wind turbines

Believe it or not: world's longest turbine blade


When Dee saw this headline she was so impressed she whipped out a quick BION post, which means I have Thursday off!  Thanks, Dee! 
Siemens, a manufacturer out of Germany, has found a reason to build this incredibly large off-shore wind turbine, and has plans to build a total of 300. This reminds me of something my brothers would have enjoyed working on as kids. The blades on these puppies are incredibly large (75 meters) that’s equivalent to just over 246 feet. 
Hummm, to put this into prospective let’s just say the blades are about the same size of 2 and a half football fields, 1 and a half Olympic size swimming pools or almost three times the height (at its highest point) of the Golden Gate bridge. Now, double that for a whopping 154 meter span but still weights less than more typically produced blades by using lightweight materials during construction. The entire blade is made of a single piece of “glass fiber-reinforced epoxy resin and balsa wood”. Balsa wood? Yes, that’s right, balsa wood.
Not knowing my wood that well, I had to look up what the heck balsa wood was and if it was a renewable resource. Come to find out it is native to southern Brazil and northern to southern Mexico, but is found in other countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Papua New Guinea. The best part is that it is a pioneer plant (or as my dad would have said, it’s a volunteer), plants itself in clearings in forests, wither man made or where trees have fallen, or in abandoned agricultural fields. It grows extremely rapidly which explains the lightness of the wood, lower density even than cork, and about 60 percent of the world’s supply comes from balsa plantations that grow it in densely packed patches and harvested after 6-10 years.
Okay, back on track, besides it being lightweight in relation to its size the construction processes also makes the wind turbine extremely strong. A really great asset to have when they will be hit with the energy of about 200-tons of air per second out in the sea!
According to Siemens the tips of the 75 meter long blades will be able to move at up to 80 meters per second or 2.16 mph. So, my mind starts to wonder, why so big? The answer is actually simple. As the turbine blades get longer the amount of electricity they produce increases very rapidly. Because offshore wind projects are quite expensive it makes sense to build a few big wind turbines than lots of small ones.


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Zotos goes green using wind power, others take notice

Zotos International Inc. is a hair-care products manufacturer.

It's also an expert on green energy. The company ranks No. 18 on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Top 20 on-site green power generation list because it installed two massive wind turbines to provide energy to its 670,000-square-foot Geneva, N.Y. plant.

"This wind project has helped us transform Zotos into one of the fastest-growing and greenest manufacturers in the global beauty industry," Zotos President and CEO Ron Krassin said. "More and more consumers are demanding sustainable products and as a beauty company, we have a moral imperative to meet this demand. All of us want a healthier and more beautiful planet and we're proud to be doing our part."

Earth Day and green jobs

Zotos took the opportunity of Earth Day 2012 to laud its achievements. And why not? The company's efforts vaulted it into the national cleantech spotlight.

Others appear to be following suit. A report by employment search engine Green Job Bank says postings in the green sector more than doubled in the first quarter. The service says it indexed 36,500 green job postings in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of about 127 percent from the same period a year earlier.

"This increase ... is due to the growth of the green economy," says Bernard Ferret, founder and CEO of the Green Job Bank, in a statement. "It is the proof that the market for renewable energy, clean technology and environmental projects is healthy, and growing at a steady pace."

Hiring across the spectrum

Growth comes despite the spate of bad news in the cleantech sector, highlighted by last year's Solyndra bankruptcy. It indicates that demand for services and product remains. Green Job Bank's top hiring companies include First Solar, REC solar, Solar City, SunEdison and Vestas. Also on the list are energy management companies EnerNOC, Locus Technologies and OPower; energy storage maker A123 Systems; EV automaker Tesla Motors; the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; and environmental and energy infrastructure companies AECOM, AMEC, Cardno ENTRIX, ERM and URS Corp.

John Davies from GreenBiz.com focuses on the lighter side of corporate green in a recent post, listing more typical corporate Earth Day activities such as park clean up, electronic recycling and eco exhibitions. He says Microsoft this year even allowed companies to test out electric vehicles, offering a test ride in a Fisker Karma. Nothing overly dramatic. "I wanted to find out whether Earth Day has grown too last century or if it's still meaningful to corporate America," Davies writes.

Green power popularity

Corporations seem to think so. More continue to embrace sustainability.

Performance varies. But the EPA shows in its overall Top 50 list that companies' green power purchases climbed 12 percent to 15 billion kilowatt hours in 2012. No. 2 Kohl's Department Stores increased its power purchases 8 percent to 1.52 billion kWh over 2011, while WalMart boosted its total 231 percent to 872,382,088 kWh to move to No. 3 from No. 12 the previous year.

No. 1 on the Top 50 list for 2012 remains Intel Corp. with an unchanged 2.5 billion kWh of green energy purchases.

Zotos' effort stand out because it installed its own wind turbines, a feat that also earned the company recognition from the American Wind Energy Association for having one of the top on-site wind projects at a U.S. manufacturing company. The turbines, which became fully operational in January 2012, generate about 6.5 million kilowatt hours a year for about 60 percent of Zotos' operational needs. The company plans to purchase the rest of its energy from green sources.

Expect others to follow

On the EPA Top 20 on-site generation list, Zotos' energy generation numbers are overshadowed by the sheer bulk of Kimberly-Clark Corp., the No. 1 company. The Dallas-based consumer products manufacturer of brands like Kleenex, generated 193 million kWh of on-site power. However, Kimberly-Clark's generation accounted for 8 percent of its power.

Can other companies follow the examples set by those on the EPA lists? Anthony Perdigao, Zotos vice president operations and chief sustainability officer, offered this statement: "If we can do it, so can others."

There's definite interest. Megan Connor Murphy, Zotos vice president of public affairs, says the company "has received multiple inquiries from others both regionally and nationally about our wind project and are ready to share our experiences with them."

This clean energy stuff is getting around.

Another post of possible interest:

Green power purchases trend upward

Walmart Announces Big Solar Push in California


The nation's largest retailer is aiming to be the greenest retailer too, announcing Monday that it will install lower-cost thin film solar-generating systems on 20 to 30 sites in California and Arizona.

The announcement is another step toward Walmart's goal of 100% renewable energy. That's an ambitious program, but at $405 billion in annual revenue it has the financial horsepower to be a leader in the industry.

As announced, Walmart newest program calls for thin solar panels, which are less expensive but also less efficient than traditional panels, according to this USA Today story, but should still supply 20% to 30% of the total energy needs for each location, Walmart said in a statement.


That is enough to power about 1,750 houses for a year and will cut more than 11,650 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually, which is the same as removing 3,000 vehicles from roads.


We've written about Walmart's sustainability efforts here, here and here. The company is using a variety of green technology, including wind turbines (in some cases turbines sit atop parking lot lights) and fuel cells.


In Mexico, it buys energy from a local wind far and has installed solar panels on two facilities. In Canada, it is testing geothermal, fuel cells, solar, wind and is the largest corporate purchaser of low-emission power through a local clean-energy provider.
(Photo of wind turbines upon a Sam's Club from ecoseed.org)