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Aeronautica Windpower will manufacture 225 and 750 kW turbines in Massachucetts.

To celebrate the inaugural American-made commercial wind turbines coming off the production floor this year, Aeronautica Windpower, Plymouth, Mass.,has decided to buck the trend of plain white towers and show off the stars and stripes instead. “The symbolism goes deeper than a paint job,” says Aeronautica’s VP of Sales and Marketing Shaun Lockett. “Most people don’t know it, but other than some smaller machines, many wind turbines going up around the U.S. are made overseas. So instead of sending our petro-dollars overseas, we end up sending them our cash, tax credits, and our jobs. We want to reverse that trend and build high-quality turbines in America.” The company will initiate product of 225 and 750-kW models.

The company says that over an expected lifetime of 25+ years, each of the 750-kW turbines will save the amount of foreign oil equivalent to that contained in a line of trucks over a mile long. The “Made in America” approach will also mean replacement parts will be readily available from Aeronautica’s New Hampshire based plant, eliminating the cost and long lead time of ordering parts from outside the US.

Can the U.S. really compete with lower priced labor and component prices from Asia, which is where most turbine manufacturing now takes place? “What we pay in increased labor costs is easily recovered through savings of not transporting these large blades and towers over the ocean,” says Aeronautica’s VP of Operations Tim Stearns. “Shipping can add over 12% to a turbine’s cost. As far as component costs, quality components will always cost more, but in the long run, it’s value we are looking for. The quality components we use last longer, giving customers a better value,” says Stearns.

Many of the company’s machines will find homes in community-wind projects – those in which a community benefits from the renewable energy and the turbine is a source of pride. Aeronautica’s “mid-scale” commercial and industrial turbines are large enough to produce power economically, yet small enough to station directly on the sites of many factories, school campuses, shopping centers, and other properties that could generate their own power with the right winds. “These sites don’t need the strongest winds like a large wind farm does, because they are displacing power at the highest retail prices,” says Brian Kuhn, VP of product development and a Founder of Aeronautica.

“In a country that basically invented the wind farm in California in the 1980s, it is ironic that turbine manufacturing is just now reopening in the U.S.,” Kuhn says. “For the past 20 years, most manufacturers did not want to locate a plant in the US or concentrate on the US market because wind economics were uncertain and hampered by up-and-down tax incentives. Interest in wind energy is now surging as fossil fuel prices continue to rise, environmental concerns deepen, and states continue to improve regulations such as net metering and feed-in tariffs that help renewable energy,” he adds.

In 2009, during one of the worst recessions in recent history, over 10,000 MW of wind power were installed in the US. This represented over 32% of the total new generation facilities built in the nation, according to the American Wind Energy Association – the equivalent of more than 15 nuclear reactors.

The company will offer its two models through local dealers and installers. “There is strong interest in wind power from the commercial and industrial sectors,” reports Aeronautica President Walt Wunder. “People have seen wind power working in the large wind farms, and now they want to know what it can do for them locally.”

Aeronautica Windpower

aeronauticawindpower.com

Spain’s renewable energy economy is flourishing, with some regions generating as much as 82% of their power from renewable resources. Barlovento Recursos Naturales, a Spain-based international wind consultancy, has helped the country step forward in wind energy especially, using Second Wind’s remote sensing systems to assess sites in Spain and Romania. The company's sonic sensing of wind (or sodar) measures wind speed and direction at different levels up to 200 m and more.

Barlovento uses Second Wind's Triton Sonic Wind Profiler sodar system.

“Remote sensing gives us a much broader and deeper data set than we could collect with tower-mounted sensors alone,” Barlovento founder Rafael Zubiaur says. “Its accuracy provides a detailed profile of wind flow so we can forecast a site’s productivity and how factors like shear and veer may affect wind turbine performance.”

Second Wind
www.secondwind.com

France to float offshore wind tenders worth €10b

This week’s WindEnergyUpdate news brief includes: Offshore wind in France; Vestas; REpower; Scottish Renewables; National Grid and Statnett; Finavera Renewables and Scottish Southern and Energy Renewables; and Xiangtan Electric Manufacturing Corporation (XEMC) Group and Darwind BV.

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The state of California is on its way to requiring utilities to store a portion of the renewable energy they generate for off-peak usage.

Researchers in Denmark have succeeded in storing wind energy in giant synthetic bags, reports the Danish trade newspaper Ingeniøren.

Dr. Jayson Canson is an opthalmologist and plastic surgeon who loves farming. Despite his buys schedule practicing his medical profession, he is undertaking his own farming projects in a portion of St. Martha Farms in Teresa, Rizal, where his parents run a 70,000 head poultry contract breeding operation and a Pangasius hatchery. Piggery is a pet [...]

