Tag Archives: wind power

Michael Skelly on Wind Energy: Blowing Over Barriers

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MichaelSkellyWindTransmissionPromoters and detractors of wind power have one point of agreement – both see the transmission lines that carry wind energy as inefficient and very expensive to build. If wind power is going to fulfill its potential as the natural, pristine and infinitely renewable energy source that it could be, this obstacle will have to be overcome.

This week’s guest on Sea Change Radio, Michael Skelly, has a solution that he thinks will move us past the transmission obstacle and into an era of efficient wind power use and transfer. His company, Clean Line Energy Partners, believes it has a better way to transport wind energy, using a new technology based on the old standard direct current electricity: high voltage direct current transmission lines. Listen now as Skelly describes to host Alex Wise how a 19th century technology may be the answer to the 21st century energy question.

Winds of Change: The DeepCwind Consortium

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You probably remember the Cape Wind project. It is America’s first offshore wind farm, located in Nantucket Sound, but coastal residents who considered it an eyesore have been anything but breezy, costing the project dearly in delays and dollars. This week’s guest on Sea Change Radio has a model for offshore wind power that can bypass the objections of the “not-in-my-beachview” crowd.

Host Alex Wise talks with Dr. Habib Dagher who manages the DeepCWind Consortium, a floating wind turbine project which is scheduled to launch off the coast of Maine in the summer of 2013. Unlike the Cape Wind project, this offshore wind project is floating, and it’s far enough away from land that it can’t be seen from the coast. Dr. Dagher talks about the exciting solution that floating turbines could offer, the magnitude of this technology’s capacity for energy capture, and some of the challenges facing the offshore wind industry on the whole.

Red Lights on the Road to Green Innovation

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In the first half of the 21st Century, discussions about the future of energy abound. Engineers are in hot pursuit of new technologies that will provide green, inexpensive energy. But how new are they really?

This week’s guest on Sea Change Radio is Alexis Madrigal, whose new book, Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology, unearths a number of green technologies that emerged in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Despite their promise, these early attempts to use solar water heating, electric cars, and wind power fell flat. This week on Sea Change Radio, find out about these innovations and learn why Alexis Madrigal remains optimistic despite America’s history of false starts.

Winds of Change: Congressman Jerry McNerney & Michael Payne

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This week on Sea Change Radio, Part 2 of our 2-part series on wind power. First, we hear again from US Congressman Jerry McNerney (CA-11), the only member of either House who’s also a wind power engineer. Next, the US is lagging far behind Europe in the move toward renewable energy sources. To find out why, host Alex Wise talks once more to Michael Payne, a veteran wind power executive who’s served as Shell WindEnergy’s General Manager of Europe & Asia as well as a Director at Enron Wind. Payne offers his perspective on the policy and business factors that will help direct the winds of change.Read the show transcript