wind

A perfect storm is hitting wind energy in almost everyone. Less in China

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Wind energy has gone from being the great hope of Europe to be in the shadow of photovoltaic solar. Deserted auctions, paralyzed projects waiting for permits and bottlenecks in network connections are an increasingly common reality for the sector both in the old continent and in the United States. But in the midst of this perfect storm, an exception called China is able to completely distort global statistics. Wind in the West. Europe installed 16.4 GW of wind capacity in 2024, a figure lower than the expected Windeurope It attributes endless administrative delays and increasingly complicated financial conditions, especially for inflation in the supply chain. Projects Judicially blockeddeserted auctions … Nothing that the United States is not experiencing on the other side of the Atlantic. A few weeks ago, the US government canceled an investment of 679 million dollars to adapt the ports to the offshore wind industry, an infrastructure without which the huge components of marine wind turbines cannot be assembled or transported. Before, the Trump administration had paralyzed the construction of almost finished wind farms For the alleged espionage from China. Meanwhile, in China. If wind energy facilities grew 13% in 2024 it was almost exclusively thanks to Chinese demand. Excluding China from the equation, The market contracted 16%. Only Chinese manufacturers continue to beat orders records, and there are no signs that this will change this year. According to a Bloomberg reportChina monopolizes approximately 75% of all new offshore wind energy facilities in 2025. The Asian country dominates the world production of components and enjoys greater investments thanks to the agility of permits and financial support of the Communist Party, which establishes very low interest rates for these companies. A two -speed transition. The result is an energy transition that advances at radically different rhythms. While Europe and the United States collide with economic reality and government changes, China meets its objectives and almost completely dominate the supply chain. We are living The fastest energy change in historybut not all countries can advance at the same speed. This imbalance is also one of the reasons why Solar energy has eaten the ground to wind in pioneer regions in the sector, such as Europe. The installation of panels (most manufactured in China) is cheaper and more simple, both at the logistics level and permits, than the wind turbine industry that once Europe led. Image | Siemens Gamesa In Xataka | One of the most arid areas in China is reverde. The reason: a plant with seven million solar panels

He was deported to China after co -founding NASA’s JPL. Now China has made one of his ideas come true: flying wind turbines

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In the mid -twentieth century, the United States made a decision that later A high position of the Navy described as “the most stupid thing that this country has ever done.” Qian Xesenan indisputable genius of aeronautical engineering, co -founder of the prestigious JPL laboratory of NASA, and a key figure in the development of American coheteria, was deported to China in 1955 accused of communist sympathies in full witch hunt. Qian, welcomed as a hero in his homeland, became the father of the space program and the development of Balistic missiles in China. Decades later, a new generation of Chinese engineers, heirs of the scientific ecosystem that helped build, has broken a world record with a technology that pursues an old ambition of Qian Xesen: wind turbines that fly like zepelins to harvest the energy of great altitude winds. A Zepelin anchored to ground to generate electricity On October 10, in the heavens of Jingmen, province of Hubei, a 23 -meter long aerostate with a leadable appearance rose to 500 meters high. It was not a transport or surveillance vehicle, but The S500, a floating wind energy system That, at that altitude, began to generate more than 50 kilowatts of power. With this flight, China not only launched an innovative project, but sprayed two world records that until now He held an American MIT research team: The one with the highest flight altitude for such a turbine (the previous one was 297 meters) and the one with the highest power generated (compared to the previous 30). The concept, developed by the Sawes company In collaboration with the University of Tsinghua and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it is as elegant as complex. The system uses A member of helium filling to raise a wind turbine to altitudes where the wind is much stronger and more constant than on the surface. The electricity that generates is transmitted to a station on land through the same high strength cable that anchors the structure. The advantage of this design is clear: the energy that can be extracted from the wind is proportional to the cube of its speed; already hundreds of meters high, Winds are not only faster, but also more stablesignificantly reducing the intermittency that it lills to the terrestrial wind farms. According to developer calculations, wind resources in the stratosphere on a region like Hami, in Xinjiang, are 40 times higher than those of the surface. Of emergency situations to the generation at network scale The S500 and its successor, the S1000 of 100 kW Proven for the first time in Januarywere developed for emergency rescues, urban security and places of difficult topography. In case of earthquake or flood, the system can be deployed rapidly to provide energy and communications in the disaster area. But Sawes’s ambitions go much further. The company He just finished assembly The following model on its road map: the S1500, designed to operate 1,500 meters of altituderepresents a jumping of the capacity in capacity, with a power of generation of 1 megavatio. It is proof that technology not only looks for niches such as emergency response, but aspires to become a renewable energy source at an electricity scale. To achieve this power, the S1500 integrates a complex system of 12 generators that operate simultaneously inside its central duct. The key for such a powerful system to fly is material engineering: generators are manufactured in carbon fiber To minimize the weight, maintaining the complete structure below a ton. Like his little brother, energy becomes electricity in the airship itself and low to land through an anchor -integrated cable. With this design, Sawes has attracted the support of important investment funds and contracts that already exceed 500 million yuan (about 64 million euros). The company has opened an assembly plant In Yueyang. The story of Qian Xesen is one of the greatest anecdotes about the unforeseen consequences of fear policy. As you tell Los Angeles Timesthe man who interrogated Wernher Von Braun and laid the basis of the JPL was separated and returned to a country that, at that time, had a much lower scientific development. He took care of changing that, and now his heirs are materializing some of his ideas in his native country. Images | Sawes In Xataka | How China became a nuclear and spatial power in the most unexpected way: with a student of the mit expelled by the US

