turbines

Readers of the daily email newsletter of one of the country’s leading right-wing, fossil fuel-funded think tanks were treated to a bizarre sight this week: an AI-generated image of a dead whale washed ashore on a beach in front of wind turbines, above a fearmongering story about offshore wind. Unfortunately, what is isolated to one newsletter today could spread around the right-wing ecosystem tomorrow.I cover climate and read breaking news about renewable energy every day; if there were a real photo of a dead whale in…

BRUSSELS—The European Union, fresh from targeting U.S. and Chinese green-tech subsidies, Thursday set out steps to make its industries more globally competitive in emerging environmental sectors.The European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, published a raft of proposals aimed at growing Europe’s share of the global clean-tech market. The plans include measures to speed up permitting and boost workers’ skills and to help clean-tech companies secure the raw materials needed to build wind turbines, solar panels,…

Wind turbine rotor firm Gulf Wind Technology and Shell New Energies US will together develop hurricane-proof wind turbines unique to the Gulf of Mexico.. Shell has committed $10 million to create the Shell Gulf Wind Technology Accelerator program with Louisiana-based Gulf Wind Technology, which specializes in developing hurricane-proof wind turbine technology. The accelerator program aims to develop, test, and deploy a Gulf of Mexico-specific demonstrator turbine as early as 2024. In…

WELLSVILLE, N.Y.—This former oil town almost 300 miles from the coast is emerging as one of the early winners in the push to develop offshore wind in the Atlantic Ocean.The hulking steel components of wind turbines slated to rise out of the ocean east of Long Island are being welded at the Ljungström factory, which for 100 years has sold parts to coal-fired power plants. Plant managers here said their pivot to wind has meant hiring 150 more people and could reopen a facility that has been dormant for several years.…

Swedish power giant Vattenfall did a two-year, €3 million study of seabirds at an offshore wind farm off Scotland – here’s what it found. The aim of the 115-page study, which took place at Vattenfall’s 11-turbine Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm, aka the European Offshore Wind Deployment Center, was: …to improve our understanding of seabird flight behavior inside an offshore wind farm. This should be achieved through collection of as detailed seabird flight data as possible rather than through…

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Thursday, Jan. 12. I’m Ryan Fonseca. The Pacific Ocean contains a potential windfall of clean, renewable energy. Last month, the federal government took a major step to harness that power.The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management auctioned off five lease areas covering more than 373,000 acres in Central and Northern California. The Northern California area includes two parcels off Eureka in Humboldt County and three in the waters west of Morro Bay in San…

Robots minimize downtime on wind turbines by cleaning and inspecting without the help of human workforce Wind turbine towers can create clean electricity but they frequently leak oil, damaging the blades, increasing wind resistance, and can even pollute the ground. The remote-controlled robots can minimize downtime on the wind turbines by cleaning and inspecting them without the intervention of human workforce. Wind turbine inspection entails inspecting the key components that allow a turbine to function and produce…

Aerones uses robots to repair, inspect, clean, and ice-proof wind turbines, and the Latvia-based startup just raised $38.9 million in funding. TechCrunch reported that the funding was raised this month “from dozens of undisclosed investors.” And according to its SEC filing, it looks as though Aerones is hoping to bring in another $2.5 million. The Riga-headquartered Aerones, which was founded in 2015 and backed by US startup accelerator Y Combinator, has a US office in San Jose, California.…

Aerones, a robotics startup that scrubs and inspects wind turbines so humans don’t have to, secured $38.9 million in fresh funding this month from dozens of undisclosed investors, TechCrunch has learned. Wind turbines produce clean energy, but their towers tend to leak oil, which can corrode blades, increase wind resistance and pollute the ground below. Aerones’ remote-operated robots clean towers and blades by blasting them with a liquid detergent, while funnels beneath the blades collect the…

All three blades for the prototype of the Vestas V236-15.0 MW offshore wind turbine have arrived at their final destination, and they’ll now be installed and spinning soon. The 379-foot (115.5-meter) blades were manufactured at Vestas’ blade factory in Nakskov, Denmark. They were transported to Denmark’s national Østerild Test Center on the northwestern coast, where they’ll be installed. The V236-15.0 MW offshore wind turbine’s blades will be serially produced in Nakskov from the second half…