Photo Credit: Enercon

German wind turbine manufacturer Enercon has turned it up a notch deploying the E-126 wind turbine prototype. This behemoth checks in at 135m (440 feet) in height at the hub and the blade diameter is an incredible 127m (420 feet). Amazingly, it can still be shipped in pieces by truck. The rated power is 6MWe, like it’s predecessor the E-116 but with the increase in size, the output is expected to top 7MW, enough power to handle around 2,000 average households. The increase in size of these turbines is a good thing overall, it means fewer components to go wrong and fewer installations to yield more power. How long will it be before we see a 10MW turbine?

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Back in December, 2006 we first wrote about SkySails, the company that wants shippers to return to the age of sail. Well, since that time they’ve grown up a bit and now have commercial product. The idea is simple, harness a large ship to a kite/sail with a large area (~600 m²) about 300 m above the surface where the winds are stronger and more consistent. The result? Up to 15% savings on fossil fuel consumption by letting the wind help out.

Watch the SkySail in Action

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A colleague of ours has been exploring Panama recently and brought Rancho de Caldera to our attention. It’s a small resort set in the mountains of Panama with nine cabins and it’s largely energy independent. Despite being close to a volcano, geothermal systems are not part of the harvest system (even for heating/cooling), rather it is solar, wind, and micro hydro harvest backed by a battery bank and supplemented by a generator. The operator estimates that between 4.5 – 5 kW of electricity are generated per hour (1 kW from hydro/wind and the balance from solar.)

Solar Panel Array next to Powerhouse

Photo Credit: Rancho de Caldera

Battery bank in Powerhouse

Photo Credit: Rancho de Caldera

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Have you ever wondered why geothermal goes so incognito when the renewable electricity market is so visible? There could be a number of reasons, but we believe it has to do with accessibility to the public and ease of identifying resources.

Photo Credit The Pennine Way

When a lay-person sees the tree above, they can easily posit that wind contributed to the unique shape of the tree. And, since we know generally how trees grow, it’s easy to deduce that there is strong, consistent wind current present in that area. Thus, when people think about wind as a renewable resource, it’s accessible. There is no magic: wind exists and like a child’s pinwheel, it can cause things to move which is sufficient to make the connection.


Photo Credit The Safari Company

When a lay-person sees the photo above, they can reason that it is dry and that it’s likely that the sun shines there on a routine basis and rain/cloud cover aren’t the norm for the region. The connection between a strong sun presence and the potential for energy is very clear to humans, it’s accessible.


Photo Credit: UNR

Now contrast the image above with the tree and desert. What do you observe about the physical characteristics of this land? Does it look like this might be a place one could harness natural resources to generate renewable electricity? This photo happens to be from Nevada’s Dixie Valley, a known geothermal resource area. There is a functioning 60MW geothermal plant in close proximity. The only surface manifestations of the energy potential are hot springs. It’s much less accessible to a lay-person thinking about hot, fractured rocks with super-critical heated water trapped under a cap rock waiting to escape. Can you visualize it? Unless you’ve been around the industry or have a geology background, the chances are that it’s tough to comprehend.

The journal Live Science took a page from VH1’s “Where are they now?” publishing an article on “Whatever happened to Geothermal?” It’s an interesting article and covers many of the issues. Given that geothermal is the only baseload renewable power source (yes gravity hydro is close, but until droughts are solved, it’s not quite baseload) it seems inevitable that geothermal will be “rediscovered” as an energy source.

4 comments

Mock-up of Kite Generation site


This idea is proof that the renewable sector is overheating. There are good wind harvest ideas, and then there is this. If it even proved practical, anyone want to hazard a guess what the O&M cost would be on this approach? My guess is far more than the unit produces. We love innovation, we love new ideas, but there needs to be some there, there. If you’re interested in new ideas in wind generation, we suggest that aeroelastic flutter harvest is a far superior approach.

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