Wind Energy News

November 20, 2024

Top Headlines

Raise the Roof: How to Reduce Badminton Birdie Drift

Nov. 12, 2024 — The airflow from an indoor badminton court's HVAC system and cross ventilation can affect the path of a birdie and have a significant role in play, but new research proposes that different roof configurations could help mitigate wind drift. The ...

Improving Hurricane Modeling With Physics-Informed Machine Learning

Nov. 19, 2024 — Researchers employ machine learning to more accurately model the boundary layer wind field of tropical cyclones. Conventional approaches to storm forecasting involve large numerical simulations run on supercomputers incorporating mountains of ...

Power Grids Supplied Largely by Renewable Sources Experience Lower Intensity Blackouts

Nov. 6, 2024 — New research into the vulnerability of power grids served by weather-dependent renewable energy sources (WD-RESs) such as solar and wind paints a hopeful picture as various countries around the globe ...

Bird Wings Inspire New Approach to Flight Safety

Oct. 28, 2024 — Engineers found a way to help airplanes avoid stall with lightweight plastic flaps that flutter with pressure changes. The flaps mimick a class of feathers that are key to birds' most daring aerial ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:08pm EST

Researchers Unlock the 'Silicate Magic' for Safer, Cheaper, and More Efficient Batteries

Oct. 17, 2024 — A research team is exploring new battery technologies for grid energy storage. The team's recent results suggest that iron, when treated with the ...

Study Highlights Complex Ocean Conditions Facing World's Most Powerful Tidal Turbine

Sep. 27, 2024 — Scientists combined innovative drone technology and boat-based surveys to map out the complex tidal flows encountered by the world's most powerful ...

Technology Could Boost Renewable Energy Storage

Sep. 16, 2024 — Renewable energy sources like wind and solar are critical to sustaining our planet, but they come with a big challenge: they don't always generate power when it's needed. To make the most of them, we ...

NREL Advances Method for Recyclable Wind Turbine Blades

Aug. 27, 2024 — Researchers see a realistic path forward to the manufacture of bio-derivable wind blades that can be chemically recycled and the components reused, ending the practice of old blades winding up in ...

New Theory Could Improve the Design and Operation of Wind Farms

Aug. 21, 2024 — A new model accurately represents the airflow around rotors, even under extreme conditions. The first comprehensive model of rotor aerodynamics could improve the way turbine blades and wind farms are ...

Cricket Physics: Science Behind the Modern Bowler Technique Tricking Batters

Aug. 13, 2024 — Researchers have started to unravel the mysteries of how near-horizontal bowling in cricket leads to such tough-to-hit balls. The team employed a ...

Measuring Martian Winds With Sound

Aug. 13, 2024 — Martian landers have been able capture measurements of wind speeds -- some gauging the cooling rate of heated materials when winds blow over them, others using cameras to image 'tell-tales' that blow ...

Climate Change Will Bring More Turbulence to Flights in the Northern Hemisphere, Study Finds

July 25, 2024 — A type of invisible, unpredictable air turbulence is expected to occur more frequently in the Northern Hemisphere as the climate warms. Known as ...

New Understanding of Fly Behavior Has Potential Application in Robotics, Public Safety

July 26, 2024 — Scientists have identified an automatic behavior in flies that helps them assess wind conditions -- its presence and direction -- before deploying a ...

Promise Green Hydrogen May Not Always Be Fulfilled

June 21, 2024 — Green hydrogen often, but certainly not always, leads to CO2 ...

Aussie Innovation Spearheads Cheaper Seafloor Test for Offshore Wind Farms

July 17, 2024 — Australian engineers have unveiled a clever new device -- based on a modified speargun -- as a cheap and efficient way to test seabed soil when designing offshore wind ...

Enhancing Nanofibrous Acoustic Energy Harvesters With Artificial Intelligence

June 3, 2024 — Scientists have employed artificial intelligence techniques to improve the design and production of nanofibers used in wearable nanofiber acoustic energy harvesters (NAEH). These acoustic devices ...

Wind Farms Are Cheaper Than You Think -- And Could Have Prevented Fukushima, Says Global Review

May 28, 2024 — Offshore wind could have prevented the Fukushima disaster, according to a review of wind ...