A Spaniard has patented a mast that transforms wind and waves into electricity. His invention challenges diesel in ships

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A mast shaken by the wind, the waves pushing without rest: usual scenes in any maritime journey. The interesting thing is that the same movement can serve to generate electricity. A canary who is one step away from being an engineer has designed a system that converts the strength of the ocean into usable energy, with the ambition to reduce the dependence of the diesel in the ships. It is an idea that takes the everyday of the sea and makes it a concrete technical proposal, simple enough to intrigue and ambitious enough to demand validation in the sea. “In the end it is a three -dimensional generator,” Juan Francisco Sarmiento Medina said in an advance of the Podcast of the Stier Groupand described the mechanism with simple images: “Let’s imagine that my arm is the mast. When the wind comes in front, it clashes, as the mast of a flag, and begins to oscillate. The keel works as a piston of a combustion engine (…) then movement occurs in the x, y y y z axes, all under Faraday’s law,” he explained. That narration of the inventor itself forms the technical spine of the project. What exactly is the e-mast. In its LinkedIn account the project appears as E-MAST (Energy Mast System) and is presented as a technology that transforms the structural vibration of the mast into clean electrical energy. According to the textthe system integrates an encapsulated rotor without exposed parts, linear generators and piezoelectric elements to convert oscillations into electricity, and can direct part of the induced air under the keel in the form of microburbujas. The advantages of the inventor are clear: “Without diesel engines, or maintenance. The owner of the boat, as there are no mechanical parts that have to be maintained with oil or that are broken, also reduces costs in that sense,” He pointed to El Español. The inventor also underlines the operational silence due to the absence of external propellers and the total structural integration into existing masts. These benefits, in any case, will require trials to measure power, autonomy and acoustic signature. Of production patent. The applications of applications published by the author encompasses autonomous marine surveillance, oceanographic research, defense and ecological navigation platforms in protected areas. According to Sarmiento Medina, the e-mast is protected by two patents, ES202430338 and ES202430339, with a favorable report according to the promoter. According to the newspaper La Provinciathe promoter figure around half a million euros international protection and development and has conversations with shipyards in France and the Netherlands to explore production. The sea still has the last word. Sarmiento says that he is a neighbor of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and recognizes that part of his learning and opportunities come from the Stier Group, which has supported his training. This local support, added to the intellectual protection that it declares in its public profile, has allowed to convert a daily element of any ship at the base of an ambitious technological proposal. Now the most difficult part remains: validate the system in the sea. But the idea has already demonstrated something important: that there is still margin to imagine new things, even in an environment as old as navigation. Images | Juan Francisco Sarmiento Medina In Xataka | A “Roomba” to clean rivers: the ship that the three throats has launched in China

