Renewable Energy Projects Expected to Spend $13 Billion

[chlamor]

Renewable Energy Projects expected to spend $13 billion
  by: OilOnline
  Monday, May 23, 2005

Over 2,300 wind turbines are forecast to be installed offshore over the next five years at a cost of $13 billion, according to energy analysts Douglas-Westwood Limited. Speaking at the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce Renewable Energy Business Breakfast today, John Westwood stated his firm’s belief that offshore renewable energy could form an important part of the energy mix for the UK and other countries.

“The rise in both oil and gas prices that we have experienced over the past three years caused by booming demand from China and decline of non-OPEC production has focussed attention on the fragility of the supply and demand balance” said Westwood.

Forecasts produced in ‘The World Offshore Oil & Gas Report’ show that European oil production is now going into decline and that gas production is close to its peak. Increasing volumes of oil and gas will have to be imported from Russia and the Middle East at a very high cost to meet future demand.

Security of Supply
The result is that there are now growing concerns over security of supply as European politicians begin to realise that political unrest in Russia, a previously source of interruption to gas supplies, could result in the lights going out in Europe and that a minor disruption in the Middle East could cause an instant redoubling of oil prices.

http://www.oilonline.com/news/headlines/internet/20050523.Renewabl.18084.asp

[dave502d]

1. Map Reveals Wind Power Potential

Wind power could generate enough electricity to support the world's energy needs several times over, according to a new map of global wind speeds that scientists say is the first of its kind.

The map, compiled by researchers at Stanford University, shows wind speeds at more than 8,000 sites around the world. The researchers found that at least 13 percent of those sites experience winds fast enough to power a modern wind turbine. If turbines were set up in all these regions, they would generate 72 terawatts of electricity, according to the researchers.
http://wired.com/news/planet/0%2C2782%2C67600%2C00.html?tw=wn_tophead_5

[chlamor]

2. Validation

There is sooo much we could do to transition and with conservation and a sane energy policy we could enjoy much less energy intensive lives and true economic livelihoods.


From Same Article:

That's more than five times the world's energy needs, which was roughly 14 terawatts in 2002, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The researchers readily admit that existing buildings, land rights and other obstacles would make it impossible to set up turbines in every single one of the identified regions. But they point out that even 20 percent of those sites could satisfy world energy consumption as it stands today.

[DireStrike]

4. Yeah, but what happens to the weather if you do that? -nt-

[megatherium]

5. We'll start to hear about "wind depletion". nt

[Demeter]

9. Wind Power Is Good For Electricity, But

electricity is only a cost and pollution problem.

Unless electric transportation becomes a reality, our most dangerous
problem is still replacing gasoline and deisel with something else, to break the backs of the oil cartels and the oil companies.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. Remember When The Wingie-Dingies Said That Renewables...

Remember during the Clinton Administration whenever some brave progressive or other would put forth the idea of shifting to sustainable energy technologies, some right wingie-dingie would shout it down by claiming that such a policy would cost more than a war?

Well, so far we've spent at least $200 billion in Iraq alone, and Iraq's oil supplies are just about as precarious as they were when Saddam Hussein ran the show in Baghdad, plus we weren't paying for a war and American kids weren't coming home maimed or in coffins.

So much for the "wisdom" of the so-called "conservatives!"

:mad: :mad: :mad:

[Raster]

6. The reason sustainable energy technologies were always "shut down" is

because the military/industrial/petroluem complexes (let's just call them the white, repuke texas oil mafia)--currently fronted by bushco*--couldn't control them and control the profits. We knew in 1977 we were running out of cheap oil. Carter laid it out plainly. And then some of the same bastards--once again bushco*--conspired to end his presidency and install the actor/puppet. That started the ball rollin'. Remember "morning in America"? ronnie raygun said we didn't have to worry about oil and sustainable technologies. The first act of the raygun presidency, besides freeeing the hostages in Iran (who should have been freed long before (talk to g.h.w. bush)), was to rip the solar panels off the White House that Jimmy Carter had installed.

[Vogon_Glory]

8. Funny About the Military's Behavior Though

I would say that the military is less involved in the anti-alternate energy mindset than some people would like to think. Not because of the strategic thinking at the highest echelons by people like Perle, Cheney,and Wolfowitz, but because of what seems to be happening in the field.

If you look at some of the news photos out of Iraq and Afghanistan and read some of the alternate energy web sites, you notice strange and wonderful things happening with the guys sent to prop up the fossil fuel companies' status quo. You see things like solar panels on military installations in secure areas. You read about military efforts to get practical fuel cells.

These ideas aren't being done to make the US military greener. It seems to be a case of doing more to reduce the logistical demands required by a fossil-fueled military. If the army can figure out a way to run a fuel cell off of, say, human waste, that's less butane they have to tote cross-country in cannisters.

On the other hand, if the fossil fuel honchos and their political stooges get wise to this alternate thinking, they might put a stop to these efforts to use good sense. We may yet get some more energy bang for our bucks from ilitary surplus in spite of the Banana Republicans.

[Shallah Kali]

7. Portugal to get world's first commerical wave farm (energy from waves)

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/s/nm/energy_portugal_wavepower_dc

A Scottish company will deploy sausage-shaped tubes off Portugal to create the world's first commercial wave power plant, providing electricity to 1,500 homes from 2006, a partner in the Scottish firm said on Friday.

Ocean Power Delivery (OPD) will build the wave farm about five kilometers (3.1 miles) off Portugal's northern coast, near Povoa de Varzim, OPD's Norwegian backer Norsk Hydro said.

OPD will deliver three wave power generation units with capacity of 2.25 megawatts to Portuguese renewable energy group Enersis for 8 million euros ($10.12 million), but the project could be expanded significantly, Norsk Hydro said.

SNIP

"If all goes well, many additional sites producing up to a total several hundred MW could be developed along the coast," Norsk Hydro said.