Wind Farms Can Offset Their Emissions Within Two Years

May 16, 2024 — After spinning for under two years, a wind farm can offset the carbon emissions generated across its entire 30-year lifespan, when compared to thermal power ...

Scientists Harness the Wind as a Tool to Move Objects

Apr. 29, 2024 — Researchers have developed a technique to move objects around with a jet of wind. The new approach makes it possible to manipulate objects at a distance and could be integrated into robots to give ...

New Offshore Wind Turbines Can Take Away Energy from Existing Ones

Apr. 25, 2024 — Interactions between wind turbines could reduce power output by 30% in proposed offshore wind farm areas along the East Coast, new research has found. In all, the farms could still meet 60% of the ...

Clearing the Air: Wind Farms More Land Efficient Than Previously Thought

Apr. 17, 2024 — Wind power is a source of energy that is both affordable and renewable. However, decision-makers have been reluctant to invest in wind energy due to a perception that wind farms require a lot of land ...

A Smarter City Skyline for Flood Safety

Apr. 9, 2024 — With climate change and rising urbanization, the likelihood and severity of urban flooding are increasing. But not all city blocks are created equal. Researchers investigated how urban layout and ...

Machine Learning Enables Viability of Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines

Apr. 3, 2024 — Researchers have used a genetic learning algorithm to identify optimal pitch profiles for the blades of vertical-axis wind turbines, which despite their high energy potential, have until now been ...

Heat, Cold Extremes Hold Untapped Potential for Solar and Wind Energy

Mar. 27, 2024 — Conditions that usually accompany the kind of intense hot and cold weather that strains power grids may also provide greater opportunities to capture solar and wind energy. A study found that ...

Pairing Crypto Mining With Green Hydrogen Offers Clean Energy Boost

Mar. 25, 2024 — Pairing cryptocurrency mining -- notable for its outsize consumption of carbon-based fuel -- with green hydrogen could provide the foundation for wider deployment of renewable energy, such as solar ...

Research Suggests How Turbulence Can Be Used to Generate Patterns

Mar. 20, 2024 — Physicists show how patterns can emerge from chaos in turbulent ...

What Will It Take for China to Reach Carbon Neutrality by 2060?

Feb. 26, 2024 — To become carbon neutral by 2060, China will have to build eight to 10 times more wind and solar power installations than existed in 2022, according to a new study. Reaching carbon neutrality will ...

Offshore Wind Farms Are Vulnerable to Cyberattacks

Jan. 24, 2024 — Researchers have presented a new study on cyberattack risks to offshore wind farms in Glasgow, United Kingdom. They looked specifically at wind farms that use voltage-source-converter high-voltage ...

Artificial 'Power Plants' Harness Energy from Wind and Rain

Jan. 17, 2024 — Fake plants are moving into the 21st century! Researchers developed literal 'power plants' -- tiny, leaf-shaped generators that create electricity from a blowing breeze or falling ...

Conflict in Full Swing: Forest Bats Avoid Large Areas Around Fast-Moving Wind Turbines

Jan. 4, 2024 — Not only do many bats die at wind turbines, the turbines also displace some species from their habitats over large areas. When the turbines are in operation at relatively high wind speeds, the ...

'Energy Droughts' in Wind and Solar Can Last Nearly a Week

Dec. 11, 2023 — Understanding the risk of compound energy droughts -- times when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow -- will help grid planners understand where energy storage is needed ...

The Importance of the Earth's Atmosphere in Creating the Large Storms That Affect Satellite Communications

Oct. 30, 2023 — Large geomagnetic storms disrupt radio signals and GPS. Now, researchers have identified the previous underestimated role of the ionosphere, a region of Earth's upper atmosphere that contains a ...

Predicting the Sustainability of a Future Hydrogen Economy

Sep. 21, 2023 — As renewable energy sources like wind and solar ramp up, they can be used to sustainably generate hydrogen fuel. But implementing such a strategy on a large scale requires land and water dedicated to ...

Tall Buildings Could Be Built Quicker If Damping Models Were Correct, Study Finds

Sep. 20, 2023 — Multi-story buildings are assembled over-cautiously to withstand wind strengths, researchers have ...