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.

“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.

According to a report filed with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas last week, Texas has 10,367 megawatts of renewable energy capacity, and generated 21,594,278 megawatt-hours of clean electricity in 2009.

99% of those megawatts come from wind power. West Texas has some of the country’s best wind resources, and has seen a burst of wind power development since ERCOT’s renewable energy program was signed into law by then-Governor George W. Bush in 1999.

Although delays to motorists were minimal, residents still remember last year when a report warned that “significant disruption” could be caused by taking turbines by road.

However, Tuesday’s trial to a remote area three miles south of the village of Dolfor, near Newtown, passed without incident. A further test run to mid Wales is planned next month from Ellesmere Port docks in north west England, when a truck and its police escort will navigate roads down from north Wales.

The wind farms currently generate 169.5 megawatts of power; that’s enough juice to power more than 55,000 homes, according to Google.

In February of this year, Google was granted an order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to buy and sell energy at market rates, mostly to make energy management for its data centers more efficient, but also in case Google Energy ever decided to become a power utility company as well (likely.) Investors take note.

Highlights of the survey include the fact that 89% of respondents believe increasing the amount of energy the nation gets from wind is a good idea, while 67% believe Congress is not doing enough to increase renewable energy sources such as wind.

AWEA CEO Denise Bode said, “Wind works for America and that is why voters want Congress to pass a strong national RES.  Americans understand that an RES will mean new manufacturing jobs, less dependence on imported energy, and more pure, clean, affordable energy for our country.” 

This comes shortly after a recent report showed 160% global growth in the wind industry for the next five years.

The protestors opposition to the bubilding of the wind turbines was based on the belief that they would cause possible negative health effects on locals claiming that the noise and vibrations from the wind turbines were associated with various health problems, including headaches and increased inattentiveness.

“I understand people may not like the looks of them. I understand that,” Environment Minister John Gerretsen said at the Queen’s Park protest. “If you live next to the 400 series of highways in Ontario, you will be subjected to a lot more noise than you ever will be from wind turbines.”

The Ontario government is looking to wind power to compensate for old coal-fired plants which are set to be decommissioned by 2014.

They intend to speed up the increased use of wind power through new laws that allow generators to essentially bypass municipal control.