China’s first Autonomous Wind Park is already reality

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What just a few years ago seemed science fiction is already reality: in China, robot dogs are not only exhibited in Technological Fairs o They serve as laboratory experiments, but patrol critical infrastructure. In full desert of Gobi and the Loess Plateau, metal quadrupeds monitor wind farms in areas where only humans arrived on foot, under sandstorms. A park without humans. It is about to meet a year since the third Wind Park Tongli, 70 MW, It works without the presence of a single human worker. Built by China Three Gorges and equipped with Goldwind GW150-3 MW turbines, it is the first completely autonomous wind park. According to Rechargethe system combines Robot X30 dogs from Deep Robotics, drones and more than 300 intelligent cameras and sensors that cover about 5,000 inspection tasks. Everything that previously required walking hours on gravel roads is now supervised at a distance, from the Litong Maintenance Center, 30 km from the installation. The change translates into more than 3,000 hours of inspection, a 27% increase in labor efficiency and the elimination of human risks in one of the toughest environments on the planet. Total automation. The wind farms of noxia are located in a difficult access region, with extreme temperatures and frequent sand storms. Before, maintenance personnel had to walk more than 10 kilometers to perform weekly inspections, even in adverse weather conditions, According to a Deep Robotics statement. The deployment of roboperros and drones now allows two daily inspection rounds of about 80 minutes each, with reports transmitted in real time. Thus, plants become authentic “dark factories”, a concept taken from industrial automation that points to facilities that work without the need for human presence. The great protagonists. The X30 of Deep Robotics, According to company specificationsit is a quadruped of 56 kg can operate between -20 ° C and 55 ° C, climb stairs and move in total darkness, walk on gravel and sand without losing stability, recognize with analog and digital meters, ignition indicators, infrared temperature readings, and emit instantaneous alarms when it detects anomalies. According to Deep Robotics datathe precision of recognition reaches 96.5%, which makes these robots reliable tools for industrial control. In addition, they work even if communication with the operations center is interrupted: their integrated algorithms allow them to manage inspections and data analysis autonomously. Beyond the wind. The use of these quadrupeds is not limited to wind energy. According to RechargeDeep Robotics has already deployed its models in steel factories, converting stations and solar parks. It also presented in 2025 a hybrid prototype called Lynx, which combines legs and wheels to move in snow and ice. The bet also extends to new plants: Goldwind has already developed other “unmanned” plants for Powerchina, and China Three Gorges plans to replicate the experience in solar projects. A new energy era. With the launch of Ningxia Tongli, China shows how incarnate artificial intelligence can transform the energy industry. Robot dogs, drones and sensors form a 24/7 surveillance ecosystem without human intervention that promises to reduce costs, improve safety and guarantee operational continuity in extreme environments. What seemed like a science fiction scene – a robot dog patrolling between turbines in the desert – is already a daily routine in northern China. The question is inevitable: If today they monitor wind farms, tomorrow where will we see these new metallic guardians? Image | Deeprobotics and Unspash Xataka | The new wind energy giant will not be in China. Germany begins to lift a higher wind turbine

The new largest plane in the world will be a beast to revolutionize wind. The big question is whether it will fly