One of the great aspects of technology is the ability to make vast improvements in design and efficiency on items that have been around for many years.  In recent years the improvements in design and efficiency for residential wind turbines has been vast, bringing with it hopes and dreams for future generations.

A Colorado company is introducing a system that will allow wind turbines to generate power even when the wind is not blowing. The SmartGen hybrid gas-wind turbine enables wind turbines to produce energy at periods of low wind, by turning the turbine with compressed air generated at the base of the tower from a turbo-compressor that is run on natural gas or biogas.

Even more importantly, the SmartGen system can be retrofitted into existing wind turbines, allowing existing facilities to increase their performance. This is likely to be particularly compelling for installations seeking to extend their production while remaining free of fossil fuels. In areas where biogas production is also available nearby, a wind power facility that is generating renewable energy credits could likely also produce power from biogas in this manner as another form of renewable power and thereby remain 100% renewable energy based.

A smart clutch disengages the wind blades from the machinery when the compressor is engaged. The company also notes that the exhausted air from the air motor cools dramatically when it is released, which can help provide cooling for the generator nacelle and may even help prevent fires in the housing.

One of the brilliant parts about this idea is that it can be retro fitted to existing wind turbines.  That means wind turbines just like the DIY Wind Turbine that i built and shared the amazing wind turbine plans with you last year can benefit from these fantastic design improvements. One of our readers, Mike Doolan also did a reader review of this wind turbine that he built and is keen to make further improvements like this. I am already living 100% “off the grid” with my residential wind turbine however because my wind turbine feeds the excess power back onto the grid i am able to benefit more than before.  Why do i benefit? Because i sell the excess power generated from my home made wind turbine back to the utility company and get a credit check in the mail each month….with this improvement i will be able to generate more energy and make more clean, green energy and get paid for it!

A new coconut variety that can yield as many as 150 nuts per tree in one year was showcased at the recent coconut festival and trade fair held at the SM Megamall recently. This is the Orgullo Tall, a synthetic San Ramon variety that was developed by the breeding and genetics division headed by Ramon [...]

I have just now posted an entry in the SOCAP10 Impact Challenge, sponsored by the Social Capital Markets Conference. I'm here to ask for your vote to make such people take note of our work, and the work of a multitude of others around the world.

What, they want to know is the Next Big Thing in Social Capital that will unlock the projected $120 billion business opportunity in helping the poor. Naturally, I pushed the global OLPC program, to educate a billion children and lift all of the world's poor out of poverty. Equally naturally, if you know me, I told them that they aren't thinking big enough.

If I win, I get to attend the conference at Fort Mason, San Francisco in October, and present this idea at much greater length. Here is what I said, within the word limits that the challenge sets, except that you get to see it with links. Unfortunately, the word limit means that I didn't get to talk about many important issues, such as low power consumption, ruggedness, green design, total cost of ownership, teacher training, and the like. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about them.

You know about those naysayers, right?

• Microsoft
• Intel
• The Wall Street Journal
• The American Enterprise Institute
• The government of India
• Irvin, down in the comments

Oh, and I always tell Irvin, "Thanks, Irvin. Coming from you, that's high praise." Because Irvin is always telling me I'm crazy, but I always wonder whether I am crazy enough to have a chance of being right.

I have just now posted an entry in the SOCAP10 Impact Challenge, sponsored by the Social Capital Markets Conference. I'm here to ask for your vote to make such people take note of our work, and the work of a multitude of others around the world. What, they want to know is the Next Big Thing in Social Capital that will unlock the projected $120 billion business opportunity in helping the poor. Naturally, I pushed the global OLPC program, to educate a billion children and lift all of the world's poor out of poverty. Equally naturally, if you know me, I told them that they aren't thinking big enough. Edward Cherlin http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Earth_Treasury

The Western Climate Initiative released a comprehensive program design, which includes recommendations regarding voluntary purchases and the role of RECs. WCI has a goal to reduce 2005 GHG emissions by 15 percent by 2020. The WCI program design recommends that RECs have no compliance role in the WCI cap-and-trade program.

Becker Underwood purchased 7.9 million kWh of wind RECs, equivalent to 100 percent of its electricity use. The Green-e certified RECs were supplied by Renewable Choice Energy.

Marin Energy Authority is purchasing more than 42 million kWh annually, enough to meet 25 percent of electricity use for its communities in Marin County. The purchase is of biogas, biomass, and wind through Shell Energy North America.

Austin Energy will procure up to 2 MW of solar modules over a 3-year period, at a cost of $1.85/watt, and plans to install solar at buildings in its service territory. The panels are expected to generate 2.7 million kWh annually.

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's Zuckerman Research Center purchased 31.5 million kWh of wind RECs, equivalent to 100 percent of the building's annual electricity use, through Green Mountain Energy.

