When Europe runs out of fossil fuels in 40 to 60 years, wind energy is inefficient and too unstable to deliver the energy needed. Therefore it is deeply abortive when countries like Denmark, Germany and the United Kingdom rely on wind technology, says Jack Steinberger, German-American physicist and former Nobel Prize winner, in an interview with Berlingske Tidende.
Steinberger is one of the keynote speakers at the Nordic Climate Solutions Conference that opens today in Copenhagen. In definite terms, he criticizes Denmark and other European countries for heavily investing in wind power instead of solar power.
“It is only windy enough 40 to 45 percent of the time. Often, you will not be able to satisfy European energy needs using wind. In the desert, the sun is shining perhaps 95 percent of the time, which of course is much more stable,” Jack Steinberger argues, according to Berlingske Tidende.
According to Jack Steinberger, it is still not possible to store wind energy in a sustainable way, and that is an almost insuperable obstacle.
Today at the conference, architects with Gottlieb Paludan will present a way of storing wind power by using a hydrothermal technique, Berlingske Tidende reports.
In short, the Danish architects suggest the building of small, artificial islands. The largest part of each island will consist of a water basin that can be emptied by pumps powered by the wind energy produced at night. On windless days, seawater will be channeled back into the basin through turbines, thus generating power.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Offshore wind could generate a third of all EU electricity by 2020
The European Union is aiming to generate a fifth of all its energy from renewable sources by 2020 to lessen reliance on imported oil and gas and meet goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Wind power will likely play the major role and could generate up to 16 percent of all EU energy — or a third of all electricity — by 2020, the European Wind Energy Association says.
The industry says this depends on governments helping them make a major push to develop offshore wind farms over the next 20 years. They say it could replace power from older coal-fired electricity stations and help meet Europe's growing energy demand.
Some 57 billion euro will be needed to develop these wind farms, the association says. Another up to 30 billion euro will need to be spent on energy links to transfer the power onshore and link power connectors between European nations, EWEA says.
EWEA chief executive Christian Kjaer warns that potential investors in these projects need firm signals from EU governments to propel the infant industry. He says financiers are ready to pump money into the sector — but want assurances that wind farms will get the links and support they need to provide power to the electricity grid.
Many European nations, such as Germany, already subsidize renewables by guaranteeing a price for wind power fed to the grid.
Wind power will likely play the major role and could generate up to 16 percent of all EU energy — or a third of all electricity — by 2020, the European Wind Energy Association says.
The industry says this depends on governments helping them make a major push to develop offshore wind farms over the next 20 years. They say it could replace power from older coal-fired electricity stations and help meet Europe's growing energy demand.
Some 57 billion euro will be needed to develop these wind farms, the association says. Another up to 30 billion euro will need to be spent on energy links to transfer the power onshore and link power connectors between European nations, EWEA says.
EWEA chief executive Christian Kjaer warns that potential investors in these projects need firm signals from EU governments to propel the infant industry. He says financiers are ready to pump money into the sector — but want assurances that wind farms will get the links and support they need to provide power to the electricity grid.
Many European nations, such as Germany, already subsidize renewables by guaranteeing a price for wind power fed to the grid.
Chinese advisor questions target of two degrees
Given that China’s emissions continue to rise – as all prognosis agree they will – it is simply not possible to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.
”You should not target China to fulfill the two degree target. That is just a vision. Reality has deviated from that vision. We do not think that target provides room for developing countries,” says Dai Yande, deputy chief of China’s Energy Research Institute, according to the Guardian.
His comments follow the release this week of a report that states that even under the most optimistic scenarios – with huge domestic and foreign investments going into clean energy – China’s greenhouse gas emissions will continue to grow during the next decades. The study was conducted by a number of universities and other institutions, including the global conservation organization WWF.
”China emits most carbon in the world. We don’t want this hat, but we may have to wear it for many more years,” says Yang Fuqiang, director for global climate solutions at WWF China.
Still, Dai Yande of the Energy Research Institute stresses that the global warming currently seen is mainly caused by industrialized countries:
”Twenty percent of the world’s population takes 80 percent of wealth and emits 70 percent of greenhouse gases. I think two degrees is a vision that is difficult to fulfill because few countries have reached Kyoto (Protocol) targets, except the UK and some others in the EU.”
