Argentina has awarded a total 1.1 GW of renewable energy projects in its first auction round of the RenovAR program. Of this total, 400 MW of solar electricity projects. The government has also announced a second round (“Round 1.5”) in November which will include a quota for 200 MW of PV projects. The RenovvAR program,
In search of low-cost, fixed-rate electricity, great wind energy deals are swaying Fortune 500 companies and other major players to throw their money “into the wind.” Signing contracts for over 2,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity, big brands, high-tech companies, and other non-utility customers represented 52 percent of wind energy generating capacity in 2015. An Emerging
El Salvador will conduct its second auction seeking to deploy 170 MW of renewable electricity. This follows an award of 100 MW of PV projects in its previous auction, even though no project are operational yet. According to pv-magazine, officials anticipate the auction will be completed in December. The auction solicitation is structured for a
Other than large hydroelectric plants in Russia, all other forms of renewable energy accounts for less than 1% of power generation capacity. These metrics come from Russia Direct, which reports when it comes to wind, solar and geothermal energy, Russia’s renewable potential is terrifyingly underdeveloped. Russia’s economically viable wind resources are situated along coastal areas –
You may well ask why PlanetSave, a blog usually dedicated to positive developments and actions to save the earth, is reporting news about ExxonMobil and a Russian arctic oil well. The oil discovery appears to have nothing to do with solar or wind or most of our usual topics—we’re talking fossil fuels here, which have caused much
Remember the difference between weather and climate? We know what happens when the weather changes—it’s obvious. Climate is another story. Read on. When it rains, you put on a raincoat or take your umbrella when you go out. It snows: time for high boots, a heavier coat, scarf, and warm gloves. And sunny days, well,
Weather and climate are similar but different. For the most part, they are very distinct phenomena. Below, we talk about the weather first, and then delve into the climate. Weather We measure what’s going on in our atmosphere over a short period of time—usually in a particular place on a particular day—by assessing the weather. Could be
(All figures are from the 2014 National Climate Assessment draft.) Later today (Tuesday, May 6), at 8 a.m. EDT, the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee of experts meets by conference call to approve the final version of the Third National Climate Assessment. The gist of their message, as Suzanne Goldenberg of The Guardian
Agora Energiewende this week released the results of a cost analysis of four different CO2-free power scenarios in Europe. Says Patrick Graichen, executive director of Agora: Wind and solar systems will dominate the power system in increasingly more countries. The battle for the cheapest CO2-free power mix is decided. In the future wind and solar
Premium hydroponic-grown, pesticide-free vegetables and herbs growing in the U.S. Gotham Greens facility (from eponline.com). Two entrepreneurs have recently made London the home of a very creative architectural reuse for food production—underground. Steven Dring, a former executive with Bunzl, an international provider of food-related products and services, and his friend and business partner Richard Ballard,
If you’ve ever wondered about the composition of the electricity delivered to your home (most of us have no clue), there’s one quick and easy way to find out. The EPA’s ‘Power Profiler’ tool has apparently been around for at least 2 years, but I only discovered it recently. Although the data used to generate
Clean energy is in everyone’s best interests. Not only does it save you money, but it also helps to save the future of the earth’s resources and ecosystem. Finite energy sources will not be around forever, and their production is harmful to the earth’s atmosphere. Luckily, some real progress has been made regarding clean energy,
A new study conducted by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has found that there is more than enough power in our planet’s winds to be a primary source of near zero emissions, but that also the power generation necessary to support current and future demand would not substantially affect the climate. Climate scientists and collaborators
Cape Wind could be the first offshore wind farm in the US, but it has been threatened by rich NIMBYs for over a decade. A new study shows how much the region would be missing if it didn’t move forward with this pioneering offshore wind power project — that would be $7.2 billion in
Wind power has gone from being almost non-existent in the US in the late 1990s to being a major source of electricity in the country today. In this repost from sister site sustainablog, you can get a feel for wind’s growth in general and especially in certain states in the US. Check it out,
I’ve written in the past about the fact that 100% of the world could be power from clean, renewable energy. But to get to that 100% target, you need a lot of small 100% targets (i.e. 100% renewable energy for Scotland, 100% renewable energy for Tokelau, etc.). Now, a report just out yesterday from
I want to start covering clean energy news much more here on Planetsave, but as they say, “so much to do, so little time.” Also, since we cover that extensively on sister site CleanTechnica, I just sort of assume you all can easily pop over there and subscribe to that page for news on this
A new study has suggested that wind farm operators could come to better understand the amount of power being generated at any one time by looking to the stability of the atmosphere for clues. The energy generated by a wind farm, as expected, is very much at the mercy of wind speeds. However, the shape
2011 was a big year for the environment, in some good ways and some bad ways. Here’s a quick run-down of the top 10 stories of the year, in my opinion: 1. Tremendously high levels of carbon emissions continue to warm Earth. Despite efforts to switch to clean energy, increase energy efficiency, and use more
Energy costs just keep on rising, with only short respites that allow us to stay complacent to pending environmental and energy shortage crises.