Christoph Derndorfer posted a photo:

From the São João secondary school on the island of São Tomé and Príncipe, Beth Santos writes the following in her post So Much to Say, So Little Energy:

There are students that are stealing computers now. If they are stealing them permanently or if they are just taking them home for the night without permission, I do not know. But I do know that some students are bringing backpacks to school and secretly slipping the computers into the backpacks.

It's a little heartbreaking. On one hand, I thought the students understood that these computers are on loan to them for the school year only, as we need to accommodate future students, not to mention the fact that these students will be moving to a different school system next year with teachers who are untrained in the XO laptop. On the other hand, ugh, it's so frustrating that these kids are stealing the computers because they like them so much. It's so frustrating that these kids are spending three hours of their vacation, every weekday, to sit inside and work on their computers BECAUSE THEY WANT TO!

Excited, even on summer break

I had to think of a solution, and it had to work.

When I came to class today, the energy was not working. We were hopeful that it would return, though, so we waited. As we waited, I met with the teachers. FINALLY my missing bag came through on the flight from Portugal today, so I got the teaching materials (and clothes and toiletries) that I was so badly hoping for. I passed those out (the teaching materials; not the toiletries).

I also passed out a handout that I created for the teachers last night, which included notes about teaching these computers. I explained to the teachers that teaching these computers is like teaching an art class- there is an instruction part, but there is also a very important creativity/experimentation part. The teachers here are used to working in a rote structure, which works for them, especially when they've got a large group of students to take care of. But we're trying to stay away from the rote with these laptops.

I explained to the teachers the importance not ordering the students to make a specific object or enter a specific number, but to encourage them to think for themselves, to try new things out, to have fun. I also encouraged them to let students help each other- to not stop class in order to solve one student's problem. In class, things worked better. They weren't perfect, and certainly not as efficient as I was hoping, but they were better. It will be a process, I know. But the good thing is, I feel like we're moving a foundation. It's not a temporary change we're making, it's forever.

Finally, I talked to the teachers about my solution to the stealing problem. And my solution was this:

First we gathered all of the students into one room. I have mastered the clapping exercise to make students quiet. I did this last year-- you clap in a rhythm and then the students repeat you, and you change the rhythm a few times and have them repeat you a few times, and then finally you stop and everyone is quiet since they're waiting for the next cue. This is how I manage a classroom of 100 students (though today there are much fewer...but since it's vacation time, we're not too too worried about attendance). Then I tell the students I have something important I want to talk to them about, and I just need five minutes of their time.

Happiness is an XO laptop

They were attentive.

I explained that the computers belong to the school, and that the idea is to use them for years to come. The computers that students are using right now are going to sixth graders next year, and the year after that, and years after that. They are participating in a really important program but in order to keep this program going, we need to take care of our computers. During vacation, we can't take the computers home because they're going to go to next year's students (the real reason is because the students are no longer enrolled at São João so there would be no way to track them if something happened). I told the students that there was something that was happening that was making us teachers very sad, and can anyone guess what it is?

No one could, so I continued. The thing that is making us teachers sad is the fact that there are some students, who we will not name, who have been taking the computers home without our permission. Because the computers belong to the school, taking the computers without teacher permission is called stealing. Some of the kids' eyes widened when I said that word, "stealing". I know they don't mean to steal. I told the students that the thefts are in the past now, but we need to work together to find the computers so we can keep using them. So if any student knows of any other student that has one of these computers, please encourage them to bring that computer back to the school and no one will be punished.

As to the fun part.

Starting this summer, and in years to come, we will be offering a contest for students participating in the computer program. Since we're just thinking of this contest now, this summer it will be a story-writing contest for who writes the best Etoys storybook (stories need to be 5-10 pages with text and drawings on each page, they need to be written in good Portuguese and need to have at least three animations on them). On the last day of class, we will all leave our laptops on the tables and walk around the classroom and look at the stories. Then students will silently vote on their five favorite stories on a piece of paper. The writers of the five best stories will be awarded with an XO laptop, that they will be able to keep--forever.

A future XO class now possible

The kids went nuts when they heard this. FOREVER?! That's a long time.

In years to come, we can keep the five laptop giveaway going. I can see how it could be controversial- awarding this select group of students laptops to keep forever could perhaps seem like some weird gameshow charity. But I think it's quite in line with the original OLPC ideals of individual ownership. It's also a pretty big deal for the students, and an enormous motivator to do well in the classroom and to attend class in order to work on their projects.

And finally, it's a solution to stealing. Psychologically, if students understand that the computers need to be taken care of because they are simply on loan to them, BUT they also understand that they have the opportunity to legitimately own a computer themselves if they try hard enough, then I strongly believe that it will bring an end to the theft. Students are not trying to hurt anyone by stealing- they just want an opportunity. Now this is their chance to get it.

