North, Irish and Baltic Seas.

The Danish Energy Agency and the IEA CADDET Renewble Energy Program, ETSU, Harwell UK estimate the total European resource in water depths of less than 40 meters and with a dis;tance to the coast of less than 30 km (excluding Norway, Finland and Sweden) and accounting for major but not local constraints, to be 3000 TWh/yr. This is greater than total European electricity consumption of some 2700 TWh/yr. Greenpeace, also included in the official European Commission (EU) report, estimates the potential from the North Sea areas of Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, the UK, and Germany as a maximum of 1900 TWh/yr, almost twice the annual consumption of those five countries.

Additionally, European companies have a huge lead in establishing many of the technologies which will give birth to a near term hydrogen future.

xxxxx

Peter, in reference to your comments about the California business climeate for renewables, i experienced the same last year. Executives from FPL, a utility subsidiary (whose parent led the charge against solar power for twenty years... in Florida of all places) constantly told me they couldn't do business in California, and put their approx. 100 MW repowering of the Altamont Pass (1st phase)on hold. They even sent the turbines earmarked for Altamont to Kansas, where Dorothy disappeared.

Only last month did i learn that FPL has a 1500 MW gas plant in the pipeline... to feed into Altamont's Tesla substation, the largest in the West! So much for the benefits to utility ownership of windpower. [Read entire topic]

#309: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Thu 20 Dec 01 04:23

Thu, 20 Dec 2001 04:23:00 PST

http://www.viridiandesign.org/notes/251-300/00285_enron_wind.html [Read entire topic]

#308: David Gans (tnf) Wed 19 Dec 01 12:05

Wed, 19 Dec 2001 12:05:00 PST

>the US, which jumpstarted an industry that is now the fastest growing power >source inthe world, will have no US-based wind turbine manufacturers!

What a travesty. [Read entire topic]