The new Vestas U.S. headquarters is being designed and built with LEED Platinum status by Gerding Edlen,who is a local developer of LEED-certified properties around the United States.

Vestas will work to completely restore and re-model the old warehouse, which is a historic property, into a 172,000 square foot office that includes a 22,000 square-foot addition on the fifth floor complete with an eco roof terrace and gardens.

Also jumping on the wind train is the Department of Veterans Affairs, who are planning on placing wind turbines on or near its hospitals in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

The organization’s director, David Osterberg said of the trend, “In the last two years, Iowa added 2,500 megawatts of wind turbine capacity, and now has wind capacity nearly six times the size of Iowa’s lone nuclear plant.” Electricity prices in Iowa are also below the national average even though they have been investing in renewable technology, says the press release. Approximately 5% of Iowa’s electricity was generated by wind power in 2006.

The contract includes delivery and commissioning as well as a five-year service and maintenance agreement. Delivery of the wind turbines is slated for late 2010. The first 50 turbines will be commissioned by the end of 2010 and the remaining ones will be available in the first half of 2011.

The energy from the NextEra Energy Resources wind farm will be sufficient to power “several data centers,” Google wrote on its blog.
In 2007, Google announced its intention to become carbon neutral by the end of the year.

The deal is the first for Google Energy, a subsidiary of the company that received federal approval to trade energy on the open market.

“To be continually dependent on imported oil or energy is a dead end for Hawaii and we can be a model for the world,” said Governor Linda Lingle at the groundbreaking ceremony.

“The goal is to be generating power in the early part of 2011,” said Paul Gaynor, First Wind CEO. “We’ll probably have some test power in November/December and then commercially operating in January/February of 2011.”

First Wind says the turbine farm project will cut Hawaii’s oil consumption by almost 140,000 barrels a year.

“Ninety percent of the land in Egypt is empty and is suitable for setting up wind turbines,” Abou El-Ella said. “With solar power, plant costs are very high, and with hydraulic power reaching its maximum capacity, wind farms remain the best option for renewable energy in Egypt.”

Chu, who has never been shy about touting the importance wind power has for the national energy program, visited the University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center where they are working on new designs for floating deep-water wind turbine platforms.

Officials are working on getting an offshore wind farm operational off the coast of Maine within six years.

Chu described the Gulf Spill as “a tragedy” which spoke to the importance of incorporating wind power into the national energy strategy.

“It’s another reminder to step back and say, ‘We do need a comprehensive energy strategy in the United States for the coming decades,’” Chu said.

The Department of Energy has invested more than $25 million in The University of Main’s wind power research while Maine voters approved a bond that will see an addition $11 million assist a university-backed group develop a wind power test site for 2012 off the coast of Maine.

The group, monikered “Say No To Fallago” held the protest in the Lammermuir Hills, which is an area in the country that the group says will be ruined by the 48 turbines proposed by North British Windpower.

“If it is approved, the Scottish government will be declaring open war on Scotland’s countryside — no landscape will be safe from industrialization by these high rise wind machines,” Fallago spokesman Mark Rowley told The Daily Telegraph.

This wind turbine also can be used in combination with photovoltaic elements in solar power production. The rugged design of the AC 1002 wind turbine makes it ideal for use in inland as well as coastal locations. This wind turbine incorporates fewer numbers of moving parts to allow easy maintenance and servicing.

The cut in speed of the wind turbine is 3 m/s, and the wind turbine produces a nominal power output at 9 m/s wind speed and 600 rpm. This wind turbine can withstand wind speeds up to 40 m/s and utilizes eclipse control method for protection against high velocity winds.