The competition in the area of renewable energy has been growing amongst countries and Germany has just recently unveiled the worlds toughest wind turbines. They have spent 10 years developing them and have made them water proof, light and have a very simple design (the simpler the design the easier it is to maintain).

Manually inspecting wind turbines can take quiet some time and can also be dangerous for the person doing the job. Well in light of the the developers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation are in the process of developing a new Robot that will inspect all of the wind turbines and will actually do it better then humans.

In a recent study done by the British it claims that many home turbines often only generate a very small percentage of what manufacturers promise. Also it was said that some actually use more energy then they produce simply because conditions for wind turbine use have to be ideal. The study was funded by the British Wind Energy Association and they looked at 10 suburban, 12 urban and four rural sites over the course of a year.

With China just revealing their new plans to build the biggest Solar Farm to date Iowa steps up into the Wind Farm industry. A very windy state that Iowa is they decided to go with a huge wind farm rather then a solar farm. They made plans to invest one billion dollars into their farm and will feature 335 wind generators which in turn will generate 500MW of energy. Each generator will be able to power anywhere from 500 to 1,000 homes. The project has yet to be finalized but construction is set to begin in about 3-5 years.

We tend to see solar panels as well as wind turbines used in a major scale. Well now time to look at the use in a smaller scale. A New York City apartment located at Logan Airport in Boston has just added 10 small scale wind turbines to the apartments roof top. By addind these turbines they have cut their electricity cost in half. Residents in the apartments will have to sign up for ConEd electric service and they have the option of going completely carbon neutral by paying a couple extra cents per KWH.

The year is over and another has begun but with all the renewable energy commotion in 2008 who came out up top? Well while the US seemed to be slacking in the wind industry it actually turns out that they finished at the top of the list for 2008. Since the revelation of wind energy the US has topped out at an amazing 21,000 MW of capacity. To put that in perspective that is enough to power over 5.4 million homes.

Canada has been working on the Melancthon EcoPower Centre for some time and I am happy to say that the largest wind farm in Canada is currently open. This farm is located around Helburne Ontario and has a capacity of 199.5 MW. This farm consists of 122 turbines which can generate an annual output of 545 GWh which is enough to power over 70,000 homes.

I bet you can’t say the title three times fast. Here is something that never crossed my mind that could be done with Solar Energy and that is to put them on tankers. At the end of last month Australian Sailor Company had announced that they would make a deal with China’s biggest shipping lane which is COSCO. What they are planning on doing here is placing huge solar powered sails to power and push the tanker.

T. Boone Pickens was set to build the largest wind farm in the world. He commenced building but due to the credit crisis he is having trouble financing his massive 4,000 MW wind farm. This wind farm is located in Texas and has an estimated cost anywhere from $10-$12 billion. Also because the gas is at an extreme low and seems that it will keep decreasing Americans are less likely to go for natural gas for transportation.

The Utility company Southern California Edison (SCE) has just confirmed that they have plans to build a huge 909 MW wind farm in Oregon which when finished being built will be the largest fully permitted wind power farm in the world. The farm will be located in Morrow and Gilliam counties and will consist of 303 3 MW wind turbines which will be spread across a 30 mile radius. This will generate about 10 percent of SCE’s total alternative energy portfolio.