In the US, the biggest wind farm to date has gotten the green light in Wyoming.
County officials approved the 1000-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind farm – which will generate 2000-3000 megawatts (MW) near Rt 80.
The developer, Power Co. Of Wyoming, must now get approval from the state.
And NextEra, which owns 44% of US wind farms, set a record for wind installations this year at 1500 MW. But with low natural gas prices and the expiration of the wind production tax credit, it’s looking to Canada for growth next year.
The utility has a backlog of $6.5 billion in wind and solar projects through 2014, split roughly in half between the two, says RenewablesBiz.
South America
Brazil plans to spend $235 billion of investments in energy and biofuels over the next decade, according to its Ministry of Mines and Energy.
The broad plan calls for 36 gigawatts (GW) of hydroelectric plants, 12 GW of biomass plants and 15.6 GW of wind farms.
Although most of Brazil’s energy come from hydro, which will continue to drive investment, wind is the fastest growing energy source. At the end of 2011, Brazil had 1.4 GW of wind, which means it will grow 11-fold over the coming decade.
"Contracts signed during the last few years show that wind farms have managed extremely competitive prices, which has spurred the creation of a national industry for equipment to serve the market," says the Ministry’s report.
Brazil’s $93 billion investments in hydro require dams that are devastating the Amazon rain forest.
Meanwhile, Peru is getting its first large scale wind farms, the largest on the continent outside of Brazil.
Developer ContourGlobal bought two wind farms with a combined capacity of 114 MW that are under construction near Lima.
New York-based ContourGlobal has a 3000 MW renewable energy porfolio in 15 countries, including wind, solar and biomass.
On the solar side, Chinese developer Sky Solar is getting an infusion of $900 million from China Development Bank to build up to 300 MW of solar PV plants in Peru’s southern neighbor, Chile.
Spanish Developer Commits $1 Billion to Japan Solar Projects
Spain’s Gestamp Solar is looking outside its own troubled economy to take advantage of Japan’s clean energy development plans – saying it will invest nearly $1.2 billion over the next three years.
The company, which specializes in utility-scale size solar, plans to build 300 MW during that time. The majority will be rooftop arrays of 30 MW each.
That’s a lot of solar when you consider Gestamp’s entire portfolio across 13 countries is 500 MW.
UK Adds Solar, Bioenergy Strategy
After including renewable energy heat to its Renewable Energy Roadmap last year – the world’s first such incentive – the UK says it will detail plans to also add solar later this month.
By the end of the year, the government says it will introduce a Bioenergy Strategy that gives "a clear signal on the most cost-effective and sustainable role for bioenergy in heat, transport and electricity."
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It’s clear that people strive to find ways for clean energy but that is still not effective. The main reason for that is the continuation of energy sources. I have solution….read this article…
In my previous article I described how important the energy was to our preferred lifestyle. In this article I will lead you to delve down into the sources of energy. The energy that now becomes inseparable part of our lives and how we obtain it has been impacting our way of live.
There are three major formations of fossil deposits that we obtain from mother nature: Natural gas, Coal and Crude Oil.
Natural gas is a product of fossil deposits produced by nature which certainly takes a very long time. It is a type of carbon composition being trapped deeply underground. We use natural gas in limited ways comparing with electricity, in fact all functions that are fueled by natural gas can be replaced by electricity.
Coal is another type of fossil deposits being produced by natural process underground. It is used as a fuel to generate electricity. Electricity is widely used in our way of live. Anything we want to nourish our preferred lifestyle, electricity can make it all happen. Electricity is a man-made product that can be obtained by consuming the fossil deposits such as coal, shale, woods and crude oil. Coal is the most efficient one. We burn these fossil deposits in order to obtain energy in the form of electricity and deliver through the grid. That is how energy will be available wherever it is needed.
Crude oil is another type of the fossil deposits. It is a carbon composition preserved underground in the form of liquid. It has to be refined so that the machinery can consume. We use crude oil for all types of machinery. It has become the important fuel for our transportation needs.
Over a century ago we lived on the oil from whales as our energy. At some point of time we came to realize that if we kept killing them for oil. Sooner or later there would be no whales left for the new generations to come. At the mean time we discovered these fossil deposits to replace the oil from whales. They were plentiful and effective but wouldn’t it end up with the same problem? Eventually, there will be nothing left. We have plenty of these fossil deposits in some different forms at the present time, plentiful supply that we can use until some of us may feel not to worry about. But with increasing numbers of population due to:-
-the multiplication of reproduction on every new generation. Most of us are prone to do so. Reproduction is the most tenacious instinct in all creatures.
-the advanced technologies in medical science that help fighting against any influenza epidemic that frequently attacks and kills people in large numbers.
-the new nutritional researches that make people live longer and healthier.
-the great efforts to study on big accidents like aviation related accidents that kill people in large numbers all at once, in order to prevent them from happening again.
-the great wars like WW I & II are less likely to break out any more. The new generations start to realize more value of being born as human being. They are prone to settle down calmly over the conflicts that could lead to wars.
All these factors point to the only one thing which is more population as the time goes by and everyone of us needs energy to live on. It will be a huge mistake if we continue living on our lives not to prepare for this situation. The depletion of fossil deposits may not occur in our generation or a few generations ahead. But it certainly will occur because the rate of replenishment by nature of these resources can not catch up with the rate of our energy consumption due to progressive rate of population growth. There are no arguments against this term. We are living on borrowed time and the clock is ticking. Eventually, we all will have to pay back and it will be painful and expensive. Not to mention about the inauspicious circumstances that are created day by day to augment the effects of global worming on our natural surroundings.
It has been a very long time since we have learned how energy can enrich our lives and we have striven to obtain the energy from different sources. The sources have been changed from time to time to be benign for environment and more reliable. Despite all the efforts, we have gone on the wrong track time after time. We live on with no plans at all when it comes to energy. It’s time to make a change now folks, once and for all. Because a right choice is now at our disposal. Join me on this fight, it will be a fight to draw solid plans for our certain future and a clean planet to live. Finally, we can have solid plans for all. Go to http://hydro-electrenergy.com and participate in. Watch for my next article about free energy for eternity. I have a solid plan to reveal. We can eventually extricate ourselves completely from carbon footprint.