Archive for wind farms
A great and greener year plus our top 5 posts of 2010
Posted by: | CommentsWe’re just about to end another year and we wanted to take this time to thank you for all of your visits to the Planet Forward ‘Sustainable Scribe’ blog over the last 12 months. It’s been an interesting year for all of us who are concerned with the environment and understanding our part in changing the future. On the plus side I think it’s safe to say that eco-awareness is higher today than it ever has been and I’m sure a year from now that trend will continue. There are so many different ways that we can each contribute to improving the environment and the decisions we make on a daily basis really do have an impact. Whether it’s making sure we do we can to reduce our energy consumption by switching off lights and adjusting the thermostat, or doing away with plastic bags by grabbing yourself a reusable one – each gesture carries significance and will continue to snowball the positive change that we all need to be part of.
The recent climate conference in Cancun ends the year on a high note with governments agreeing in principle upon the emissions standards that will take us through the next 10 years. Consumers are becoming more savvy and aware of how their buying habits can change not just the local community but also the environment thousands of miles away. Environmental disasters such as the BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico hopefully woke up many people to the fact that new sources of fuel that are renewable must be more than a dream but a shared ambition for the next generation. Corporate Responsibility has never been so highly valued. Technology continues to provide fast track advances to electric and hybrid vehicles, wind-farms, solar energy and biofuels – each of which gradually move a greater percentage of us towards a carbon neutral environment. Meat consumption is being more carefully considered by millions due to the environmental impacts. Scientists are working round-the-clock to give us more information about global warming, deforestation and pollutants in the environment and the impacts that they hold. Schools are beginning to teach environmental programs as standard curriculum, while a six-year-old points at me and says ‘can we recycle this?’.
The information is there if people care to read it, politicians are understanding that a green policy must be part of their platform and be paid far more than lip service. The green economy that we’ve all heard so much about is beginning to make a difference not just in revitalizing old industry but in creating jobs and helping the environment. The understanding of and concern for the environment has come so far in recent years but we are still just pioneers on the global stage. 50 years from now the decisions that were made in the first 20 years of this century will either be providing inspiration to those who are benefiting from the changes that we made, or cursing our lack of progress when we still had time to make a difference.
I hope you’ve enjoyed each of our 250 or so posts in 2010 and we look forward to spending time in 2011 with you also.
Here are our 5 most popular stories from 2010 in case you missed them. Happy New Year! Don’t forget our special holiday sale of 50% off our entire product line is still ongoing in our store.
1. Eva Longoria Parker Manages an Earth Friendly Business and a Green Home
2. Eco-friendly Kids Craft – Recycle Plastic Bags to Make Jewelry Beads
3. Calgary tops new Mercer ‘ecology ranking’ for cities
4. Inspirational Eco-friendly Quotes From Actors, Activists and World Leaders
5. Trick Or Treat With An Eco-friendly Halloween
Tags: best green blog posts, biofuels, BP oil rig disaster, cancun climate conference, corporate social responsibility, eco awareness, Eco Friendly, eco friendly blog, energy conservation, plastic bags, renewable energy, top eco blog stories, wind farmsWind Farm reality – from empty desert to online power in 15 months
Posted by: | CommentsI’m from a very crowded part of a very crowded island, the UK has 659 people/sq mile and Greater London where I grew up has 10,600 per sq mile. Even then there is still some open space and countryside is being considered for wind farms as I write. Moving to the the Western US was quite an eye opener, much like Canada the sheer amount of wide open land not really being used in mind boggling. Arizona, where I live has 57 people per sq mile, Canada with its incredible land mass has just under 10 people per sq mile.
Such huge tracts of vacant land are rather imposing when you are not used to it and you wonder why can’t the land become our new energy future? Of course in the case of wind farms or solar farms they can quickly transform dormant land into our renewable energy base. Every time I drive to Los Angeles I always marvel at the huge wind farm that sits in the desert just north of Palm Springs. It rests in a valley between two large mountain ranges and always seems to be windy when I drive through (see there was logic in place!), as I drive and look at the turbines rotating I’m always impressed that we’re simply harnessing the energy of nature and putting it to good and clean use. No oil spills, no peak oil, no refineries and no residue – just a pipeline free series of windmills rotating.
