Windpower Monthly: Vestas Installs New Tower Concept With Cable Support
The prototype tower is designed for use at low-wind sites, where hubs are generally elevated.
"Higher hub heights increase loads on towers dramatically. These loads can be reduced on the tower with cables.
"The hub height would depend on site and wind conditions," Edgar Leijten, lead towers engineer at Vestas, told Windpower Monthly.
Vestas said specific hub heights for the tower have not been released, as a decision to commercialize the design had not yet been made.
Mic: The White House Just Tried to Pass Off an ExxonMobil Statement as Their Own
The White House issued a press release Monday praising oil giant ExxonMobil -- until recently, the employer of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson -- copying language verbatim from an ExxonMobil PR statement and the company's CEO, Darren Woods.
The apparent copy-paste job was first flagged by the Washington Post's Christopher Ingraham, who tweeted the evidence of the apparent plagiarism. ExxonMobil's statement, which promoted its plans to invest $20 billion over 10 years while allegedly creating 45,000 jobs, was uncritically passed on in nearly exact form in the official White House release.
InsideClimate News: Exxon's Auditor Could Hold Key Piece of Climate Fraud Investigation
A high-stakes legal battle between ExxonMobil and the New York attorney general's office is roiling around documents held by the company's auditors. Those documents, usually dry disclosures that hold little public interest, could afford a candid -- and perhaps damaging -- glimpse into Exxon's private calculations of the business risks posed by climate change.
As part of a financial fraud investigation, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoenaed Exxon auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers last August for climate risk assessments by Exxon.
Investors and the public rely on those disclosures to assess the impact climate change could have on the company's profitability. If they are incomplete or misleading, the public could be misled about investment decisions.
Energy Manager Today: GE Launches Global Powering Efficiency Center
Just as news circulated this week that U.S. President Donald Trump is gearing up to quash the Clean Power Plan and to resuscitate the coal mining industry, General Electric launched a global Powering Efficiency Center of Excellence (COE) on March 6 -- bringing together cross-sector experts from its energy businesses to apply “a total plant hardware and software solution approach” to boost the efficiency of the world’s new and existing coal-fired power plants and to substantially reduce their emissions.
Headquartered in Baden, Switzerland, the global COE will be dedicated to creating “integrated solutions” that will reduce global carbon emissions, and make coal and gas more efficient. Regional teams will focus on engineering capabilities and local execution.
New York Times: Leashes Come Off Wall Street, Gun Sellers, Polluters and More
On a near daily basis, regulated industries are now sending in specific requests to the Trump administration for more rollbacks, including recent appeals from 17 automakers to rescind an agreement to increase mileage standards for their fleets, and another from pharmaceutical industry figures to reverse a new rule that tightens scrutiny over the marketing of prescription drugs for unapproved uses. As of late Friday, word had leaked that the automakers’ request for a rollback was about to be granted, too.
“After a relentless, eight-year regulatory onslaught that loaded unprecedented burdens on businesses and the economy, relief is finally on the way,” Thomas J. Donohue, the president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, wrote in a memo last week.
But dozens of public interest groups -- environmentalists, labor unions, consumer watchdogs -- have weighed in on the potential threat to Americans’ well-being. “Americans did not vote to be exposed to more health, safety, environmental and financial dangers,” said one letter, signed by leaders of 137 nonprofit groups to the White House last week.