The Alternative Energy blog – green renewable alternative energy


UK families to pay £400 a year to support green energy push

Category: wind energy – Tags: – glenn333
Plans for a massive expansion of renewable energy in Britain will cost families an average of £400 a year each, a report warned last night. It accuses Energy Secretary Chris Huhne of ‘misleading’ the public by suggesting energy costs could be lower as a result of the Government’s drive for green power. It said official estimates had grossly underestimated the impact on families by  leaving out much of the huge taxpayer subsidy for wind farms and other forms of renewable energy. The Read more [...]

US billions to support alternative energy

Category: solar power,wind energy – Tags: , , – glenn333
As the White House considers curtailing subsidies to traditional domestic energy suppliers, its support of alternative energy has soared. A new report from the Department of Energy shows that subsidies to the solar and wind industries skyrocketed 626 and 946 percent, respectively, between 2007 and 2010. Total subsidies to these industries rose from $5.1 billion to $14.67 billion in that period, reports CNSNews.com. In April, President Barack Obama reiterated his call for an end to subsidies Read more [...]

Cost of wind farms is “soaring”

Category: wind energy,wind farms,wind power – glenn333

Offshore wind farms cost twice as much to produce energy in the as coal-fired powered stations a UK report has warned.

Costs of building sites at sea have doubled in the past 5 years due to rising steel prices and the weak pound according to a report form the UK Energy Research Centre.

UK is the world’s biggest producer of wind energy

With the opening of the Thanet Wind Farm off the coast of England the UK is now the world’s largest producer of wind energy. The Thanet Wind Farm started sending power to the UK electric grid last week. It sits, at its closest, about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) off the shore of Foreness Point, which is located at the most eastern part of Kent, England. The $1.2 billion farm has 100 V90 wind turbines that have a total capacity of 300 MW. It creates enough power for 200,000 homes. The UK’s Read more [...]

Sycamore design could revolutionise wind power

A sycamore seed design may be set to revolutionize the wind power industry. British engineers have designed a giant wind turbine called the Aerogenerator that would rotate on its axis mimicking the way sycamore seeds fly. The Aerogenerator has two arms coming out of its base to form a V-shape, with rigid "sails" mounted along their length.  The arms act like aerofoils as the wind passes over, helping to generate lift. It would measure nearly 900 feet from tip to tip and could generate Read more [...]

Wind Power on the increase

Wind power is now generating 2% of global electricity demand, according to the World Wind Energy Association. The countries with the highest shares of wind energy generated electricity: Denmark 20%, Portugal 15%, Spain 14%, Germany 9%. Wind power employed 550,000 people in 2009 and is expected to employ 1,000,000 by 2012. Globally 38,025 MW of capacity were added in 2009, bringing the total to 159,213 MW, a 31% increase. The graph shows the top 10 producers (with the exceptions of Denmark and Read more [...]

Australian wind farms suffer

Australia: Small wind-energy companies fear privatisations of power stations and retailers in New South Wales and Queensland could weaken competition in the electricity market, hindering their capacity to contribute to the federal government's 20 per cent renewable energy target. Under the renewable energy target, retailers are required to buy or create enough renewable energy certificates (RECs), each representing one megawatt-hour of emissions-free electricity, to meet an annual target. But Read more [...]

£2bn wind farm to be built off Wales

One of the largest offshore windfarms in the world, is to be built off the coast of Wales in the UK. The £2bn Gwynt y Mor windfarm will have 160 wind turbines around 10 miles off the north Wales coast near Colwyn Bay and Llandudno. Gwynt y Mor will be Wales' largest wind farm, capable of powering around 400,000 homes, and preventing the release of 1.7m tonnes of carbon dioxide every year. The RWE Innogy-led project is expected to be completed in 2014. It is claimed some 1,000 jobs could Read more [...]

Wind power growing in confidence

Category: wind energy,wind power – Tags: , , , – glenn333
Wind is the number one source of new electricity-generation installations in both Europe and the U.S. and has been for the last year or two, according to green energy analysts. "Wind is the one renewable energy source that, currently, is competing directly with coal and natural gas for electricity from new power installations." says GreenTech Opportunies analyst Peter Cox. Wind and natural gas combined accounted for about 80% of new capacity added to the U.S. electrical grid. "Wind energy Read more [...]

Green energy to power West USA

Category: solar power,wind energy,wind farms – glenn333
In less than seven years, solar and wind power will be able to meet over a third of the electricity demand of a large Western area of the USA According to a report by NREL, in 2017 solar and wind energy could meet in 2017, 35% of electricity demand in five states Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada Moreover this can be achieved without any further investment in new infrastructure. Specifically, wind turbines could satisfy 30% and solar power 5% of the demand, according Read more [...]