VIDEO: Samsø: Denmark’s renewable energy island

Posted on November 30, 2009 by Buck

In terms of applying prudent energy policy here in the United States, we can certainly do what Samsø is doing on a much larger scale. More from Popular Science:

Samso — about 30 miles long and 15 miles across — began its trek toward sustainability in 1997, and in just over a decade has erected 21 electricity-producing wind turbines and a heating system fueled by wood chip- and straw-burning furnaces bolstered by multiple small, unobtrusive solar panels. The 11 one-megawatt onshore turbines alone produce more than the island’s total electricity consumption (and enough power to offset 690,000 gallons of oil), while the 10 offshore turbines produce enough power to cover the island’s entire transportation energy budget. Excess power is invested into new energy projects.

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WIND POWER: T. Boone Pickens’s plan to build largest wind farm abandoned but site needed for 687 giant wind turbines already ordered

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Buck

t-boone-pickens

From the New York Times:

Mr. Pickens’s situation is of particular interest because he has spent much of the last year advocating an energy plan that includes increasing to 20 percent the amount of the nation’s electricity that is supplied by wind power. In his vision, that would free up natural gas now used to generate power so that it could be used in cars, reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign oil. (Currently, wind accounts for just 1 percent of U.S. electricity.)

For the huge wind farm he had planned in Texas, Mr. Pickens had already ordered 687 large wind turbines from General Electric, to be delivered starting in 2011. But transmission lines being built by the state were unlikely to reach the location he has leased until 2013, so he needed to put the turbines elsewhere. Mr. Pickens had once planned to build his own transmission lines, but difficulty in finding financing amid the credit crisis forced him to shelve that plan.

Possible locations for the 687 turbines include Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and Alberta, Canada, Mr. Pickens said. Collectively, at a capacity of 1,000 megawatts — about the size of a nuclear plant — his project would still amount to a substantial investment in wind power. He had planned his Panhandle wind farm at 4,000 megawatts.

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RENEWABLE ENERGY: Poll: Offshore wind preferred over offshore drilling

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Buck

According to a Monmouth University poll, residents of Mid-Atlantic States show overwhelming support for using coastal areas to produce renewable energy. This isn’t surprising, since renewable energy has a lot of potential to supplement domestic energy needs. However, we must overhaul our energy infrastructure and geographically distribute wind turbines in order to maximize the potential of wind energy.

You can read “Life on the Mid-Atlantic Coast 2009: A 5-state survey of coastal community residents” here. From the New York Times:

The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) quickly jumped on the poll to revive the call for increased offshore drilling.

“Nothing about this poll should come as a surprise,” IPAA president and CEO Barry Russell said in a statement. “This poll represents the latest indication of the American people’s support for that strategy — capturing the interests and impressions of a segment of the country not necessarily predisposed to that point of view. Times have changed, however — and so must we.”

The study surveyed 1,006 residents of coastal New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia in April. It has a 3.1 percent margin of error.

The poll found somewhat varying views on offshore drilling, depending on the state. In Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey, the majority of residents support drilling, while support sits at 42 percent in Virginia and 37 percent in New York.

Meanwhile, 82 percent of coastal residents would support the placement of non-visible windmills offshore, and 67 percent would support the placement of turbines even if they could be seen from land.

Seventy-six percent said protecting coastal areas should be a high priority, with 61 percent saying they would support greater efforts to protect local coasts even if it required tax increases.

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CAPE WIND: Barnstable’s lawsuit against Cape Wind thrown out

Posted on May 9, 2009 by Buck

According to the court, the timing to review this case was not proper, since the town failed to exhaust administrative remedies. Allowing for the exhaustion of administrative remedies is important, because the doctrine promotes administrative autonomy and judicial efficiency (if the agency resolves the matter, it will never get to court). From the Cape Cod Times:

The lawsuit claimed the Cape Cod Commission had exclusive jurisdiction over permitting transmission lines necessary for the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm.

The commission refused to issue a permit for the transmission line portion of the project in 2007, citing a lack of information necessary to make a decision. Cape Wind then sought a so-called “super permit” from the state siting board that would include nine state and local permits, which prompted Barnstable’s lawsuit.

In an 11-page decision filed Monday, Barnstable Superior Court Judge Robert Rufo dismissed the town’s lawsuit because the siting board had not yet finished its review of the “super permit” request.

“Because the town has failed to exhaust its administrative remedies before (the siting board), this court lacks jurisdiction over the declaratory judgment claims and must dismiss the amended complaint,” Rufo wrote in his decision.

Related links:

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WATER AVAILABILITY: Coal, natural gas, and nuclear industry major consumers of water

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Buck

Clean energy sources like solar and wind use hardly no water—”except during the manufacturing process.” As a result, if carbon dioxide will not “become the make-or-break issue for new forms of power generation,” then water might, since power plants need access to large amounts of water.

For example, the Achilles heel of nuclear energy isn’t merely the buildup of radioactive waste but drought. Recent drought conditions in the southeast seriously threatened nuclear reactors to “throttle back or temporarily shut down . . . since drought [was] drying up the rivers and lakes that supply power plants with the awesome amounts of cooling water they need to operate,” and “during Europe’s brutal 2006 heat wave, French, Spanish and German utilities were forced to shut down some of their nuclear plants and reduce power at others because of low water levels – some for as much as a week.” Because of the drought, utilities in the southeast were considering to purchase replacement energy on the wholesale market. However, replacement energy on the wholesale market during the summer would have cost these utilities “10 times” what nuclear energy normally costs. From the Wall Street Journal blog “Environmental Capital”:

The water issue affects all kinds of power generation—coal, natural gas, and nuclear power; the nuclear industry’s water appetite in particular has become a flashpoint for criticism. The U.S. Geological Survey figures power plants are the second-biggest users of water in the U.S., behind agriculture.

The irony is that efforts to fight climate change could make the situation even worse: TheNational Energy Technology Laboratory estimates that “clean coal” plants that capture and store carbon emissions would make the power sector an even bigger consumer of water if the still-to-be-developed plants are widely deployed in coming decades. That’s because it takes more energy and water to capture and store the emissions than it does at a regular coal plant.

As the article notes–with the exception of solar thermal power which uses the sun to heat up water in huge pipes–clean energy’s low water needs provide another selling point. Neither technology uses much water at all, except during the manufacturing process.

That could explain why Vestas, the world’s biggest maker of wind turbines, subtly changed its sales pitch in recent months. Now, the company touts wind power’s miserly use of water first, and its low-carbon electricity generation second.

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The Conservation Report

Tracking news regarding conservation, the environment, energy, politics, and technology

Tag Archives: Wind Turbine

VIDEO: Samsø: Denmark’s renewable energy island

WIND POWER: T. Boone Pickens’s plan to build largest wind farm abandoned but site needed for 687 giant wind turbines already ordered

RENEWABLE ENERGY: Poll: Offshore wind preferred over offshore drilling

CAPE WIND: Barnstable’s lawsuit against Cape Wind thrown out

WATER AVAILABILITY: Coal, natural gas, and nuclear industry major consumers of water

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