Researchers at Iowa State University will be able to learn more about wind turbine technology… a good idea when you consider how big wind energy has become in the state.
The school’s work with Arizona-based TPI Composites and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., to improve the process currently used to manufacture turbine blades has led to a three-year, $6.3 million project called the “Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Initiative.” This ISU press release says a third of the money comes from the Iowa Power Fund, a state program to advance energy innovation and independence, and equal shares from TPI Composites and the U.S. Department of Energy:
The grant will allow Iowa State to establish a Wind Energy Manufacturing Laboratory on campus. The lab will feature the work of four faculty researchers: Matt Frank, Frank Peters and John Jackman, all associate professors of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, and Vinay Dayal, an associate professor of aerospace engineering. The grant will also support the research of five graduate students and several undergraduates.
The researchers’ goal is to develop new, low-cost manufacturing systems that could improve the productivity of turbine blade factories by as much as 35 percent.
“The current manufacturing methods are very labor intensive,” Jackman said. “We need to improve throughput – we need to get more blades produced every week in order for it to be economical to continue to produce wind energy components in the United States.”
Peters said possible manufacturing improvements include developments in automation and quality control.
The researchers will be working with smaller models of the turbine blades to see what are the best ways to boost efficiency and strength. Later work will focus on the towers, the nacelles, gearboxes and other components.
With installed wind capacity at 3,043 megawatts, Iowa ranks second in the nation in wind power production.
• EPA’s GHG [Greenhouse Gas] methodology relies on outdated data that artificially penalizes U.S. biodiesel. GHG emission reductions associated with biodiesel produced from vegetable oils compared to petroleum will significantly exceed the 22 percent assumed by EPA in its proposed rule if the agency relies on scientifically valid analysis and practices. Even with EPA’s assumptions and methodology, correcting the outdated data pertaining to nitrogen fixation, energy balance and co-product allocations would give biodiesel produced from vegetable oil a 62 percent GHG reduction compared to baseline petroleum. When just some of the major flawed assumptions from EPA’s indirect analysis are corrected, the GHG emissions lifecycle reduction for biodiesel from vegetable oils is 99% percent lower than diesel fuel. This number includes penalties to biodiesel for international indirect land use change.
Biodiesel and ethanol production in Canada is expected to rise more than 75 percent over the next two years, thanks to subsidies from that country.
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A Texas-based company that has made its living rendering grease and animal carcasses has seen a recent boost to its bottom line… thanks to biodiesel.
A couple of weeks ago, Joanna told you about how a company had installed a system that would capture the energy of cars and light trucks that went through a fast-food drive through (see 
“Reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil was part of the Energy Security Act, providing economic opportunity and job creation and supporting rural communities were all equally important goals,” said RFA president and CEO Bob Dinneen during a press conference to announce the organization’s comments. “We’re concerned that EPA appears to be ignoring those objectives as it pursues greenhouse gas reduction based on unproven theory.”
A group of Midwest senators led by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) dropped an amendment to appropriations legislation that would have prohibited the EPA from spending funds to include international indirect land use change (ILUC) emissions in the implementation of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).
Jackson said in her letter that it is “clear that there are significant uncertainties associated with these estimates and in particular, with the estimate of indirect land use change.”