Two of the world’s largest wind turbines, with blades 60 meters (196 feet) long, have been installed off the Yorkshire coast, a sign of a growing trend toward producing colossal wind turbines to boost generating capacity.

The 6-megawatt turbines, manufactured by Siemens, are so large that they had to be installed using a (more…)

Since the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011, and which resulted in one of the worst nuclear accidents in recent history, Japan has signaled its intentions to transition towards clean, alternative energy. Japanese officials recently announced that the country intends to build the largest wind farm in the world. The offshore wind farm will be built ten (more…)

A group of prominent U.S. investors, including Google, is expected to announce today that it is moving forward with construction on the first leg of an ambitious $5 billion undersea transmission line that will connect future offshore wind farms along the mid-Atlantic coast, a project they say will avert the regulatory hurdles required in connecting each (more…)

The last-minute tax deal brokered by U.S. lawmakers to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff” included a one-year extension of the wind energy tax credit, a subsidy that industry officials say is critical for the growth of the wind energy sector.

The bill, which now awaits President Obama’s signature, preserves the 2.2-cents-per-kilowatt (more…)

As the sales of wind turbines increase, it is likely that the disputes between suppliers and purchasers will also increase. Wind turbines encompass a variety of tangible and intangible components, including the software necessary for operations and maintenance.

One contractual issue that turbine suppliers and (more…)

In previous posts (here, here, and here), I discussed a major offshoot of the GE-Mitsubishi wind patent war in which GE and a former employee, Thomas Wilkins, tussled over ownership of two of the patents involved in the larger litigation.

The remaining patent-at-issue in this ownership (more…)

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced plans to provide $28 million in grants to seven proposed offshore wind projects, a financial commitment the Obama administration hopes will provide a boost to a green energy sector that has yet to gain a foothold in American waters.

Each of the seven projects — located in Maine, New (more…)

Wind Wire is a South Bend, Indiana, installer of residential wind turbines.

In August 2010 Roger and Patricia Finney sued Wind Wire in Indiana state court for alleged greenwashing in connection with a residential wind turbine system.

The Finneys’ central charge was that the company (more…)

A new report compiled by Greenpeace International and the Global Wind Energy Council on the future of the wind industry and released yesterday in Beijing says wind power could supply up to 12 percent of global electricity by 2020, creating 1.4 million new jobs and reducing CO2 emissions by more than 1.5 billion tons per year, more than 5 times today’s level. By 2030, (more…)

Totaro & Associates has completed the second phase of a study which began in December 2010 on the patent landscape of the horizontal-axis, utility-scale wind industry. We have now read and classified over 23,100 global patents and applications, with over 3,200 issued patents in the US alone.

As we have highlighted in previous posts (here and (more…)