Home/Posts Tagged ‘wind’
Posts Tagged ‘wind’
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Jul 3rd, 2012,
The share of power supplied by renewable energy in the UK has gone up by 30% from last year. The first quarter of 2012 showed that power generated by wind, sea, solar, other hydro electricity and bioenergy provided 11% of Britain’s energy, compared to the first quarter of 2011′s 7.7%. In 2009 it was just 3%. The UK has pledged that by 2020 it will produce 15% of its power from ‘clean’ energy sources. Other big changes in energy production were seen in the areas of gas, coal and nuclear – and it’s not all good news. From the…
Tags: gas, renewable energy, UK, wind
Conservation, Apr 18th, 2012,
American billionaire and erstwhile presidential candidate Donald Trump is campaigning against wind energy in Scotland. Why? Because he thinks the presence of wind turbines will deter patrons of the golf resort he plans to construct on the Scottish coast in Aberdeenshire. In a submission to Scottish Parliament, Trump claimed that wind farms will end tourism in Scotland and ruin the environment. The business magnate, reality TV star and son of a real estate tycoon threatened to pull his golf resort project out of Scotland if the wind project went head, claiming that Scotland will “go broke”. A Scottish Government spokesman…
Tags: Donald, energy, golf, resort, Scotland, Trump, wind, wind farm
Climate Change, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, Mar 20th, 2012,
China may still be overwhelmingly dependent on fossil fuels for power (especially coal) but the country’s rapid economic boom and consequent insatiable hunger for energy is causing it to explore and exploit all avenues, including massive wind and solar projects. While the US is going natural gas crazy and despite plenty of solar possibilities, Australia is still in the thrall of cheap coal, China is embracing greener energy sources. Bear in mind China is still the largest emitter of greenhouse gasses and has a less-than-stellar record when it comes to toxic pollution. But the market is driving this still centrally…
Tags: australia, China, desert, energy, Gansu, Green, Solar, wind
Climate Change, Jul 26th, 2011,
The premise is pretty simple: There are places in the world where the wind blows fairly strong. This free, natural source of power has been used for centuries to grind grain and now it’s increasingly being harnessed by turbines to generate electrical power. Renewable, basically free electricity. Who could possibly have a problem with that. OK, fossil fuel companies might not like clean energy moving in on their business. And then there are those wealthy folk who flee the noise, congestion and pollution of the big cities in search of a bucolic idyll. They don’t like wind turbines spoiling their…
Tags: australia, energy, Europe, power, Romania, wind, wind farm
Nature, Politics, Jun 14th, 2011,
With over 37 million inhabitants, California is by far the most populated state in the US. Despite its enormous physical area of 160,000 miles (414,000 square km) California still has 6 times the population density of its northern neighbor, Oregon. Oregon is lush, diverse and wild, with mountains, rugged coastline, forests and desert. Long known as a state with strong environmental policies, Oregon is increasingly becoming a large supplier of renewable energy to California. An area that spans parts of Oregon and Washington State is soon to become home the largest wind farm in the world. Who will buy all…
Tags: Bonneville Power Administration, BPA, California, hydro, northwest, Oregon, renewable energy, salmon, turbines, wind, wind farm
Green living, Oct 1st, 2010,
Investment in wind turbines and solar panels has paid dividends for over 800 Italian communities, which produce enough renewable energy that they are able to sell electricity back to the grid. A survey by the Italian environmental organization Legambiente (League for the Environment) shows that small municipalities in Italy are benefiting from new renewable energy plants, which are being constructed due to the southern European country’s high electricity rates. Though Italy as a whole is behind the rest of the European Union in renewable energy production as well as on other environmental issues, some parts of the country are responding…
Tags: electricity, energy, Italy, New York Times, power, renewable, Solar, Tocco, wind
Green living, Politics, Sep 20th, 2010,
Back in August I wrote about ‘Portugal’s green energy revolution’ as detailed by a New York Times article on the sunny, windy and relatively unspoiled coastal European nation. Portugal’s evolving energy policies continue to garner international attention from investors, industry, politicians and the media. Industrial market research firm SBI Energy has much to say about Portugal’s ‘sweeping clean energy initiatives’, including this: The country is quickly emerging as a “green” trendsetter due to its determination to reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels by channeling its wind, solar, and hydropower resources and by improving smart grid capabilities and exploring the…
