Scotland Is Generating So Much Wind Energy It Could Power Two Scotlands

In the first six months of the year, wind turbines in Scotland generated nearly 10 million megawatt-hours of electricity which is almost twice the entire country’s domestic power requirements. In other words, enough energy was created by the country’s renewables to power two Scotlands!

Scotland is generating enough wind-energy to power two Scotlands.

Weather Energy figures show that between January and June wind turbines provided enough electricity to power the equivalent of 4.47million homes, which is nearly twice the number of homes in Scotland. March was the record-breaker month with nearly 2.2 million megawatt-hours produced but May was the low-water mark of the period with nearly half that.

Last year Scottish Power became the first major UK energy firm to completely drop fossil fuels in favor of wind power. Over the next four years, the company plans to invest £5.2 billion to more than double its renewable capacity. These are all steps to fulfill the United Kingdom’s pledged to be carbon neutral in 30 years.

Read the story from Intelligence Living by Andrea D. Steffen - “Scotland Is Generating So Much Wind Energy It Could Power Two Scotlands.”

We Still Have No Idea How to Eliminate More Than a Quarter of Energy Emissions

Climate discussions typically center on the need to replace fossil-fuel power plants with technologies like wind turbines and solar panels.

We don't really yet know how to eliminate many of the
processes that contribute to  our carbon dioxide emissions.

But a new paper in Science offers a stark reminder that there are still huge parts of the global energy system where we simply don’t have affordable ways of halting greenhouse-gas emissions.

Air travel, long-distance transportation and shipping, steel and cement manufacturing, and remaining parts of the power sector account for 27 percent of global emissions from the energy and industrial sectors. And the authors say we need much more research, innovation, and strategic coordination to clean up these sources.

Read the MIT Technology story by James Temple - “We Still Have No Idea How to Eliminate More Than a Quarter of Energy Emissions.”

How Britain kicked coal

Despite the chaos of Brexit and the difficulty of expanding renewable generation in a country where sunshine is notoriously scarce, and despite strong opposition to wind turbines, Britain has just about ended its use of coal-fired electricity. The last coal-fired power stations are set to close by 2025, but the process is almost complete already. How was this achieved?

The answer can be found in this graph released by Ofgem, the British electricity regulator. As it shows, coal (shown in orange) supplied around 40 per cent of British electricity in 2006, yet by 2018 its contribution was negligible. (The graph on Ofgem’s site is interactive, so you can see the actual numbers there.)

Read the story by John Quiggan from Inside Story - “How Britain kicked coal.”

America’s Light Bulb Revolution

Solar panels and wind turbines get a lot of attention, but a more inconspicuous instrument is helping to reshape America’s energy economy right now: The humble light bulb.

The humble light bulb is reshaping America's energy economy.

Over the past decade, traditional incandescent bulbs, those distinctive glass orbs with glowing wire centers, have been rapidly replaced by more energy-efficient lighting. The shift has driven down electricity demand in American homes, saving consumers money and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

The energy savings are expected to grow as highly efficient and increasingly inexpensive LED bulbs continue to replace older lights. But energy efficiency advocates worry that the Trump administration could slow the pace of this lighting revolution.

Read the story from The New York Times by Nadja Popovich - “America’s Light Bulb Revolution.”

Weatherwatch: how do we store surplus renewable energy until we need it?

A milestone was reached for renewable energy in November when more than 100% of Scotland’s electricity demand was met by wind turbines for the first time – enough for nearly six million homes. Scottish weather is powering a revolution. With ever-larger wind turbines being built at sea, and wave and tidal power being developed, the problem will soon be how to use this surplus energy. 

Some is already exported to England via interconnector cables and in 2020 there will be another running from the Aberdeen area to Norway. But this will not be enough and the race is on to find ways to store cheap energy to sell back to the grid when demand is high.

Turbines being assembled in Norway before being moved to
 the world’s first floating wind farm off north-east  Scotland.

Large batteries are helping, but another proven method is pump storage. This uses virtually free surplus electricity at night to pump water into upland reservoirs to be used to power turbines during peak periods. Scotland has had these schemes since the 1960s but there is potential for many more and two new ones are proposed to pump water uphill from Loch Ness to reservoirs in the hills.

Read the story from The Guardian by Paul Brown - “Weatherwatch: how do we store surplus renewable energy until we need it?”

