What is a wind turbine and how it works

Article, posted on US DOE web portal, describes technical principles and types of wind turbines, variety of their applications and future of wind turbine technology.
Since the turn of the century, total U.S. wind power capacity has increased more than 24-fold. Currently, there’s enough wind power capacity in the U.S. to generate enough electricity to power more than 15 million homes.

IRENA forecasts further solar and wind power cost downfall

In its recent report The Power to Change: Solar and Wind Cost Reduction Potential to 2025, International Renewable Energy Agency finds that by 2025 – with the right regulatory and policy frameworks in place – average electricity costs could decrease 59% for solar photovoltaics (PV), 35% for offshore wind, 26% for onshore wind, and up to 43% for concentrated solar power compared to 2015.  

2015 was a record global growth year for both wind and solar power

According to Bloomberg, renewable energy has attracted in 2015 twice as much global investment as fossil fuels. As a result, renewable generation capacity increased by 152 gigawatts (GW) or 8.3% during 2015. Wind power grew 63 GW (17%) driven by declines in onshore turbine prices of up to 45% since 2010. Solar capacity increased 47 GW (26%) thanks to price drops of up to 80% for solar photovoltaic modules in the same time period.

Huge success story of Uruguay's wind power

Uruguay went from having virtually no wind power generation in 2007 to installing 581 MW of wind capacity by mid-2015, providing an average 17 percent of total electricity generation over the year. Country also became a double world-record holder - by 2013, it was receiving the largest share of clean energy investment as a percentage of GDP, and, in 2014, it installed the most wind per capita of any country.

42% electricity generated from wind - new world record set by Denmark

Source: http://www.energymarketprice.com/

Danish state electricity provider Energinet confirmed that in 1,460 of 8,760 hours during the year, windmill production actually exceeded the domestic power needs of the country. The Danish parliament established a goal to achieve at least half of its electric power from wind by 2020. 

Over 50,000 wind turbines run now in U.S.

Since 2008, wind power in the U.S. has grown from 16.7 gigawatts to about 70 gigawatts today. Now about 4.5 percent of U.S. electricity comes from wind turbines - enough renewable energy to power 19 million homes.

Five technologies signaling about energy revolution happening now

The 2015 Revolution…Now report, recently released by the U.S. Department of Energy, shows a dramatic increase in deployment and a decrease in cost of  transformational technologies: wind turbines, solar technologies, electric vehicles (EVs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). 
Between 2008 and 2014, land-based wind turbines accounted for 31 percent of all new generation capacity installed in the U.S., while their cost was reduced by about 40%. 

Google invests in Africa’s biggest wind power project

The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project in Kenya is expected to generate 1,400 gigawatt-hours of power per year, or 15 percent of the country’s electricity consumption. New project will include 365 wind turbines spread along the shore of Lake Turkana.

Renewable energy poised to overtake nuclear in the UK

The contribution of renewables towards keeping the lights on more than doubled from 6.8 per cent in 2010 to 14.9 per cent in 2013, according to the Office of National Statistics. Nuclear power, at 19 per cent, is in slow decline – no new power stations have been built since 1995, when it contributed more than 25 per cent of the UK's electricity. Onshore wind turbines delivered a third of the country's renewable electricity in 2013, with offshore wind rising fast and accounting for 21 per cent. A plan approved last week for the world's largest offshore wind farm – 400 turbines covering more than 1100 square kilometres of the shallow waters of the Dogger Bank in the North Sea – would add almost two-thirds to existing offshore generating capacity of 4000 megawatts. Read more at http://www.newscientist.com

Renewable Energy Review: Brazil

Bottlenecks will need to be addressed to accommodate the 22.4 GW of wind capacity expected to be online by 2023, from just 3.5 GW today. Read more at www.renewableenergyworld.com

World’s Largest Offshore Wind Energy Area

Nearly two years ago, Deepwater Wind won two leases in a federal auction for rights to develop wind power off the coastlines of Rhode Island and Massachusetts in a 165,000 square acre (257 square-mile, 665 sq. km) area of water. The company paid nearly $3.9 million, one area in the “north section” and the other in the “south section.” The plan at the time was to build 100 turbines that would produce 1,000 MW of power. Read more >>>
linkedin.com/pulse/

Germany’s Carbon Emissions Fall as Renewable Energy Takes the Lead

Renewable energy resources, including wind, hydro, solar and biomass, accounted for 27.3 percent of German electricity generation in 2014, according to Agora’s The Energiewende in the Power Sector: State of Affairs 2014 . Significantly, greenhouse gas emissions and electric power consumption both declined, and wholesale power prices fell to a record-low while Germany’s economy expanded 1.4 percent. Read more >>>
TriplePundit

5 Top Clean Energy Stories of 2014

The steady march of renewable energy, primarily wind and solar, toward mainstream usage continued apace in 2014. Read more >>>
alternet.org

The Eight Best Things To Happen To Renewable Energy In 2014

Here are eight news stories from 2014 about amazing technological advancements around the world to remind you that, at least for the renewable energy sector, this past year wasn’t so bad. Read more >>>
thinkprogress.org

Solar and wind power start to succesfully compete with traditional sources even without subsidies

The cost of providing electricity from wind and solar power plants has plummeted over the last five years, so much so that in some markets renewable generation is now cheaper than coal or natural gas. According to a study by the investment banking firm Lazard, the cost of utility-scale solar energy is as low as 5.6 cents a kilowatt-hour, and wind is as low as 1.4 cents.