Tags: energy, feed-in-tariffs, FIT, Green, Portugal, power, renewable, Solar, UK, wind
Politics, Sep 16th, 2010,
On Tuesday Italian police seized Mafia-linked assets worth an unprecedented €1.5 billion from a Sicilian businessman known as the ‘Lord of the Winds’. The seizure of holdings from 43 mainly renewable energy companies included land, sports cars and bank accounts. It signifies a shift in operations for Italy’s mafia; from the illegal dumping of toxic waste to the laundering of money through solar and wind power projects. According to members of the Italian press, this transition has been going on for years. From a France 24 report: Throughout Italy, organised crime has invested heavily in renewable energies and in waste…
Tags: crime, energy, Italian, Italy, mafia, organized, power, renewable, Sicilian, Solar, subsidies, wind
Politics, Videos & Documentaries, Sep 14th, 2010,
Xinjiang autonomous region is China’s frontier land for renewable energy. China has poured cash into wind energy projects in Xinjiang, fuelling a boom in the country’s largest and most western region. Because of the Chinese government’s investment in renewables, like the wind farms of Xinjiang, China has recently been named the best place to invest in green energy. But for many people in Xinjiang, particularly the Muslim Uyghur community who make up its largest ethnic group, the ‘wind rush’ is just another stage of colonization by the People’s Republic of China. Uyghers have for the most part not benefitted from…
Tags: boom, China, energy, Muslim, Uyghur, wind, Xinjiang
Climate Change, Pollution, Aug 30th, 2010,
Projected astronomic growth in transport and wind energy development during the next 20 years threaten the already imperiled Baltic sea, according to a new report by the WWF. The report, entitled ‘Future Trends in the Baltic Sea’ warns that almost all maritime activity is projected to expand over the next two decades, which will add enormous stresses to the ecosystem of perhaps the world’s largest brackish sea. Many sectors, however, have no strategic growth plans, which makes their futures difficult to predict. From the WWF report ‘Future Trends in the Baltic Sea’: In addition to the pressures from place-based maritime…
Tags: Baltic, ecosystem, energy, growth, report, sea, traffic, transport, warns, wild west, wind, WWF
Climate Change, Politics, Aug 11th, 2010,
During a trip last month from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon to its second largest city Porto, in the north of the country, I noticed a lot of wind turbines dotting the landscape. I’m not the only one either. The New York Times published a piece yesterday on Portugal’s green makeover. Wind, hydro, solar and wave power are fueling the small Iberian republic’s move from fossil fuels to renewable energy – and they’ve got the resources to do it. Few countries in Europe have these key ingredients: lots of wind and sun, suitable rivers and a coastline complete with powerful…
Tags: electricity, energy, Green, New York Times, power, renewable, resource, Solar, source, wind
Politics, ,
The government of Spain’s electric vehicle scheme has so far failed to take off. Spain’s plans to fill its roads with electric cars, which can top up at service stations and converted phone booths across the country, have hit a bump in the road. So far only 16 electric cars have been sold in Spain this year. This is a 16-fold improvement over last year, but far short of the goal of 2,000 for this year and seems destined to fail to meet next year’s 20,000 or 2014’s 100,000 targets. Yet the Spanish government-backed Wind Power and Electric Vehicles group…
Tags: cars, electric, energy, finance, fossil fuel, power, renewables, Spain, Spanish, subsidies, vehicles, wind, Zapatero
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Aug 10th, 2010,
Britain’s energy secretary Chris Huhne has lifted the ban on local authorities selling back surplus electricity into the national power grid. The plan is to encourage local councils to generate their own renewable energy by installing solar panels and wind turbines on council owned property, including both homes and public buildings. Any extra electricity can be sold back to the grid and provide much needed income to local authorities. From an article in the Guardian: At present only 0.01% of electricity in England is generated by local authority-owned renewables. In Germany the equivalent figure is 100 times higher. The hope…
Tags: authorities, Britain, British, buildings, carbon, council, developers, energy, government, Green, grid, homes, local, plant, power, renewable, Solar, UK, wind
Green living, Politics, Aug 6th, 2010,
If the unusually hot weather in Europe this summer is an environmental ‘cloud’ of bad news – forest fires in Russia, algal blooms in the Baltic, etc. – then an increase in capacity for renewable energy in Germany is the ‘silver lining’. A new report by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy Systems Technology shows progress in German solar power passing expectations. Along with wind, hydro and biomass, solar is expected to cover all of Germany’s energy needs – and ahead of schedule. From a Deutsche Welle report: Theoretically, because things have developed much faster than expected one…
