Green Options

President-elect Barack Obama spent part of his Jan. 8 speech at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., discussing alternative energy, specifically doubling production over the next three years. At the same time, two companies took the opportunity to announce green-friendly initiatives of their own.

Mini turbines will be installed inside the UK’s gas pipeline grid later this year in an attempt to gather energy from pipeline pressure. The set-up will be tested in east London and should produce 20MW by 2010. If successful, future installations across the country could produce up to 1GW. That’s the same amount of power produced by a coal or nuclear power station.

Billionaire American entrepreneur T. Boone Pickens is optimistic that the Obama administration will bring the United States’ energy infrastructure into the new millennium by implementing his plan for energy independence.

After eight long years there is finally a cause for hope here in the United States. George Bush may still be in office, but right now all America’s problems are President-Elect Obama’s to solve (see Obama Recession, thanks Rush), but he seems ready for them.

Virginia-based Catch the Wind has an innovative solution for improving wind turbine efficiency— laser beams. The company’s fiber-optic laser system gives turbines up to 20 extra seconds to adjust to changes in gusts and wind direction. That may not sound like much, but Catch the Wind claims that its system can improve turbine output by 10 percent.

Utility company Southern California Edison (SCE) has confirmed plans to build a massive 909 MW wind farm in Oregon. When completed, the facility will be one of the largest fully permitted wind power sites anywhere in the world.

The installation will be located in Morrow and Gilliam counties in North-Central Oregon, and will consist of 303 3MW wind turbines spread across a 30-mile radius. The project, called Caithness Shepherd’s Flat, will generate around two billion kWh of energy, roughly 10 per cent of SCE’s total alternative energy portfolio.

Earthfirst Canada has announced that British Columbia’s first commercial wind turbine—a 3 MW Vestas V90— was fully assembled on October 6th about 50 kilometers northwest of Chetwynd, British Columbia.

Last week, E.ON Climate and Renewables officially opened its massive new wind farm in Roscoe, Texas. The site is now capable of generating an impressive 335.5 MW of electricity, a figure set to rise to 781.5 MW when the farm is completed in mid-2009.

When finished, the Roscoe site will become one of the world’s largest wind farms, boasting a total of 627 wind turbines capable of powering more than 250,000 of the state’s homes.

The two projects, which each include 20 underwater turbines, will be finished within three years and will provide power to 40,000 homes.

ScottishPower Renewables will apply for planning permission next year to build the two farms in Northern Ireland’s seabed. The turbines will be manufactured in Scotland in an intentional boost to the country’s green-collar job market.

The Portland Business Journal reports that Oregon has just been given the go-ahead by The Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council to build a 909 MW wind farm in the north-central part of the state. That’s enough energy to power 200,000 homes.

The Shepherd’s Flat Wind Farm will contain 303 wind turbines and will double the state’s wind-generating capacity. It will boost the local economy by creating 250 to 300 new jobs, and lease payments to landowners will supplement farm incomes.

Hope you enjoy! I certainly had a lot of fun making this video.

Afterwards, if you like, you can read more about South Korea’s renewable energy future here.

It’s sunny and hot in Cloncurry, Australia, so much so that the Queensland government is planning construction of a $7 million solar thermal power station to provide the community of under 5000 with 24 hour a day electricity.

Anna Bligh, the Premier of Queensland, announced the town will be powered by a 10-megawatt plant using 8000 mirrors to reflect sunlight onto graphite blocks. Water will be pumped through the blocks creating steam which will power a turbine electricity generator. According to the news source the amount of water used to generate the steam is no more than the amount of rainfall the area receives in a year.

The plan will deliver about 30 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, enough to provide electricity for the community 24 hours a day. If all goes as planned, the small town will be buzzing with electricity by 2010.