Wind power blowing nuclear away

Desmogblog is onto a Wordwatch Institute report that says new wind power installations are outpacing new nuclear plant constructions by 10 to 1.

Much of it in China.

"The biggest surprise is China, which was barely in the wind business three years ago but which in 2007 trailed only the United States and Spain in wind installations and was fifth in total installed capacity. An estimated 3,449 mega­watts of wind turbines were added in 2007, bringing China's provisional total to 6,050 megawatts and already exceeding the govern­ment's target for 2010."

Technorati Tags: global warming, wind power, nuclear energy

World's first wind-powered mobile billboard and people-mover

Yarra Trams, in partnership with Pacific Hydro's southwestern Victorian Yambuk Wind Farm and Sustainability Victoria, has secured enough GreenPower 'to supply a 5-carriage tram until the end of 2008.'

This mob is switched on. Even their integrated marketing campaign is sustainable. Design it once, and run the campaign 24x7, for no extra cost.

The wind-powered tram will run along Route 96 (East Brunswick -St Kilda), which is not only Melbourne’s busiest line carrying 12 million people each year, but was recently ranked by National Geographic as one of the world’s top 10 tram rides.

The campaign incorporates a tram fully wrapped in an eye-catching wind farm design and interpretive materials on climate change and GreenPower on the interior.

I've squished down a shot of the tram, follow the above link to see it fully blown.

Very creative. Is this product marketing of the future? Here we have a consumer need for mass transit being met by a company that shows demonstrable emissions reductions as an integral part of it's product offering. After catching the tram, and reading the interpretive materials on climate change and GreenPower on the interior, you would learn something new, and travel in good conscience.

I wonder who their market is though? We're not talking organic yoghurt at the supermarket. I can't see eco-consumers conscientiously choosing the 7:21 GreenPowered over the 7:15 coal-powered one if they risk running late for work. Regular commuters would catch it anyway. But perhaps enough of the streams of tourists, among the 12 million people each year travelling Route 96 from St Kilda to East Brunswick, will seek it out as an experience to keep it well patronaged in between regular hours. Especially since making National Geographic’s top 10 tram rides ranking. Then there's your tramspotters....

It's interesting to see how the pressing problems of climate change force creative market solutions. That's a theme I'll pick up more often on Global Warming Watch.

I also wonder about the economics. The cost per MW for wind must be higher, than from coal-fired. The Yambuk project cost $50 million. But when the carbon price signal eventually kicks in these guys will be sitting pretty. Upon breaking even, every time the wind blows, pure profit trickles into the bank accounts of the investors.

The other thing to consider is the actual carbon saving. The zeitgeist is also ripe for green-wash marketeers. How does Yarra Trams' energy source really stack-up?

The wind farm contributes up to 30MW of clean electricity to the national grid, enough to supply the annual electricity needs of 18,000 Victorian homes.

Yambuk displaces up to 130,000 tonnes of global warming pollution produced by traditional power generation methods each year.

That’s like removing 30,000 cars from our roads.

Spanish wind power blows nuclear away

It is often pointed out by the nuclear power fetishists and the coal-power aficionados, that renewable energy is variable because it relies on the winds or sunny weather depending on your source.

So variable, in fact, that last week in Spain the winds generated more energy than did Spain's nuclear power plants, and more energy than that glorious country's coal-powered electricity plants. :::[The Age]

Taking advantage of a particularly gusty period, Spain's wind energy generators this week reached an all-time high in electricity production, exceeding power generated by all other means, the nation's electricity network authority said in a statement.

At 5.40pm (0340 AEDT on Tuesday) on Monday, wind power generation rose to contribute 27 per cent of the country's total power requirement, Red Electrica said.

At that moment wind power contributed 8,375 mega watts to the nation's power consumption of 31,033.

Nuclear power, the second largest contributor, added 6,797 mega watts, while coal-fired electric generation came third with 5,081, the statement said.

Wow. Something in the paella that day?

Taking a longer outlook, last year wind power only contributed 9% of the country's annual total, but this last week does show the potential. It strikes me that global warming is only going to create more wind, because that is what happens when you heat-up large bodies of air. Is it possible that wind power may come into its own as the globe heats up?

Global Warning Climate Change

Garrett: Put economy first by addressing climate change

Federal Parliament ALP member, Peter Garrett, places global warming in an economic context, looking at the positive and negative implications: :::[SMH: Economy put at risk by climate inertia]

Last week Michael Molitor, the principal of CarbonShift (a wholesale supplier of voluntary carbon units) and a former director of climate change services at PricewaterhouseCoopers, described the opportunity in this way: globally, we will need to prevent 600 billion tonnes of carbon emissions that will otherwise accumulate in the atmosphere over the next 43 years in order to stabilise atmospheric concentrations at or below 500 parts per million.

Using a low average abatement cost of $25 a tonne creates a capital-market opportunity of $15 trillion. This would be the largest global financial market opportunity in history. The question Australia needs to answer is: how much of that $15 trillion is coming our way?

And how do we get our hands on some of it? Well, something has to change.

Unfortunately, after a decade of inaction on climate change, the Howard Government has been left standing at the docks waving goodbye to Australian jobs, investment and technology. Last week the Australian company Global Renewables announced a $5 billion deal with Britain's Lancashire County Council and Blackpool Council. The Lancashire project aims to cut greenhouse pollution by more than 4 million tonnes.

Global Renewable has had to go to Britain to realise its ambitions.

Four weeks ago another Australian company, Pacific Hydro - which has 1800 megawatts of clean energy assets around the world - announced its move into Brazil. Why?

Because according to its general manager, Rob Grant, the growth in Australian clean energy assets has been held back by Australia's decision to not sign the Kyoto Protocol. The company is looking internationally for investment opportunities in countries that are enacting positive policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address global warming.

Zhengrong Shi, an academic from the University of NSW who was unable to realise his ambitions to develop solar technology in Australia, moved his business to China, where he is now that nation's third-richest man. His technology is helping reduce China's emissions. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that in a few years we might have to import these technologies, which were developed in Australia, from China. We should not be in the business of exporting jobs, technology or our brightest and best minds.

Peter's solutions are to create jobs developing and manufacturing the technologies for clean coal, biomass, solar and wind. And that we set up a carbon trading system as soon as possible.

We need climate change policies that will make Australia a regional hub for emissions trading and clean energy. Federal Labor has a suite of policies that will not only drive down our emissions but also create jobs in regional and rural Australia and open up the market potential of carbon trading.

He concludes with an indication of how Labor will be positioning itself on climate change in the yet-to-be-announced-but-already- campaigning election.

The Prime Minister insists that dealing with climate change is an either/or proposition: either we cut emissions or we grow the economy. The fact is we can and must do both.

How refreshing to hear, after all Howard's initial global warming denial, then his denial of the anthropogenic component, then his complete abandonment of the question to concentrate on some yet-to-be-developed saviour technology, and his dodgy Switkowsky report on nuclear.

Global Warning Climate Change Environment Australia Kyoto Energy

Global Cool Watch: Wind powered robot kinetic sculptures

Very cool.



Theo Jansen is the Dutch creator of what he calls “Kinetic Sculptures,” where nature and technology meet. Essentially these sculptures are robots powered by the wind only. :::[Ministry of Tech]

h/t Nexus 6

Global Warning Climate Change Environment Science Kinetic Sculpture Wind+Power Robotics BMW Energy