This has an effect on all of us every day. Even if we don’t drive and we power our house with clean energy sources like wind and solar energy, which use “free” fuel, the prices of everything are affected by rising dirty energy prices. Transportation of goods and electricity costs rise for most people and businesses, and those costs are passed on to everyone.
But, if we jump on the clean, green energy bandwagon now, at least, we can at least revel in our own electricity and transportation savings.
New research into the effect offshore wind farms have on the local habitat have provided striking results, given many of the assumptions made about such wind farms without scientific evidence. According to scientists, a wind farm in the North Sea actually has a beneficial effect on the local fauna.
Now, you may or may not know, other than working on Planetsave, the place I spend most of my time is working on CleanTechnica, our sister site dedicated to covering topics such as wind energy, solar energy, and energy efficiency. I actually was not much of a tech guy just a few years ago, but I started writing on there two summers ago and slowly became obsessed. Now, I’m considered an expert in the field.
Google is a clean energy leader (if you haven’t heard). It’s made a number of big clean energy investments in the past year or two and I recently decided to compile a little list of 7 of its biggest over on CleanTechnica. Check them out…
Back in February 2010, Greenpeace called on Facebook to unfriend coal and embrace renewables to power their massive data centers, giving them a deadline of April 22 (Earth Day) of this year. Since then, over 600,000 Greenpeace supporters have called on Facebook to take action and according to Greenpeace International Executive Director, Kumi Naidoo, Facebook is listening (atleast the founder’s sister, Randi Zuckerberg is).
New research out of Australia has shown that oceanic wind speeds and wave heights have increased dramatically over the last twenty-five years. The results stem from the most comprehensive study of its kind ever undertaken, which looked at satellite data dating from 1985 to 2008.
All of Japan’s wind farms are unscathed by the 9.0 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown.
Perhaps not in your part of the world, but according to the latest report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, in many parts of the world, onshore wind power is now completely cost-competitive with coal. Over the past several years, the demand for wind turbines has increased. As a result, manufacturers have been able to lower their prices on
Some of the top green living, activism, and clean energy stories from the past day or so: Activism Greenpeace Gives Facebook “Unfriend Coal” Deadline Greenpeace has been pushing Facebook to “unfriend coal” and go the route of clean energy for awhile. Facebook, for the most part, hasn’t listened. Greenpeace is now telling Facebook it should
After months of rain, flooding, lives lost and weeks now of starting to rebuild after the recent inundation, Queenslanders are facing the brunt of tropical cyclone Yasi, seen below in an image captured by NASA’s Aqua satellite as it makes landfall near Cairns. On Feb. 2 at 03:35 UTC/1:35 p.m. Australia local time, the Moderate
Every now and again really smart people make pushes in science that need to be taken note of. At the moment, if there is one area in the world where smart people need to invest their time, it is poverty and the environment. Thankfully, Stanford researcher Mark Z. Jacobson and Mark Delucchi of the University
I’ve done an early read of reactions to Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address (full text) from leading green thinkers around the web. It is always interesting to see how different people with the same overall intentions view something — what they focus on can be quite different. Reflecting on and integrating some of
If you ask environmentally-minded people or typical liberals/progressives about what sort of energy we should be using and what energy technologies our governments should be promoting, you are sure to see a lot of support for renewable energy like solar and wind, as well as the components that make those options more viable, like large
The quest to understand the interactions between our planet’s oceans and its environment is a continuing one, fraught with inexplicable evidence and hidden meanings. A team led by scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, have measured the air to sea exchange of carbon dioxide in the open ocean at higher wind speeds than ever
With mitigating the effects of climate change and global warming, there is always a catch. Wind energy is likely to be one of the great salvations of our planet. Wind is plentiful, everywhere, and with the right tools we can harness it and go a long way to weaning our population off the need to