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In the Albores of the Ukraine WarRussia took control of the airport space of Hostomel. It was where two aviation monsters, Antonov-124 and Antonov-225They were trapped. The result of the attacks? Serious damage to one of the merchandise transport aircraft more used in Europe and Destruction of Antonov-225the largest plane in the world and pride of Ukrainian aviation. His loss has left a void that a startup wants to take advantage of with the Windrunner, the world’s new biggest plane Focused on the transport of wind turbines. The problem is that there are serious doubts that one day he undertakes the flight, but there is already an interested party that has nothing to do with him renewable energy sector: The Pentagon. Drive wind. The company after this ambitious project is Radiaa startup that considers that, in a Decarbonization scenario and with one artificial intelligence so voracious In energy terms, it is necessary to boost the installation of wind turbines throughout the world. The problem is that, to accelerate that installation, the cadence of Warmers installation And the transport of its elements, such as blades, is a problem. The towers can be set up by pieces, but the blades are another song. Radia considers that none of the load aircraft They have the ability to transport large blades, and there their plan with the Windrunner and a winery that will allow three 80 -meter blades, two of 95 meters or just just or barely one 105 meters long. And it will do it directly on an improvised landing floor at the construction of the wind farm. Comparisons are hateful. To put in context what type of plane we are talking about, if the Antonov-225 was a monsterthis Windrunner would be unqualifiable: Winrunner Antonov AN-225 Total length 108 meters 84 meters Wingspan 80 meters 88.4 meters Height 24 meters 18.1 meters Winery length 105 meters 43.3 meters Bodega volume 8,200 m³ 1,300 m³ Comes with a price. The problem is that putting such a plane in the air has a problem: fuel. For the 250 tons that the Antonov-225 could load, the Windrunner will stay in more modest 72.5 tons. Enough for its main mission of transporting shovels that in its largest lengths are around 60 tons. But autonomy can also be the big problem of that plan that allows winding throughout the world. Driven by four engines that will work with Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAFits autonomy will be up to 2,000. It will be its great limitation, since it will relegate it to an almost local use in Europe, America or Asia, with continuous reposses or with the need for shovels to be manufactured to those 2,000 kilometers of its destination. Windrunner on the left, Antonov An-124 in the center, Boeing 747-400 to the right Serious doubts. It is evident that the Windrunner is promising, but experts from the aerospace industry are not so clear that Radia can materialize their vision. The argument that analysts and experts of the aviation industry use is that Radia is a startup that will need a lot of money and have seen projects with better commercial arguments and lower technological risks. Also, and how we read in BBCRadia goes against everything that is usually done in this industry and, after testing a scale model in the wind tunnel, wants to speed up times and reduce costs passing from that model to scale to real -size test aircraft. As? Instead of building traditional prototypeslooking for digital design tools. And this is not like building a car on your own: once built, an overwhelming aircraft certification process begins. Virtually the interior of the Windrunner is a winery. Trust. In the same BBC article, Mark Lundstrom, founder of Radia, confessed that, although there are numerous challenges, the fundamental principles of the development of the Windrunner go through “not doing anything new and developing the minimally viable aircraft for aviation”. That makes them discarded alternatives such as the airships, which should go through new regulations and supply chains, and also that they have opted for a more traditional supply chain. For example, hiring experienced suppliers Like the Italian Leonardo for the fuselage, the American Afore to review the security or The Spanish Aernnova For wings and pylons of engines. It is not yet known who will provide the engines, but from Radia they commented to BBC that they have “selected an existing certified engine and are working to define the integration strategy in the fuselage.” That is, Radia is using already tested technologies and components, which will allow them to “the unit cost is proportional to the weight and size of the aircraft and, therefore, comparable to that of other civil aircraft of wide fuselage,” according to Radia’s spokesman. And it is expected that the 70% of suppliers of Radia are European. The Pentagon has taken his eye. Of course, Radia is not the first visionary Aerospace Company, but if you do not set the objective of building the Windrunner for its main objective of filling the aircraft planet, whoever has recently called at their door I have something interesting to offer. In May of this year, the United States Department of Defense signed an agreement with Radia To analyze if the Windrunner could transport military load. Although the weight it can carry is much lower than that of the missing Antonov-225, its winery is huge and is something that has captured the attention of the Pentagon. From Radia they maintain that its objective remains to serve the wind energy market, but recognize that the unique capabilities of its plane make it interesting for additional applications. Boeing heats engines. Radia aims to have several real -size test units to make a first test flight at the end of this decade. Again, an excessive ambition if we take into account that planes such as the aforementioned AN-225 barely made a few flights a year … and there was only one. And we will see how the pressure of … Read more

