Greenpeace

Iceland may have fallen in the hole when the global recession hit, but the country could be soon emerging with one of the world’s largest energy sources. Iceland’s biggest energy company, Landsvirkjun, is planning on constructing the world’s longest underwater electric cable so that the country can sell its vast geothermal and volcanic energy to the rest of Europe. The sub-sea cable, if built, will have the potential to deliver as many as five terawatt-hours (5 billion kilowatt-hours) annually to the continent – this would be enough to power 1.25 million homes with clean energy.

http://www.zeitnews.org/geothermal.html 

The DOTI consortium, comprising EWE, E.ON and Vattenfall, have completed construction of the first of 12 wind turbines for the €250 million development in the North Sea.

The 5 MW Areva Multibrid turbine is situated 45 km north of the island of Borkum. All 12 machines are scheduled to be in operation by the end of this year.

Construction work for the building and installation of the wind turbines has been underway since mid-2007 and construction of the wind turbines began in mid-April of this year after a first attempt had to be aborted in August 2008 due to bad weather. In September 2008, DOTI completed the offshore transformer station and an underwater cable was installed last year by Transpower GmbH  to connect the transformer station with the German power grid.

The next step in the development is the phased launching of the first wind turbine. Also involved is connecting the turbine to the offshore transformer station, which will follow in the coming weeks. EWE will later be responsible for supervision and overall operational management of the newly constructed wind farm.

Monday June 15 is Global Wind Day, an awareness campaign for the promotion of wind energy worldwide, organized by European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) and the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). It is being celebrated in 25 countries, promoting awareness of wind energy worldwide and inviting the public to celebrate wind power as a near-term solution to global climate change and a driver for economic growth in local communities.

2009 will be a crucial year for the fight against climate change. Decision makers from all over the world will meet in Copenhagen in December to discuss the post-Kyoto protocol agreement. EWEA and GWEC say the aim of Global Wind Day is to draw attention to wind power in the run-up to those climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

The message is global: wind power works – it tackles climate change, it improves energy dependence on fossil fuels, and it is an intelligent investment.

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Ground-based solar arrays, which are affected by cloudy weather and the night-day cycle, typically produce at about 25 percent of capacity A space-based solar installation on a satellite, however, may have a capacity of 97 percent, according to an MSNBC article.

Pacific Gas & Electric, based in San Francisco, is seeking state regulatory approval to purchase power over a 15-year period from Solaren Corp., Manhattan Beach, Calif. Solaren hopes to begin generating electricity from its solar satellite by 2016, if it can clear technological and regulatory hurdles.

http://www.enn.com/business/article/39685