£100bn investment (200bn USD) in renewable energy has been proposed meaning that thousands of wind turbines will be built.

The prime minister has described these plans as his “green revolution” and suggested it is to be the country’s largest energy initiative since nuclear power.

The North Sea – formally a huge source of energy for the UK with its oil and gas supplies – has now peaked and Brown wants this to be turned into a stretch of water oozing with wind power.

Middelgrunden in Copenhagen’s harbour (see photo above) has long been a wind farm I have yearned should become a blueprint on a global scale. It serves as a good example of what the view off the UK’s east coast may one day resemble. Quite beautiful.

Should these proposals come to fruition, then they should ensure we meet the EU’s agenda that states that countries must produce 15% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020.

As reported in the Guardian, the good news doesn’t stop here:

“Householders will be encouraged to reduce their bills through energy-saving incentives due to be announced later this summer. Within a decade … every householder able to do so [should] fit loft or cavity wall insulation, install low-energy light bulbs, and use low-energy consumer goods.”

Perhaps the political green tide is turning here in the UK. A man who has caused many green campaigners absolute anguish has listened and begun that revolution.

Sources:

Greenpeace

The Guardian

Image Source:

andjohan at Flickr under a creative commons license.

Much of the push for cleaner environmental standards over the past decade have come out of Europe; the German Chancellor Angela Merkel being a prime example. So it comes as no surprise to see that the European Parliament has set a target of having 25% of their energy come from renewable energy by 2020. Of that 25%, half is planned to come from wind energy.

Europe is already well on their way to making this happen as well, with 5 countries (Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Germany) having more than 5% of their energy provided by wind farms. Currently there exists 80 GW of installed wind capacity in the EU, though only 3.5 GW of that is derived from wind farms built off-shore.

Off-shore installations are especially significant in Europe, due to the large amount of shallow waters. Deeper waters incur further expenses for wind farms, which necessitate additional engineering challenges in the deeper and subsequently rougher waters.

If the 2020 goal is met, wind energy could total 38% of the EU-15’s Kyoto Protocol obligations, and avoid 133 mega-tons of CO2 in the process. Regardless of any plans though, if these plans are to be met, continued government and business involvement is a must, as the will power is there, the money simply isn’t.

Image Courtesy of phault via Flickr

Source via ENN

More from the GO Network

World’s Largest Wind Farm Growing Up in South Dakota

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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.

Back in 2004, James Dehlsen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Clipper Windpower of Carpinteria, Calif., told The Associated Press that the company intended to build a $3 billion wind complex with 1,000 turbines that could produce 3,000 megawatts of power, based in South Dakota.

Well, according to the senior vice president, Bob Gates, Clipper hope to double that output to 6,000 megawatts.

Currently, FPL Energy holds the number one spot for largest wind farm. The Horse Hollow 1, 2 and 3 projects add up to a sizeable 735 megawatts produced. Running 421 turbines and stretched across three counties of Texas, it will be dwarfed by the Clipper project.

In fact, according to Gates, each preliminary stage that is built — the plan will be to build the entire complex in stages — will be larger than the Texas plant.