feed solar and wind energy the darkest and colder place in the world

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In a place where the nights last six months, wind gusts can reach 300 km/hy them the temperatures collapse below the −40 ° C, the idea of using solar and wind energy sounds like a joke. For a few months, however, China is feeding its Antarctica base with renewable energy. How the hell have they done it? Short. Five years ago, electrical engineer Sun Hongbin, today president of the Technological University of Taiyuan, received what seemed an impossible mission: to build a renewable energy system capable of supporting the most extreme conditions of the earth. As he has told Scientific AmericanThe objective was to align the new Qinling Antarctic Station with the green commitments of the Chinese government. The result cost 14 million dollars, was officially inaugurated in early 2025 and is a technological feat that now other countries with Antarctica bases want to imitate. Diesel logistics nightmare. Antarctica stations work almost exclusively with diesel generators, but this dependency has a very high cost. Not only because diesel is expensive, but because transporting it is a logistics nightmare that requires mobilizing breakwinds and military personnel for each replenishment trip, which is usually annual. In addition, environmental risk is huge. The spills are frequent and, in such a fragile ecosystem, where the low temperatures slow down the decomposition, any discharge is a catastrophe. Not to mention the emissions of the combustion itself. The renewables did not endure. The problem of conventional renewable systems is that they do not work in Antarctica. The extreme cold causes the blades of the wind turbines to become brittle, the performance of the solar panels plummeted and the lithium batteries stop working. And that without counting the polar night: six months without seeing the sunlight. Provided to overcome these obstacles, Sun Hongbin did not walk with little ones. His team raised A 2,000 square meters laboratory At the Technological University of Taiyuan that, basically, it was a piece of Antarctica in China. To put to the limit each component, they simulated freezing temperatures, winds of more than 200 km/hyams artificial. How the hell did it. After four years of tests, the team found a robust system that combines wind energy, solar energy, batteries and, the key of everything, hydrogen. The wind turbines have a vertical design reminiscent of an egg blender, which reduces the structural tension and lowers the center of gravity so that the wind does not take them. The solar panels are mounted on a special frame made of reinforced plastic with carbon fiber. This material has a lower thermal conductivity than aluminum, so it does not deform so easily with sudden temperature changes. As for the batteries, instead of the typical lithium ions, they used lithium-ditana. Its internal chemistry facilitates the movement of ions at temperatures below zero. In addition, they put them in a thermal housing that takes advantage of their own residual heat to stay at an optimal temperature. The cake widge. During the polar summer, when there is a sun and spare wind, energy is used to feed an electrolyzer that separates water into oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen is stored in high pressure tanks. When winter arrives and the other sources falter, hydrogen is recombine with oxygen in a fuel pile to generate electricity. The only residue? Water and heat, which are recycled to heat the system itself. According to those responsible for the project, the base can work for about 48 hours only with the energy stored in the form of hydrogen. The way to follow. The integrated wind, sun, hydrogen and batteries system has a total capacity of about 230 kW, which It is 60% of the capacity Total Qinling generation. The remaining 40% continues to depend on diesel as support, but the savings is gigantic, so it has received praise from the international scientific community. This is the “first large -scale clean energy system in the world capable of working all year in a polar environment.” And there are already other countries investigating how to adopt it while China maintains its goal of reaching 100% renewable energy. Image | CCTV

Spain goes with such delay in floating wind that its neighbors are being advanced: Morocco and Portugal