Tags: energy, German, Germany, nuclear, power, renewable, Solar, wind
Climate Change, Politics, Aug 4th, 2010,
You might think you can do a better job than the UK government at cutting CO2, becoming more energy efficient and deciding how Britain should move towards a low carbon economy. Well the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change let’s you try it out – in a computer simulation, of course. The Independent’s environment editor loves it, as he explains in a recent article: Doing it yourself gives an unusual and vivid insight into the difficulties faced by real policymakers in grappling with our energy future. The software tool that makes it possible is called the 2050 Pathways Calculator…
Tags: Britain, carbon, Climate change, cuts, DECC, Department, emissions, energy, environmental, government, Green, Guardian, Independent, McCarthy, policy, power, schemes, UK, wind
Science & Technology, Jul 27th, 2010,
Latin America has huge potential for wind and solar power. Brazil already has large and long-established hydropower and biofuel industries, but along with Mexico, Colombia and other Latin American countries, they are increasingly looking towards European models of renewable energy. From an article in Scientific American: European wind farms dwarf Latin American efforts in terms of production today, but this will change dramatically if Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and other countries in the region continue their wind energy efforts. Whereas Spain generates 20,000 megawatts from wind energy and plans to double that capacity by 2020, Brazil has a capacity to produce…
Tags: America, Brazil, Chile, energy, EU, European, industries, Latin, Mexico, Peru, power, renewable, Solar, Solarpack, Spain, T-Solar, wind
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Jul 24th, 2010,
Despite the recent economic downturn, the green energy market has grown to the point of eclipsing fossil fuel – at least in terms of the creation of new power capacity in Europe and the United States. In 2009 renewables accounted for over 50% of new power capacity in the US and 60% in the Europe. Green power also grew globally. From an article in Red Herring magazine: Nearly 80 GW of renewable power capacity was added globally, including 31 GW of hydro and 48 GW of non-hydro capacity. Wind power and solar PV additions totaled a record high of 38…
Tags: capacity, China, energy, global, Green, investment, North Sea, power, renewable, Solar, UK, UN, wind
Climate Change, Politics, Jul 21st, 2010,
The UK’s independent advisory body established under the Climate Change Act has stated that Britain needs to invest more in low carbon technologies in order to meet its goal of cutting 1990 emissions levels by 80% by the year 2050. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) was established with the purpose of reporting to the UK’s parliament regarding the country’s progress in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The fear is that Britain will be left behind if it does not fund technological development in green industries such as solar and wind. The CCC’s report comes after the UK’s new coalition government…
Tags: Britain, carbon, CCC, change, climate, committee, emissions, energy, government, Green, invest, low, Solar, tech, technologies, UK, wind
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Jul 9th, 2010,
Germany’s Federal Environment Agency claims that the European nation could get all its power from renewables by 2050. At the moment Germany derives 16% of its electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind – a threefold increase from 1995. Some 300,000 jobs in the renewable energy field have been created since 2000 and Germany trails only the US in wind energy production. From a Reuters report: The government has set goals of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 to 2020, and by 80 to 85 percent by 2050. That goal could be achieved if Germany…
Tags: 2050, electricity, emissions, energy, EU, European, Germany, power, renewables, Solar, sources, wind
Green living, Science & Technology, Jun 21st, 2010,
A massive 10-megawatt wind turbine is currently being built in Northumberland, UK for offshore wind power generation – believed by many to be the green future of British power. The first example is a towering 574 ft (175 m) turbine of mammoth proportions named ‘Britannia’ whose three 500 ft (150 m) diameter 30-ton blades could power 10,000 homes. The Clipper Windpower Marine, team who designed the turbine, clearly believes that bigger is better, and sees no practical size limits in building giant wind turbines. The Britannia alone could provide the same amount of power as two million barrels of oil…
Tags: big, Britannia, Clipper, giant, Green, marine, offshore, power, turbine, UK, wind, Windpower