A new collaboration between Risø DTU (Technical University of Denmark) and international partners will be exploring new methods in which to create energy from wind turbines set offshore. The four year project, entitled DeepWind, has a €3 million grant from the European FP7 program for future emerging technologies and was launched on the first of
I recently got tipped off to a great website and project, the GE ecomagination photo project. The simple deal with this project is, as a friend wrote to me, “for every photo uploaded to flickr, a donation will be made to communities in need of clean water, solar light, and wind turbine powered electricity.” Sounds
So, we’ve covered solar energy and microhydro energy in this Going Green Tips series. Here’s one more small-scale energy option: micro-wind. Like microhydro, micro-wind isn’t an option many people think of or look into when they are thinking of ways to green their energy supply. But it is a real option and perhaps even the
I bet you didn’t think the bible could be backed up with scientific evidence, did you? But new research from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) shows that the “parting of the Red Sea” depicted in Exodus actually has basis in the physical world. Exodus 14:21-22
Continuous research and development could soon see wind and solar dominate energy production, according to Nobel laureate Walter Kohn, Ph.D. Speaking at a symposium at the American Chemical Society’s 240’th National Meeting, Kohn said that he believed that with continuous research and development of alternative energies we could see an era in human history where
Americans used more renewable energy in 2009 while still using less energy. According to data released by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory the United States used much less coal and petroleum in 2009 than it did in 2008 while still using significantly more wind power. “Energy use tends to follow the level of economic activity,
Østerild, in northwest Jutland, Denmark, will be the test bed for a new way in which wind energy can be generated. A national test centre for wind turbines will be set up in Østerild, which the Risoe National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy at the Technical University of Denmark believes will help consolidate and expand Denmark’s
Europe’s total electricity consumption in 2009 saw almost 20 percent come from renewable energy sources. The Renewable Energy Snapshots report published Monday by the European Commission’s Join Research Centre showed that about 19.9% of Europe’s total electricity consumption came from renewable sources, which equals some 608 TWh out of a total of 3042 TWh required
Schooling fish and their interaction with one another has inspired a Caltech professor to rethink how wind energy can be created. [social_buttons]Head of Caltech’s Biological Propulsion Laboratory John Dabiri and two of his graduate students have turned to schools of fish to further our knowledge of how wind turbines work best and how to combat
Researchers show how looking at the bigger picture can help to advance renewable energy in the United States. [social_buttons] “Making wind-generated electricity more steady will enable wind power to become a much larger fraction of our electric sources,” said Willett Kempton, University of Delaware professor of marine policy and author of a new paper which
[social_buttons] While public opinion remains divided about the risks and benefits of installing wind farms in the Great Lakes, several of the eight states with Great Lakes water are racing to be first to approve projects capturing energy from frequently strong offshore winds. It remains to be seen whether a public generally supportive of developing
Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there. It could be many things: God, love, E.T., or even Michael Jackson. But today, right now, it is wind. Wind has always been around. I think that few would argue with that. But wind power, on the other hand, has been hidden from mankind’s
With the historic passage of climate legislation through the House of Representatives, many concerns have trickled forth. Does the climate legislation do enough? Will it even work? Does it have the right aim? With the issuance of similar concerns have come proposed solutions and substitutions. The republicans have proposed that 100 nuclear power plants be built by 2030 in place of the proposed cap-and-trade climate bill. I’ve recently written two articles on the republican “solution” to both the climate and economic crises. And today I’m writing more.
[social_buttons] More money was distributed today by the Department of Energy. 141 million dollars to be more precise. This time Hawaii, Maine, Nebraska, New Mexico, the Northern Mariana Islands and Texas will play beneficiaries of the Recovery Act. As a part of the Department’s State Energy Program, which has been apportioned $3.1 billion, states and territories