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The industry begins to get impatient. It has been almost a year since it was approved Royal Decree 962/2024designed to give the exit gun to the marine wind in Spain. However, the ministerial order that must regulate the first auction has not yet seen the light, and there is also no official calendar with the next steps. In a sector that advances to the rhythm of the wind, the lack of movement begins to weigh. Short. The Wind Business Association (AEE) and the Marine Wind Forum have joined forces to launch a overwhelming message to the government: either, investments will end in other countries. In a joint statementthey have claimed the immediate publication of the bases of the auction and a schedule that gives medium and long term visibility. While Spain is still waiting, Portugal, France or Morocco advance with defined models and concrete projects. A more complex problem. According to AEElack of advances could cost Spain to create more than 7,500 jobs in coastal areas and stop contributing more than 2,000 million euros per year to GDP. In addition, the opportunity to lead a key technology such as floating wind –in which Spain has been a pioneer with world reference prototypes– It could evaporate if a minimum local market is not established. Spain has toilet industrial capabilities, appropriate port infrastructure, demonstrated technological experience – as the first floating prototype developer of the world – and Suitable areas identified in the planning plans of the maritime space (poem). But all that, without a local market that guarantees volume and continuity, is at risk. It has been stretching. In February of this year, the Minister for Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, announced that the Government would launch the first marine wind auction in 2025 and that an order would be published with the bases, According to the newspaper five days. Also The goal was reaffirmed to reach the 3 GW capacity installed in 2030, as established by the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC). But, today, the order has not gone to public consultation. And that is the first stone to launch any auction. From the sector, they denounce that there are no objective reasons that justify the delay and fear that the promises of auctions “in 2025” become another lost year. A wind leak. The main stumbling block is the lack of firm signs and a detailed roadmap. This has caused various companies –As AEE has warned– They are starting to divert their investments to other countries that offer greater certainty and speed. On the other hand, in neighboring countries the situation is being very different. For example, Portugal is about to define Your auction model. France has awarded Already a great project in the Mediterranean and prepares five more parks in the Vizcaya Gulf. Morocco, meanwhile, has presented A 1,000 MW project on the Atlantic coast for 2029. Meanwhile, Spain is still not a single marine kilowatt in commercial operation. Of the 278 MW of floating wind installed worldwide, according to data from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) June 2025, none is in Spain, although the country has been key in the construction of 100%exported components. In addition, the wind sector also claims that IDAE (Institute for Diversification and Saving Energy) be unlocked to modernize key infrastructure such as the ports of A Coruña, Castellón or Tarragona. Without those logistics nodes ready, the value chain weakens. The look in the Canary Islands. It has profiled as the ideal territory to launch this first pilot auction. The archipelago has a constant winda consolidated logistics chain, political and social consensus, and a high electricity generation cost that could be drastically reduced with marine wind. For AEECanary Islands is the “logical spearhead” to start the commercial development of this technology. Forecasts. The sector expects the Ministry to publish as soon as possible the public consultation for the Ministerial Order and define a clear calendar of upcoming auctions. Meanwhile, the global context does not expect. According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), the offshore market grew by 10% in 2024, reaching 83.2 GW installed. Spain is still in time to occupy a prominent place in the European leadership of the floating marine wind. But the opportunity window narrows. The ads are not enough: concrete decisions, clear regulation and political will are needed. Otherwise, the country runs the risk of seeing how others assume that strategic role. And with this, lose not only investment and employment, but a key opportunity to reindustrialize the economy and advance the energy transition. Image | Unspash Xataka | In Peru, a company has had an idea to take wind energy directly to your home: turbines as a lay way

