Wind Energy News

Wind farms pose less of a threat to farmland birds than previously feared, new research has found. The study helps resolve a potentially major environmental conflict: how to meet renewable energy targets at the same time as reversing dramatic declines in biodiversity on European farmland.

Engineers and scientists have achieved a breakthrough in the use of a one-atom thick structure called "graphene" as a new carbon-based material for storing electrical charge in ultracapacitor devices, perhaps paving the way for the massive installation of renewable energies such as wind and solar power.

A young researcher has put forward two protection techniques so that wind generators continue to be operative despite breaks in electricity supply.

The solely wind-driven Ventomobile constructed by a team of students in aerospace engineering came in first at the Aeolus Race in the Dutch town of Den Helder last Friday. Racing the extremely stylish and lightweight three-wheeler, the vehicles of five European universities and research centres had difficulties to catch up.

Power-generating wind turbines have long been recognized as a potentially life-threatening hazard for birds. But at most wind facilities, bats actually die in much greater numbers. Now, researchers think they know why.

This week, inaugural tests at The University of Western Ontario's 'Three Little Pigs' project at the Insurance Research Lab for Better Homes will get underway. This facility is the first of its kind in the world to subject full-scale houses to pressures that simulate the effects of winds as strong as a category 5 hurricane -- or 200 mph -- all within a controlled environment.

Engineers using the University of Southampton's R J Mitchell wind tunnel have helped the British Cycling team win Gold in Beijing.

Swimmers from around the world are setting world and Olympic records in Beijing this month and most are doing it wearing a swimsuit made of fabric tested at NASA. Among the Olympic gold medalists wearing Speedo's LZR Racer are Americans Michael Phelps -- who has now won more Olympic gold medals than any athlete in the modern era -- and Natalie Coughlin. Both had a hand in developing the skintight body suit.

If wind turbines clatter and whistle too loudly, they are only permitted to operate under partial load to protect the local residents -- but this also means a lower electricity output. An active damping system cancels out the noise by producing counter-vibrations.

Students have constructed a vehicle that is solely powered by wind energy, the Ventomobile. It took them many months of intense construction work to reach this goal. First wind tunnel testing produced very promising results. The extremely stylish three-wheeler features a two-bladed rotor on top, with a diameter of two meters. The efficiency of this setup proved to be extremely good.