WIND REACHES UP

Wind Industry’s New Technologies Are Helping It Compete on Price

Diane Cardwell, March 21, 2014 (NY Times)

“The wind industry... is reaching for the sky. With new technology allowing developers to build taller machines spinning longer blades, the industry has been able to produce more power at lower cost by capturing the faster winds that blow at higher elevations...in places like Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, where the price of power from turbines built 300 feet to 400 feet above the ground can now compete with conventional sources like coal…[And] a start-up called Altaeros Energies is preparing to introduce BAT — or Buoyant Airborne Turbine — the enormous, white helium-filled doughnut surrounding a rotor will float about 1,000 feet in the air and feed enough electricity to power more than a dozen homes through one of the cables tethering it to the ground…” click here for more

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