The big problem of marine wind is cables. Germany has a plan to avoid them

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In the middle of the North Sea, an anchored barge off the German coast does not transport merchandise produces fuel. It is not science fiction: it is the first floating floor that converts wind, seawater and air into energy for the future. Short. In the port of Bremerhaven, Germany floats a rare platform. At first glance it looks like another industrial barge, but in reality it is a floating laboratory that prepares for something unpublished: to manufacture synthetic fuels directly in the sea. More in depth. The project His name is PTX-Wind and is part of the national H2Mare initiative, focused on the production of clean energy on the high seas. It is promoted by the Institute of Technology of Karlsruhe (Kit), together with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Technical University of Berlin. The installation has not yet left the port, but it is already ready for its next phase: operating in real conditions against Helgoland. The purpose of the kit with this test is clear: show that e-combustible in the high seas can be generated, without electricity or land infrastructure. No cables, network or land firm. One of the most striking things of this platform is that it is not connected to any electricity grid. It works totally autonomously, using only wind energy, seawater and the surrounding air. What you get from there transforms it into liquid fuels ready to use, without net emissions of CO₂. According to Professor Roland Dittmeyer, director of the Institute of Microprocess Engineering of the Kit and project coordinator, this installation not only seeks to demonstrate the technical viability of the system, but also learn to climb it for future large industrial platforms. The heart of the barge. Inside, this platform integrates several advanced technologies that, together, form a Power -to-X (PTX) chain (PTX). In other words, they convert renewable electricity into fuels or other chemicals. The giant laboratory has a first phase of Direct air capture (DAC)which extracts carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere. After that, desalination to transform seawater into water suitable for electrolysis. That water is divided into hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysis fed by wind energy. Finally, a synthesis is used Fischer-Tropsch to combine hydrogen with CO₂ and generate liquid hydrocarbons, also known as e-combustible. The entire system has been designed to operate in a modular, flexible and disconnected way of the electricity grid, adapting to the natural intermittency of the wind. This allows maintaining active production even in variable conditions, a key aspect for its replication at an industrial scale. First in your class? While there are other hydrogen production projects on land or offshore wind platforms, none until now had gathered all these pieces in a single floating and autonomous structure. According to Interesting Engineeringthis is the first plant that converts marine renewable energy into liquid fuel without depending on the mainland or electrical networks. The point is that not everything can plug. Today, many sectors already advance towards electrification: cars, heating, even some trains. But there are industries – as aviation, maritime transport or heavy chemistry – that still depend on liquid fuels with high energy density. The e-fuels, like those produced by this platform, They are a neutral alternative in carbon that could replace diesel or kerosene without the need to completely redesign airplanes or ships. And the best: they do not compete for agricultural lands nor consume fresh water. When operating directly in the sea, they take advantage of the wind potential and avoid costly terrestrial infrastructure. According to the Federal Ministry of Investigation of Germany (BMBF)also helps relieve pressure on local electrical networks. Not only diesel. Although for now the main objective is liquid fuels, the team behind PTX-Wind is also investigating other possible production routes, such as Synthetic methane (compatible with current gas networks), The green methanol (useful for maritime transport or chemical industry) and renewable ammonia (It works as a hydrogen bearer or as fertilizer without emissions). The sea as a new energy border. More than a prototype, the PTX-Wind platform represents a scalable and adaptable model for the production of fuels in the high seas. Its modular design would allow to replicate this technology in different coastal areas of the world, creating a distributed network of floating refineries of clean energy. At a time when climatic solutions are urgent and promises often stay on paper, this floating barge is a tangible example that innovation is already out there, literally floating in the sea. Image | Unspash and Kit Xataka | There is a place where Spain is losing a good part of the renewable electricity that generates: the Toledo-Ciudad Real-Granada axis

He is watering the desert with wind energy

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The impulse for clean energy has entered the Spanish field strongly. In many places, the new energy projects collide with neighbors, landscapes and life forms that carry generations there. In the north, there are neighborhood protests For the proliferation of wind turbines that alter the landscape. In agricultural areas of the south, solar panels compete with traditional crops. And meanwhile, in Lanzarote, they have found in the wind a tool for something very different: water. Transforming irrigation. As reported The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food through a press release, have launched an action to modernize the irrigation of 300 hectares in the northeast of Lanzarote, specifically in the municipalities of Tinajo and Teguise. The intervention, which is executed by the Public Company Seiasa, will focus on horticultural crops and will benefit 667 irrigators, although other sources raise this figure to 697, as He has published the province. The total investment amounts to 24.4 million euros, not counting the Canarian indirect general tax (IGIC). The Lanzarote council has contributed a quarter of the budget and has acquired the land where the rafts are located, As he pointed out Diario de Lanzarote. The rest is financed through the recovery, transformation and resilience (PRTR) plan, with European funds Next Generation. Watering with seawater. The work is articulated around an inverse osmosis, currently under construction together with the northeast treatment plant in Lanzarote, in the area of ​​the saint. From there, the water will be driven through a pumping station to two agricultural areas, where it will be stored in a tank of 4,000 cubic meters in the knife and in a raft of 38,000 cubic meters in tincheche, such as Diario de Lanzarote has detailed. The entire infrastructure will have a telemedida and telecontrol system, which will allow automation and optimize the use of water, something crucial in a territory where each drop counts. Part of the energy that feeds the system will come from a wind turbine. It is not the first or the last. The use of wind turbines in Lanzarote to boost irrigation is not an isolated case, but part of a broader trend in the Canarian archipelago: take advantage of their extreme natural conditions to test technological solutions that could be key in the energy and agricultural future. The combination of desalination, clean energy and automation makes these islands live laboratories. In other areas of the archipelago it is also being experienced with innovative solutions. In iron, for example, they have been trying more than a decade Energy self -sufficiency with renewablesalthough they continue to partially depend on diesel. In Gran Canaria, a laptop fed by renewable energy has been installed to demonstrate that Drinking water can be produced without resorting to fossil fuels. In addition, on the islands as a whole It is exploring The use of the strength of waves to generate drinking water, through a system that converts the energy of the waves into electricity that feeds a desalination plant. These experiences, distributed by different islands, are part of the same impulse: try, rehearse, anticipate. An agricultural laboratory. This type of infrastructure suggests more than the improvement of irrigation in a specific area. In a country increasingly affected by drought and The energy increasethe viability of the field will depend largely on how resources as basic as water or energy are managed. In this context, Lanzarote, with its extreme conditions, works almost as an agricultural laboratory. And what is rehearsed there – or not – can mark the way for other agricultural areas that seek sustainable alternatives without giving up producing. The combination of unconventional sources of water and renewable energies does not solve all the dilemmas of the sector, but opens a space to rethink the agricultural model at a time when the current system shows clear signs of exhaustion. Image | Ignacioromeroperera and Unspash Xataka | A perfect storm looms over Spanish olive oil: heat, pests and a problem of productive capacity

