THE WEEKLY WIND

China Daily

The UHV power lines, dubbed “power corridors,” are designed to connect China’s disparate regional grids and help resolve China’s geographical energy imbalance. These improvements are widely expected to help transmission of wind energy and solar power.

Power Engineering

MidAmerican Energy which is a holding company controlled by Berkshire Hathaway plans to add up to 1,050 MW of wind generation, or up to 656 wind turbines, in Iowa by year-end 2015. With the 2012 expansion project complete, 2,285 megawatts, or approximately 30 percent of MidAmerican Energy’s total owned generation capacity, comes from energy generated by the company’s 1,267 owned wind turbines.

Washington Post

For the first time in human history, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached 400 parts per million (ppm). The arrival at this threshold represents a powerful symbol of the growing human influence on the Earth’s climate.

Dow Jones VentureWire

The MaRS Cleantech Fund has completed a C$30M venture deal with Toronto-based energy storage firm Hydrostor, whose technology converts surplus electrical energy to underwater compressed air and stores it for use at peak times.

Intelligent Utility

“Conventional wisdom says that new technology gets created in the United States and is then exported to China. But when it comes to bringing new energy technologies to scale, the reverse may be true,” David Mohler, vice president of emerging technology with Duke Energy, commented.

North American Windpower

During the Wind Industry Leaders Panel at WINDPOWER 2013 on Tuesday, Alonso, CEO at EDP Renewables North America and chairman of the board of directors at the American Wind Energy Association, told the audience that Wind industry participants can help advocate in five states where legislative bills are coming due for a vote regarding renewable portfolio standards (RPS).

Scientific American

China will soon begin its grand experiment to rein in climate change, using the nation’s regionwide carbon markets as the building blocks for what could become the world’s second-largest emissions trading market.

This is expected to boost China’s renewable energy capacity because financing from polluters can support more wind farms, hydroelectric dams and solar power plants. The ambitious goal of those Chinese regionwide carbon trading pilots is to prove that the mechanisms work and can be deployed on a larger scale.

Norfolk Wind Energy LLC

Emerald H2 and Norfolk Wind Energy have signed an agreement to produce hydrogen from wind power. The planned 10 MW wind and 500,000 kg hydrogen project will use energy from wind turbines to produce hydrogen.

Mercom Capital Group LLC

The wind industry saw strong funding and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the first quarter of this year. wind sector venture capital (VC) funding rebounded in the first quarter, raising $16 million in three deals after the previous quarter saw just one $500,000 VC deal.

National Energy Administration (in Chinese)

The National Energy Administration (NEA) of China issued a Notice to urge development of wind-to-heat projects in northern China. This practice aims to reduce the waste of wind power and cut emissions from the coal-fired central heating system. Experiments have been carried out and the approach is going to be scaled up, but further innovations are needed to really shake the dominance of coal.