Green Options

Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.

New York City is famous for many things, but wind power generation is not one of them—yet. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke yesterday at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas about his renewable energy policy proposal for the city.

Bloomberg expressed interest in off-shore wind farms, small-scale wind installations, and and tidal power systems, noting that some estimates predict that wind energy could supply 10 percent of the city’s energy needs within 10 years.

Of course, there are barriers to Bloomberg’s proposal. Many people complain about the unattractiveness of wind turbines, and these complaints certainly can’t be ignored in such a densely populated city. And at least one study claims that urban rooftop windmills are actually net carbon emitters.

This week at ZapRoot: The Strandbeest behemoth (which we featured here on CleanTechnica) is unlike anything you’ve seen before. Ice in both poles is melting. Totally Useless Crap is back!

Last week, EcoWorldly hosted a renewable energy festival, highlighting energy projects and issues around the globe. Here, with links back to the original articles, are some inspiring successes and dismal failures in renewable energy as they were explored by our team of international environmental writers this past week.

To keep up with all international environmental news and views from EcoWorldly, subscribe to our RSS feed.

The construction of  31 offshore wind farms, to be ready by the year 2012, is not being totally accepted by Spaniards.

People from Cadiz, Galicia and Tarragona, Spain, are not very comfortable with the project. The objection: offshore wind farms may spoil the view.

Certainly big wind turbines make the landscape uglier, not only in the mountains but also in the sea, at least if they are not well planned.

As South American nations rush to achieve energy independence and become the next Venezuela, oil exploration and treasure hunts for profitable and reliable energy sources have increased in countries like Uruguay, Ecuador, Brazil, and Chile.

This past Friday, the U.S. company Pure Biofuels opened up a new biodiesel plant in Lima, Peru. It plans to produce 52 million gallons of biodiesel next year, about 35% of which will meet Peru’s internal demands for the alternative fuel. The rest will be exported. The plant has the capacity to increase its production threefold, and hopes to eventually produce 156 million gallons of biodiesel per year. Production has yet to start at the new plant, but will later this year.

The new plant is only the second to open its doors in Peru. The other biodiesel plant opened in January and will produce about 48 million gallons each year. So with biodiesel on the rise, could this be the start of a new energy boom coming out of Peru? It is difficult to know.

The New York Times’ Thomas L. Friedman sent a postcard from Copanhagen recently.

In an Aug. 9 op-ed column titled “Flush with Energy,” Friedman drew a stark contrast between America’s energy policy and that of Denmark.

That the United States – the all-powerful, lone (for now) superpower –  can so easily be trumped by little Denmark is shameful.

It only adds salt to the wound that so many foolish, ignorant and willfully oblivious Americans still insist that they live in the “Greatest Nation on Earth” despite so many shortcomings, such as displayed by this stay-the-course mentality that leaves us in the energy policy dust of forward-thinking nation’s like Denmark.

Jeju island in South Korea is said to have three things in abundance: wind, women, and rocks. But neither the rocks nor even the women are creating as much stir these days as the wind.

The goal of Jeju is 500 MW of wind power by 2020. That would cover 20% of the island’s energy needs. And that’s not including the island’s existing solar energy. However, the rapid growth of the wind energy industry has some people asking “who owns the wind?”

As in other regions where wind farms are springing up around the globe, some locals on Jeju island find themselves divided into supporters and opponents of wind farm development.

Before visiting Jeju’s two existing 10 MW and 15 MW wind farms, I spoke with Kim Dong-joo, an activist at the center of the wind energy conflict, in his office at the Korea Federation for Environmental Movement of Jeju.

“It’s a really good thing to spread renewable energy. Jeju island has a very strong wind to use for power generation, so many companies have made plans to invest to make a wind farm to earn money,” says Mr. Kim. “But,” he says, “these companies have only one goal; that is to earn money. So they do not think of anything like citizen participation and democratic decision-making. They did not think of anything, just earning money. So I think the cause of this social conflict is that the companies don’t think about the people involved on Jeju.

The First Nation community of Beardy’s and Okemasis has agreed with the alternative energy company SkyPower to develop a large wind park. It will be known as the Willow Cree Wind Project. According to the primary source for this article, construction of the park might begin as soon as 2010. The turbines will be built on approximately 12,000 acres of land located near Big Quill, a community near the town of Wynyard, Saskatchewan. The planned wind park will produce 100 megawatts of energy, enough to power 30,000 homes per year.

Chief Rick Gamble elaborated upon the other benefits that the Willow Cree Wind Project will provide. He is quoted as saying,

We chose to partner with SkyPower because of their extensive experience in wind development with First Nations. Moreover, the Willow Cree Wind Project will generate a reliable source of local benefits, including job training programs, employment for the local community, as well as have a positive impact on local tourism. The proposed development will be an important driver of local economic development for years to come.

The tribe’s partner SkyPower is the largest alternative energy company in Canada. One of its more notable projects is in Ontario. SkyPower commenced construction earlier this year on what it claims will be the largest solar park in North America. If all goes as planned, it will be finished late next year.

Renewable forms of energy such as solar and wind are notorious for being unpredictable. That may change with the advent of the Previento System, a new type of software developed at Oldenburg University in Germany.

The software, which uses weather models from multiple weather reporting services, is able to predict both the amount of energy a specific German wind park can produce as well as the total amount of energy wind parks around the country can produce. Predictions are available up to ten days in advance, and error rates are within 5% in 70% of the cases in Germany.

Surrounded by water, with strong winds blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean, Great Britain is a blustery place. There’s nothing quite like an invigorating walk along the cliff-tops to blow away the cobwebs.

I was reminded of this on a recent Sunday afternoon visit to the Portland Bill lighthouse on the South coast of England (pictured), since despite the brilliant sunshine one needed a concerted effort to walk headlong into the howling wind. Talking above the constant noise of wind and sea was almost impossible, and local people tell me this is by no means unusual here.

Yet despite being a desolate place with enough wind energy blowing through every day to provide a significant portion of local energy needs, you won’t find a single wind turbine at Portland today. Nor anywhere else along the windy Dorset coast for that matter.

A new study put out by the UK’s Carbon Trust reports that domestic windmills in urban locations are actually net carbon emitters, as more energy goes into their production, shipping, and maintenance than is saved by their use.

Additionally, the study notes that home wind power could only provide .4% of UK electricity consumption and will only save .6 million tons of carbon dioxide. For reference, the Carbon Trust says that 1.5 TWh could be produced annually using urban windmills—and the UK used 2,700 TWh of energy in 2006.

The reason why urban windmills aren’t useful is fairly simple. The Carbon Trust explains that small wind turbines require open, exposed locations that have high wind speeds. These locations are usually found in rural areas, which can produce nine times more wind energy than urban areas. Since the output from urban windmills is low, the cost of the resulting energy ends up being high.