And if they're not one of the five winners, they need not despair- there are computers available for use at the national high school, and there are also going to be 20 computers available at São João for public use-- all people need to do is ask a teacher and, particularly if they are a previous student, they will be welcome to use the computer anytime during the school day.

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As previously mentioned I spent my last day in Uruguay at ceibalJAM's second miniJAM! artistico (photos from the event can be found on ceibalJAM's blog). Apart from my short talk about the various efforts by OLPC (Austria) and other European OLPC and Sugar communities (which was the first time since school that I gave a presentation in Spanish!), being able to meet a lot of great people and say my good-byes to them, my favorite part was when the team from Butía took the stage and presented their robotics project.

XO sitting on top of the Butía platform

The goal of the project that is run by Universidad de la República's Faculty of Engineering is to create an inexpensive robotics platform to attract students in public schools to robotics and programming. Having somewhat of a thing for robotics, especially when it comes in combination with an XO, I was immediately fascinated by these efforts.

Gonzalo Tejera started his talk with a general introduction into the progress that robotics has made in the past few years as well as describing the current status quo of the use of robotics in education (or lack thereof due to the high cost of many available kits). Then he outlined the history of the Butía project before diving into the meat of the talk.

The heart of the Butía platform currently consists of an Arduino board which is used to both control the motors to drive around the acryl platform which the XO sits on and to connect all kinds of ambient sensors to it. However Butía took care to develop a modular design so that using an alternative board such as USB4all or GoGoBoard instead of the Arduino is relatively hassle-free.

TurtleArt project with Butía blocks

The really cool thing though is in the software as Butía has worked very hard to make it as easy as possible to program the platform via Sugar's standard tools such as Python and, even cooler in my opinion, the TurtleArt activity. What this means is that within TurtleArt there are extra blocks which can be used to read sensor values, control the wheels of the platform or do a broad variety of other things. Admittedly I think that TurtleArt is cool to begin with but being able to control a physical object rather than just seeing a turtle move around on a screen as a result of your work is just absolutely awesome!

Last but not least the Butía team has also created an Android app that controls the robot depending on the movements of the phone. You can see a demo of that in the video below:

Now that the majority of the engineering work is done it will be interesting to see how the project will be integrated in schools. Butía is working with people and organizations from the education sector so I'm confident that we'll see cool projects coming out of Uruguayan schools over the coming months and years.

I for one know that I would have loved to be able to be able to work with something like the Butía platform when I was at school. Well, actually I'd still love to be able to work with this project today!

I'm not a big fan of Train the Trainer methodologies to scale teacher training. I agree with Juliano Bittencourt, Learning Development Coordinator for OLPC Rwanda when he says:

Even when we talk about developed countries, this model of training a small group of people that in their turn train another group of people and so on, has failed. Cascading trainings has proven to decrease quality along the chain. The first and second levels might be good, but by the seventh iteration most of the principles have got lost remaining only the skeleton of the original ideas.

Yet that poses a very serious problem for Juliano and the whole OLPC Rwanda team, as he discusses in The Challenges of OLPC Scale Implementation in Rwanda:

Rwanda has about 43.000 teachers in primary schools. If we decided to replicate this training with the remaining teachers of the country, also in batches of 300, it would took us a little bit more than 2.9 years without a single stop week.

This number really made me reflect regarding our strategy for making the laptop initiative a success. It is obvious that 1 week of training is by far insufficient to prepare a teacher to use the XO inside their classroom. In the Rwanda context, I may say that not even 6 months of continuous training would prepare most teachers. Most of them aren't professional teachers, usually only having completed the secondary school as a criteria to teach in primary. Therefore there isn't a formal understanding of pedagogy or learning. They just reproduce the way they were taught.

So, how to make the OLPC project successful in Rwanda with such a challenge in teachers capacity building?

The common sense answer would be to increase the number of parallel trainings. Although, there is always the constraints of financial resources and qualified people to run such workshops. This last one, the human resources, are a particular issue in Rwanda. There is no academic tradition in the country neither on progressive education nor on computers and learning. This force us, and NGOs with similar objectives, to work with people from scratch in all senses of their development.

What is OLPC Rwanda's answer to the question of scaling teacher training? Juliano says model OLPC schools:

A large part of our work is to create OLPC Model Schools, that will be centers were the laptops integration into the school can serve as reference for the society in general and other schools in particular. Teachers should be able to come to those places and witness with their own eyes what their peers are doing. This will help to make the society to understand that laptops aren't a tool to teaching computer skills, but are really an "object to think with", something that qualitatively changes the way we learn.

Yet model schools have similar issues to train the trainer - you still have to get 43,000 teachers to experience a model school to effect change in their professional mindset. Juliano believes that using local media and direct XO-to-XO idea transmission will expand best practices.

Personally, I'm hoping you'll have a better idea that both of us can agree on.

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