WOBO thanks Renewable Energy Magazine for the links to developments taking place around the world.

Maryland Governor Announces $22.9 Million Grant To Expand Offshore Wind Workforce

Governor Larry Hogan joined federal officials at Tradepoint Atlantic to announce the awarding of a $22.9 million American Rescue Plan Good Jobs Challenge grant for the Maryland Department of Labor to implement a new apprenticeship model to support the region’s growing offshore wind industry.

MIT Unveils Method to Boost Wind Farms’ Energy Output, Without New Equipment

Virtually all wind turbines, which produce more than 5 percent of the world’s electricity, are controlled as if they were individual, free-standing units. In fact, the vast majority are part of larger wind farm installations involving dozens or even hundreds of turbines, whose wakes can affect each other.

Now, engineers at MIT and elsewhere have found that, with no need for any new investment in equipment, the energy output of such wind farm installations can be increased by modeling the wind flow of the entire collection of turbines and optimizing the control of individual units accordingly.

The increase in energy output from a given installation may seem modest — it’s about 1.2 percent overall, and 3 percent for optimal wind speeds. But the algorithm can be deployed at any wind farm, and the number of wind farms is rapidly growing to meet accelerated climate goals. If that 1.2 percent energy increase were applied to all the world’s existing wind farms, it would be the equivalent of adding more than 3,600 new wind turbines, or enough to power about 3 million homes, and a total gain to power producers of almost a billion dollars per year, the researchers say. And all of this for essentially no cost.

NineDot Energy Launches Community-Scale Bronx Battery Energy Storage Site

NineDot Energy, a leading developer of community-scale clean energy projects backed by global investment firm Carlyle, unveiled its first battery energy storage site in the Bronx, New York City. With a 3.08 MW (megawatts)/12.32 MWh (megawatt-hours) Tesla Megapack system, a solar canopy, and infrastructure ready for bi-directional electric vehicle chargers, this NineDot Energy site is a model for how to develop future urban clean energy projects.

UK Government Provides £3.3 Million in Funding to Miscanthus Upscaling Project

A project to facilitate more planting of the perennial bioenergy crop, Miscanthus, has been awarded over £3.3 million in funding through the second phase of the government’s Biomass Feedstocks Innovation Program, to contribute to 2050 net zero targets.