Thus I was excited to read about the award of a brand new wind farm being built in the desert outside of Tehachapi, California. The small town sits in the high desert less than 100 miles North as the crow flies from Los Angeles. I’ve included a photo of the location below to emphasize that this is unused desert being converted to a much greater use. Now this isn’t your average wind farm, in fact it’s a monumental step forward in renewable energy. Wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has announced that order for turbines just received will help create one of the largest farms in the world. The Danish company will manufacture 190 V90-3.0 MW turbines for the Terra-Gen Alta Wind Energy Centre. The order marks the largest ever for the company for a single site. Phase one will be delivered later this year and the remainder will be delivered and put into the grid during the first six months of 2011.
Vision of a wind farm in the California desert
Construction will begin in October and completion is estimated by Terra Gen by July 2011. With more than 830 megawatts of generating capacity in operation and 720 megawatts under construction, Terra-Gen Power is one of the the USA’s leading renewable energy providers and is the only American company that offers electricity on a utility scale from all three major renewable energy sources: wind, solar and geothermal power. At present they operate 21 renewable energy projects in operation in six states, and more than 5,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity under development.
From a wide open space to a clean energy farm in a short period of time….this can be done over and over again and in North America unlike Europe the space exists to make it possible, we can’t lag behind Europe who are building the turbines out at sea due to the lack of land. The possibilities are like the space to build, almost endless.
Tags: converting unused land to wind farms, Los Angeles, planet forward, population density, renewable energy, renewable energy powers, solar power, terra-gen power, Vestas, wind energy, wind farm, wind farms, wind turbinesGoogle aids in wind farm development
Posted by: | CommentsGoogle are far more than the most popular search engine on the planet, they have evolved into a giant corporation who are very supportive of clean energy projects. Although less than 15 years old Google has grown into a business with 20,000 employees and annual profits announced at some US $6.8 billion in 2009. Google have long championed eco-concerns and clean energy alternatives and this weeks announcement is welcome news for a company with the power to assist in renewable energy. Google have made their first direct investment into the utility market by committing US $38.8 million towards two wind farm projects in North Dakota. The company made a formal announcement this week via their company blog that two farms constructed by NextEra Energy Resources were being supported by Google and that the resultant benefits could see 170MW of wind energy capacity.
These farms will use the very newest technology for wind turbines with remote output monitoring enabling the efficiency of each turbine to be reviewed at all times at thus change the blade angles as and when needed to provide greater efficiencies. The huge wind machines will also be up to 20% larger than most of those currently in circulation (terrible pun – not intended).
Google’s green business operations manager expressed that the company have made some strategic changes after previously funding some renewable energy start ups that were launched with some fanfare.
“We’ve been dedicating resources to developing new technologies, including making investments in early-stage renewable energy companies such as eSolar and AltaRock. Smart capital includes not only these early-stage company investments, but also dedicated funding for utility-scale projects. To tackle this need, we’ve been looking at investments in renewable energy projects, like the one we just signed, that can accelerate the deployment of the latest clean energy technology while providing attractive returns to Google and more capital for developers to build additional projects.”
NextEra are currently the largest US wind power generator with 7.5GW advised that the sale of US $19 0million worth of Class B membership interests across the two wind farms, about 20% of the shares are taken up by Google’s investment in the project. It makes sense that Google 
invest within large scale energy projects with a renewable profile. The immense data centres employed by Google are amongst the biggest consumers of electricity globally and the company don’t shirk from the fact that their are tangible benefits to them by assisting in the growth of renewable energy. Google’s non profit division (Google.org) hosts a ‘Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal’ initiative which has committed to invest significant sums to aid research and implementation for projects that provide renewable energy production below the cost of fossil fuels. Experience via this arm of Google has led to investment in solar and wind energy sources.
Speculation remains that Google will ultimately play a significant role in the energy market even perhaps as a supplier of green energy. With Google you wouldn’t bet against it.
Tags: alta rock, clean energy, esolar, Fossil Fuels, google.com, google.org, green economy, green investment, nextera energy, planet forward, renewable energy, wind energy, wind farms