In Peru, a company has had an idea to take wind energy directly to your home: turbines as a lay way

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Lego pieces have accompanied generations as a way to create without limits: blocks that are stacked on each other to form houses, cities, rockets, whatever the imagination allows. Over time, the designs became more sophisticated, with complex structures and realistic themes. But in essence, everything is still based on a simple idea: build, piece by piece. Now this idea must be extrapolated to another context as important as the generation of energy. In a world where taking advantage of every centimeter of space is vital – especially in cities – thinking of installing a wind turbine at home may seem crazy, but it is not so far from reality. A new design. A Peruvian startup, Eolic wall, has developed A new way of understanding wind energy, moving away from the traditional model of huge blades anchored in the landscape. Instead, they have created a system of modular, compact and stackable wind cells, with a square shape. Innovation. This technology has an aerodynamic design that allows speeding of the wind that crosses them, which allows to generate more electricity even with moderate breezes. Unlike traditional turbines, Eolic Wall rotor It is sustained by a peripheral ring that improves wind capture and allows a more compact design. Also, thanks to its modular design It can be stacked vertical or horizontally as construction pieces, adapting to the environment and energy demand. You can add more units over time. Willn’t there be such stuck problems from another? A common question is: “Willn’t several be saved from each other?” In traditional wind farms, turbulence between turbines reduce their performance if they are too together. However, Eolic Wall has solved this problem with an internal aerodynamic chamber, which protects the flow of the wind inside each cell. Thus interference is avoided and can be installed in places where it was unthinkable to put a turbine, such as buildings or urban courtyards. A unique peculiarity. The use of permanent strategically located magnets reduces almost zero the friction of the system. This not only improves performance, but also reduces wear and extends the life of the cells. In addition, by eliminating almost all friction thanks to its magnetic system, common maintenance and mechanical wear problems affect conventional wind turbines are faced. When will they be available? Although there is not yet an official mass launch date, Eolic Wall already It has been recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the best startups in Peru in 2024. It is currently developing pilots and Looking for alliances Strategic to climb your technology. Other systems. Eolic Wall is not alone in this tendency towards miniaturization and urbanization of wind energy. There are other interesting proposals, such as LTO TURBINA ARCHIMEDES (LIAM F1)which is committed to a helical design inspired by the Archimedes spiral to capture the wind from any direction. For its part, The turbines flowerknown for its aesthetic design in the form of a flower and its ability to function in proximity without losing efficiency. Self -consumption is no longer just solar. The future of energy self -consumption no longer depends solely on Fill the roofs of solar panels. Wind energy is gaining land in the urban environment, and proposals such as Eolic Wall are marking the way. Because maybe shortly, you can see Small stacked turbines as if they were Lego pieces. And we will not say it figuratively. Image | EOLIC WALL and Mathijs Dubbeldam Attribution-Nancommercial 2.0 Xataka | The University of Oxford has found reservations of an energy source for 170,000 years. And he has the recipe to exploit them

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