According to the Guardian, the comments from Dai Yande ”are not official government policy, but they are consistent with a hardening of positions ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit (the UN conference) in December
”You should not target China to fulfill the two degree target. That is just a vision. Reality has deviated from that vision. We do not think that target provides room for developing countries,” says Dai Yande, deputy chief of China’s Energy Research Institute, according to the Guardian.
His comments follow the release this week of a report that states that even under the most optimistic scenarios – with huge domestic and foreign investments going into clean energy – China’s greenhouse gas emissions will continue to grow during the next decades. The study was conducted by a number of universities and other institutions, including the global conservation organization WWF.
”China emits most carbon in the world. We don’t want this hat, but we may have to wear it for many more years,” says Yang Fuqiang, director for global climate solutions at WWF China.
Still, Dai Yande of the Energy Research Institute stresses that the global warming currently seen is mainly caused by industrialized countries:
”Twenty percent of the world’s population takes 80 percent of wealth and emits 70 percent of greenhouse gases. I think two degrees is a vision that is difficult to fulfill because few countries have reached Kyoto (Protocol) targets, except the UK and some others in the EU.”
According to the Guardian, the comments from Dai Yande ”are not official government policy, but they are consistent with a hardening of positions ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit (the UN conference) in December
Polar bears are driven closer to habitation
The image of a lonesome polar bear on an ice flake is used so often to illustrate global warming that it is almost becoming a cliché. Still, new evidence puts the fate of polar bears in focus as the bears, loosing their hunting grounds, are driven closer to habitation.
”Hungry bears don’t just lie down – they go looking for an alternate food source. In many cases this brings them into human settlements and hunting camps,” Ian Stirling, zoologist at the University of Alberta, Canada, tells New Scientist.
In the West Hudson Bay the total polar bear population has declined by 22 percent since the late 1980s, but even so the number of attacks on humans has more than tripled. Global warming has reduced the period where the bears are able to hunt their natural food source, seals, by three weeks.
”Previous research has postulated that climate change will boost numbers of problem bears. This is the first evidence for the link,” comments Andrew Derocher, a scientist in Stirling’s team.
New data from US National Snow and Ice Data Center reports this year’s Arctic summer ice cover to be the third-smallest on record
”Hungry bears don’t just lie down – they go looking for an alternate food source. In many cases this brings them into human settlements and hunting camps,” Ian Stirling, zoologist at the University of Alberta, Canada, tells New Scientist.
In the West Hudson Bay the total polar bear population has declined by 22 percent since the late 1980s, but even so the number of attacks on humans has more than tripled. Global warming has reduced the period where the bears are able to hunt their natural food source, seals, by three weeks.
”Previous research has postulated that climate change will boost numbers of problem bears. This is the first evidence for the link,” comments Andrew Derocher, a scientist in Stirling’s team.
New data from US National Snow and Ice Data Center reports this year’s Arctic summer ice cover to be the third-smallest on record
WWF: White biotech is a hidden solution
Not so long ago you had to wash at 60 degrees Celsius the least, if you wanted your clothes to be clean, but today you can put your laundry machine to 30 degrees and achieve the same thing. This thanks to washing powder with enzymes developed in biotechnology.
This is just an example of how the so-called ”white biotechnology” – or industrial biotechnology – can help reduce energy consumption and thus global warming.
According to a report by the Danish branch of the global conservation organization WWF, white biotechnology has the potential to reduce the world’s carbon dioxide emissions by between 1 and 2.5 billion tonnes per year by 2030. This is equivalent to more than Germany’s total emissions in the Kyoto baseline year, 1990.
”Low carbon biotech solutions are a good example of hidden or invisible climate solutions that are all around us already today but are easy to overlook for policymakers, investors and companies,” says John Kornerup Bang, head of globalization program at WWF Denmark.
This is just an example of how the so-called ”white biotechnology” – or industrial biotechnology – can help reduce energy consumption and thus global warming.
