Interest in the construction of large wind farms is growing from year to year in Armenia. This business also attracts the emirates company “Access Infra Central Asia Limited”, which installed an 80-meter tower to measure wind flows in Gegharkunik region. It will be put into operation in the next few days, and in April it is planned to install another tower, but on other location. On March 30 last year an agreement was signed between the Emirates company and the Republic of Armenia on leasing land plots in different regions of the country with total area of 1,250 hectares for the construction of wind farms with total capacity of 150 MW. Another company which is interested in building of wind farms in Armenia is the Spanish Acciona Energia Global S.L. In March last year the Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources of the Republic of Armenia signed with this company a memorandum of understanding on construction of wind farms with total capacity of 100-150 MW. The company already began work on assessing the potential of winds and installed two monitoring stations with height of 80 meters each and one “Sodar” system. The first, not only in Armenia but also in all Caucasus, wind farm with total capacity of 2.6 MW was putted into operation on Pushkin Mounting Pass in December 2005. On this site, it is planned to build wind power stations with a total capacity up to 50 MW. In 2003, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the United States compiled a map of wind energy potential of the Republic of Armenia, according to which the economically justified wind energy potential is estimated at 450 MW with electricity production totaling 1.26 billion kWh/annum. The program also identified the main promising regions where it is advisable to install wind turbines. According to some other estimates, theoretically the capacity of wind power farms in Armenia can be up to 5000 MW. In order to build wind farms, another company, Zod Wind, completed monitoring on the territory of the Sotk Pass. The company intends to build the wind farm “Zod” with a capacity of 20 MW. In turn, the Armenian-Italian company Ar Energy completed monitoring on the territory of the Karakhach Pass in the Shirak region and received a license to build the wind farm Karachach-1 with capacity of up to 20 MW. In the future Ar Energy plans to increase total capacity up to 140 MW. As well as within the framework of the European Union's TACIS program “Supporting Armenia's Energy Policy” monitoring was launched at the Semenovka Pass of lake Sevan region on the basis of which a preliminary feasibility study was prepared for the construction of a wind farm with a total capacity of 35MW.

How cool would it be to tell people you live inside of a wind turbine? Designed for the port city of Rotterdam, the Dutch "Windwheel" is a concept for a sustainable landmark that would be able to house 72 apartments within a circular steel and glass frame, while also serving as a silent, motionless wind turbine. In addition to harvesting energy from the wind, the structure would be equipped with facilities to capture rainwater, recycle tap water and also produce biogas from the residents' organic waste. The "Windwheel" is composed of two rings built on an underground foundation and surrounded by wetlands so as to give the structure the appearance of floating. The outer ring houses 40 rotating cabins to provide visitors with impressive views of Rotterdam-much as the London Eye does in the UK. The inner ring houses 72 apartments, 160 hotel rooms, and commercial outlets and is topped off with a restaurant. Perhaps the most striking detail of the 174 meter tall "Windwheel", other than its appearance, is the turbine that fills the inner ring of the building. The electrostatic wind energy converter (EWICON) is a technology that was developed at TU Delft and converts wind energy with a framework of steel tubes into electricity without moving mechanical parts. This means no noise and much easier maintenance. Within the interior of the massive ringed structure would be a set of steel tubes ringed with electrodes, sort of like a tennis racket. Sprayers would then emit charged water particles, and electricity would be generated when the wind pushes these particles past the electrodes. According to architect Duzan Doepel of Doepel Strijkers, the firm designing the project, the idea is to create an icon like the London Eye that will both attract tourists and showcase cutting-edge technology. He expects they may be able to finish the structure within five to six years, and estimates suggest it may attract up to 1.5 million visitors a year. The proposed "Windwheel" is also equipped with solar PVs and a climactic facade to make the best use of natural resources. The building's water usage is also carefully managed, with rainwater captured atop the structure, and tap water fed into the wetlands that surround the "Windwheel". Furthermore, biogas is also produced from the residents' waste.

London Array just placed its last wind turbine and switched online as the world's largest wind farm. Located in the Thames Estuary, UK, the farm consists of 175 turbines that will power the area from Essex to Margate. Owned by Dong Energy, Masdar and EON, the 141 turbine (630 MW) phase one of the London Array is now fully functional. London is already known for being home to the world's largest solar bridge at Blackfriars , and now Kent joins the renewable energy elite with London Array, which is only around 50 miles from the capital. Under construction since March of 2011, the London Array's first Siemens 3.6MW turbine kicked into power just six months ago. Since then, the remainder of the first phase has quickly come into fruition, and since last Thursday has been pumping wind power into the grid. The next phase will be to get the remaining 34 turbines online, as well as to bury remaining cables. Phase one itself is anticipated to provide power for half a million homes a year, which will save 925 thousand tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. Aside from becoming the world's largest wind farm, the developers behind the London Array are also using the project as a case study, in order to lower costs for large scale wind farms in the future. The ultimate goal for DONG Energy is to create offshore wind farm projects that yield usable wind power at around US$ 152 per megawatt hour by 2020.

Belgium is set to construct an artificial island in the North Sea that will be used solely as storage for wind energy. Announcing the plans earlier this week, Belgium's North Sea minister Johan Lanotte explained that although Belgium has the capacity to produce a great deal of wind energy, much of the power produced during high winds exceeds the needs of the grid, and is wasted. By creating a dependable storage system for the wind energy, Belgium hopes that this innovative solution will help the nation to transition away from nuclear power and towards greater use of renewables. Only around 4 percent of Belgium's energy presently comes from wind power-the rest of the grid is supplied largely by nuclear power. However Belgium, as with Germany and Switzerland, has decided to shut down its nuclear power program by 2025 in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in 2011. The project for the artificial island is part of the state's larger initiative to reorient its power supply towards renewable energy sources. The European Wind Energy Association predicts that, by managing to store energy produced by using wind power, Belgium could expand its wind power capacity to over 4.000 megawatts by 2020. As an alternative to nuclear power and fossil fuel, wind power has so far faced major problems, largely due to insufficient ways to store the generated power. When the wind dies down, energy production must be backed up by a power source, which makes it expensive to operate. "We have a lot of energy from the wind mills and sometimes it just gets lost because there isn't enough demand for the electricity," said a spokeswoman for Belgium's North Sea minister Johan Vande Lanotte. The doughnut-shaped island will store energy by pumping water out of a hollow space in the middle and allowing it to flow back into the reservoir by turning a turbine to generate electricity. The electricity can then be sent back to the mainland.

A groundbreaking ceremony is hosted last week in celebration of the start of construction of Japan's largest solar and wind power plant, located in Tahara City. The major project will be spread over 800 thousand square meters and is estimated to generate 67.5 thousand megawatt hours of electricity each year which would be enough to power 90 percent of the homes in Tahara City with green energy. It is also thought that the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions each year will be approximately 32 thousand tones. The solar and wind power plant is part of a collaboration of seven firms (Mitsui Chemicals, Mitsui & Co, C-Tech Corporation, Toagosei Co, Toshiba Corporation, Toray Industries, and Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co) who initiated the project last October, with permission granted in September 2012. Design and construction on the plant is US$ 225 million with the majority of the money being sourced through loans from the Development Bank of Japan. The participating companies will maintain a cooperative technological relationship with the Chubu Electric Power Co., and will acquire new technology and knowledge unique to the nation's largest solar energy generation facility.