The Alternative Energy blog – green renewable alternative energy

Installing solar panels or a wind turbine can be a very good investment in the UK thanks to the feed in tariffs which pay householders a tax-free, index linked income for the energy they produce, providing over a 10% annual return. The tariffs pay up to 41.3p for every 1kWh of electricity produced using solar panels and an extra 3p per unit on top for any surplus electricity sold back to the grid. The average cost of home solar panel installation is £14,000. From this outlay, Ownenergy, Read more [...]

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 [...]

TAKE a trip around emerging Asia these days and you won’t just see skyscrapers and coal-fired power plants growing out of places where there were once nothing but fields. Wind turbines, solar energy plants, incinerator manufacturers, water treatment plants and microirrigation developments are just as likely to spring up before your eyes. There is now recognition in the region that sustainable growth requires tackling the environmental issues such as water scarcity and climate change that have Read more [...]

Wind energy is both green and fun, so the idea of building one's own wind turbine is a good one. The following will give you an idea of what is involved. Wind energy on a large scale is now competitive with other sources of electricity on a commercial scale. However, small domestic-sized wind turbines have not yet reached this point. The wind is free, but small wind turbines are expensive in relation to what they produce, and cannot realistically compete with mains electricity. Building your own Read more [...]

China is rushing forward with its wind energy plans with the pace surpassing even the most optimistic projections. After setting an original goal of 30 gigawatts of installed wind power by 2020, the government recently said that could be raised to 100 gigawatts as installed capacity has doubled each of the last four years. From almost nothing a few years ago, China had 12.2 gigawatts of installed wind power by the end of 2008 as power companies have rushed to meet government mandates to raise Read more [...]

The wind energy industry has vigorously rejected new research from the US suggesting some residents living close to wind farms are susceptible to a collection of health risks dubbed "Wind Turbine Syndrome". Dr Nina Pierpont, a New York paediatrician, claimed this week that the noise and vibrations caused by wind turbines could impact the health of nearby residents. But the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) accused the study of being based on an "unscientific" sample and running counter to Read more [...]

A New York paediatrician has warned that living too close to wind turbines can cause heart disease, tinnitus, vertigo, panic attacks, migraines and sleep deprivation in groundbreaking research due to be published later this year. Following studies of people living near wind turbines in the US, UK, Italy, Ireland and Canada for the past five years, Dr Nina Pierpoint has identified a new health risk called wind turbine syndrome (WTS). She says the disruption of the inner ear’s vestibular Read more [...]