Breakthrough in wind turbine technology makes cheap energy

Wind energy production below 4 cents kW/h competes with coal and gas. 

Great news for Australian mining sector.

US company Boulder Wind Power has come up with a turbine design which produces electricity at or below $0.04 per kilowatt-hour. This puts wind in direct competition with fossil fuel power generation. The company has come up with a generator design that does not require the scarce metal dysprosium. This metal is very expensive and has been the stumbling bock for wind turbines as well as electric vehicles.

The scarcity and cost of rare earth metals are the choke for a clean future at this point. Luckily for Australia, the most resource rich nation on the planet, we are second only to china when it comes to rare earth reserves. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/goodbye-fossil-fuel-dependence-hello-rare-earth-dependence.php

The design also requires less structural steel than traditional turbine construction and does not require expensive laminated steels. No doubt the new design does use some form of rare earth metals, just not dysprosium. The mining corporation Molycorp, Inc. has announced plans to invest in Boulder Wind Power.

So there is no doubt they are positioning as a supplier to reap the rewards of this expanding energy industry sector. Having solved the need for the rarest earth metal, this technology should see a marked increase and expansion in the use of permanent magnet turbines around the world. This is big news, the director of the United States National Renewable Energy Laboratory is all over this story, giving it big ups.

Well Molycorp, keep your eyes wide open would be my advice. Because once BHP Billiton get involved in this market your market share will look like chook food compared to a whole bullock spit roast.