According to a report by the Danish branch of the global conservation organization WWF, white biotechnology has the potential to reduce the world’s carbon dioxide emissions by between 1 and 2.5 billion tonnes per year by 2030. This is equivalent to more than Germany’s total emissions in the Kyoto baseline year, 1990.
”Low carbon biotech solutions are a good example of hidden or invisible climate solutions that are all around us already today but are easy to overlook for policymakers, investors and companies,” says John Kornerup Bang, head of globalization program at WWF Denmark.
UN chief hoping for a breakthrough
Gather a hundred heads of state in the same place, get them talking privately among themselves and hope a global climate pact starts to gel.
That's the gamble the UN chief is taking, organizing an unusual high-level summit next week intended to build momentum for striking a deal this year on mandatory worldwide cuts in greenhouse gases.
"The very fact that more than 100 leaders from all around the world are gathered in one place — have you ever seen in climate change negotiations that such a large number of heads of state are gathered together at one place at one day?" UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday while taking questions at a monthly news conference.
Less than three months remain before 180 nations meet in Copenhagen to hammer out a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and negotiations are proving difficult. The Kyoto accord has had mixed success in binding 37 industrial countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by 2012.
Rather than hold actual negotiations, Ban's one-day event encourages world leaders to chat informally in round-table sessions and try to collectively leapfrog beyond the confines of nationalist interests.
Adding to the heightened expectations is that US President Barack Obama's first speech to the United Nations will come at this summit and deal solely with climate change, one day before he and other heads of states and ministers begin delivering their broader messages to the 192-nation General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York.
"Now, I believe that almost all the leaders of the world, they realize that this an issue of great urgency," Ban said. "I expect even though this is not a negotiating forum, the leaders will really demonstrate their strong political will."
That's the gamble the UN chief is taking, organizing an unusual high-level summit next week intended to build momentum for striking a deal this year on mandatory worldwide cuts in greenhouse gases.
"The very fact that more than 100 leaders from all around the world are gathered in one place — have you ever seen in climate change negotiations that such a large number of heads of state are gathered together at one place at one day?" UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday while taking questions at a monthly news conference.
Less than three months remain before 180 nations meet in Copenhagen to hammer out a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and negotiations are proving difficult. The Kyoto accord has had mixed success in binding 37 industrial countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by 2012.
Rather than hold actual negotiations, Ban's one-day event encourages world leaders to chat informally in round-table sessions and try to collectively leapfrog beyond the confines of nationalist interests.
Adding to the heightened expectations is that US President Barack Obama's first speech to the United Nations will come at this summit and deal solely with climate change, one day before he and other heads of states and ministers begin delivering their broader messages to the 192-nation General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York.
"Now, I believe that almost all the leaders of the world, they realize that this an issue of great urgency," Ban said. "I expect even though this is not a negotiating forum, the leaders will really demonstrate their strong political will."
Friday, September 11, 2009
China signs deal with US firm to build world’s largest solar power plant
When finished by energy giant First Solar from Arizona, the solar facility will supply power to three million Chinese homes.Energy giant First Solar from Arizona has won a deal to build the world's largest solar power plant in the Mongolian desert, AFP reports.
The US company will construct the two-gigawatt plant in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed Tuesday with Chinese officials.
The solar facility will be built in four stages over a decade and will eventually supply power to three million Chinese homes, the company said in a statement.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but First Solar said that if a similar plant were to be built in the United States, the cost would be about five to six billion dollars.
"In China, due to lower labor costs and other factors, we expect the plant cost would likely be lower," Lisa Morse, First Solar spokeswoman, told AFP.
The first phase of the Ordos solar power plant will be a 30-megawatt "demonstration" project that will see construction begin by June 1, 2010, officials said
The US company will construct the two-gigawatt plant in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed Tuesday with Chinese officials.
The solar facility will be built in four stages over a decade and will eventually supply power to three million Chinese homes, the company said in a statement.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but First Solar said that if a similar plant were to be built in the United States, the cost would be about five to six billion dollars.
"In China, due to lower labor costs and other factors, we expect the plant cost would likely be lower," Lisa Morse, First Solar spokeswoman, told AFP.
The first phase of the Ordos solar power plant will be a 30-megawatt "demonstration" project that will see construction begin by June 1, 2010, officials said
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