WindWatch for week of 1 May 2009

All the latest wind-energy-related news from around the globe:

• Research and Markets has announced the addition of GlobalData’s new report “Spain Wind Energy Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2013” to their offering;
• The Wall Street Journal offers a look at how “one man’s effort to build a turbine company reflects the ups and downs of oil, the economy and commitment”;
• Forum for the Future profiles Ecotricity’s mission to develop a wind-powered sports car;
• Scientific American this week features a Q&A with Bob Gates, senior vice president for commercial operations at Clipper Windpower;
• The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which recently came out to support wind power development in correctly sited locations, has installed a small scale wind turbine at its Rainham Marshes visitor centre in Purfleet, Essex;
• China Wind Systems Inc., a supplier of forged products and industrial equipment to the wind power and other industries in China, announced today that Drew Bernstein joined the Company as an independent director;
• Arcadian Networks, a provider of wireless broadband communication systems to the energy sector, has joined the American Wind Energy Association as a business member;
• A Windspire(R) wind turbine was installed at the latest edition of the US television programme “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” with the episode set to air on 17 May;
• Cleantechnica reports on a breakthrough design by Leviathan Energy that increases wind turbine efficiency by 30 per cent;
• Mother Earth News has reissued a 1976 article on how to build a washing machine that’s powered by wind;
• Danish wind energy firm Vestas this week released its first-quarter financial report (PDF);
• Greenpeace has criticised the Government’s backing for coal and nuclear power after the wind energy firm Vestas announced the possible reduction of 600 jobs at its blade manufacturing facility on the Isle of Wight;
• GreenBiz.com features a profile on the cosmetics firm Aveda, which powers its factory with wind energy;
• US Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced plans to use $93 million in economic recovery funds to promote the development of wind energy in the nation;
• Researchers from the University of Alcala and the Complutense University in Madrid have invented a new method for predicting the wind speed of wind farm aerogenerators … using knowledge generated from systems that simulate the workings of animals’ nervous systems;
• US-based Aeronautica Windpower has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Norwin A/S of Denmark to manufacture new, commercial-size wind turbines in the US for the North American and Caribbean markets;
• The Cleantech Group has profiled ChapDrive AS, a Norway-based firm that is developing hydraulic transmissions for wind turbines;
• Oil refiner IndianOil has commissioned its first windfarm at Kandla in Gujarat;
• Indian hydropower firm National Hydroelectric Power Corp. has announced plans to build its first wind energy farm.