World’s first offshore wind farm + battery switched on in Scotland

The world’s first floating offshore wind farm, the 30MW Hywind project in Scotland, has this week chalked up another first, with the addition of a 1MW onshore battery system, to store excess power from the wind turbines.

Offshore windfarm connected to batteries onshore.

Project owners Equinor and Masdar, in partnership with battery storage provider Younicos, this week completed the 1MW Batwind energy storage project, making it the first time a battery storage project has been connected with an offshore wind energy project.

Located at an onshore substation in Peterhead, the two Younicos Y Cubes (its 10-foot modular battery containers) are now able to provide dynamic balancing for the wind project, the companies said.

Hywind Scotland was announced all the way back in November of 2015 when the Scottish Government approved construction of the 30MW project by oil and gas giant Statoil, now known as Equinor.

Read the RenewEconomy story - “World’s first offshore wind farm + battery switched on in Scotland.”

GE to build the world’s largest offshore wind turbines

GE plans to build the world’s largest offshore wind turbines, which are so tall they would dominate Melbourne's skyline.

The offshore wind turbines are nearly 300 metres tall.

The wind towers will stand 260 metres tall, almost the same height as the Sydney Tower or 120 Collins Street in Melbourne and well above the world’s current largest wind turbines at 247m. The blades alone are 107 metres long.

Known as the Haliade-X, the 12-megawatt turbines can generate up to 67 gigawatts of power annually, enough to run up to 16,000 homes. Australia consumed 180,750-gigawatt hours of electricity in 2016-17, the equivalent of 2700 of these turbines. The world’s current largest wind turbine capacity is only 9 megawatts.

Read Cole Latimer’s story from The Age - “GE to build the world’s largest offshore wind turbines.”

206% of Scotland’s entire electricity needs provided by wind power

According to researchers, wind turbines produced double the amount of electricity required to power the whole of Scotland.

Wind produces double the power needed by Scotland. 

WWF Scotland have released findings from their analysis of data provided by Weather Energy.

They found that on 2 October, 86,467MWh was provided to the national grid by wind turbines, which is more than double the country’s total daily electricity needs.

Read the Energy Digital story by Sophie Chapman - “206% of Scotland’s entire electricity needs provided by wind power.”

A Kite That Might Fly

The notion of tethered wind turbines that generate electricity from abundant and reliable high-altitude winds seems futuristic. Now, KAUST research led by Georgiy Stenchikov has identified the most favorable areas for high-altitude wind-energy systems in the Middle East.

Windmills could harvest wind energy from the lower
 100-150 m and suffer from intermittent wind supply.
 But there is abundant wind resource higher up which has led
 researchers and energy companies to explore the potential
for using winds at high altitudes. © ImageSource

The results confirm that there is abundant wind energy up there that could feasibly be harnessed, bringing the possibility of high-altitude power generation a step closer.

“We are very enthusiastic about taking this work forward,” says Udaya Gunturu, who studies atmospheric processes at KAUST.

Read the Science and Technology Research News story - “A Kite That Might Fly.”

Alaska’s Small Villages Turn Toward Renewables—And Don’t Look Back

Early in summer 2015, a barge hauling two deconstructed wind turbines lumbered out of Seattle bound for the Alaskan Arctic. It traveled along the western edge of Vancouver Island, passed the pristine wilderness of the Tongass National Forest, slipped across the Gulf of Alaska, rounded Cape Sarichef into the Bering Sea, and worked its way up the coast toward the Bering Strait, 3,000 miles from home.

As mayor of the Inupiaq village of Buckland,  

Tim Gavin has overseen the installation of wind

 turbines and solar panels that offset the high 

price of energy in remote Alaska.

By August, the ice in the Chukchi Sea had dispersed enough for the barge to get into Kotzebue Sound. There, the white towers, black blades, and the rest of the parts were loaded onto a smaller boat that made its way past Puffin Island to the southeast end of Eschscholtz Bay.

After winding 26 miles inland up the Buckland River, the turbines were placed on trucks for the last 5 miles to a hilltop where they were erected and began to spin.

That is one way to get to Buckland, a village of about 400 mostly Inupiaq Alaskans that sits near the Arctic Circle.

Read Stephen Miller’s story in Yes! magazine - “Alaska’s Small Villages Turn Toward Renewables—And Don’t Look Back.”

Scottish wind powers housebuilding in groundbreaking joint venture

Amid the rolling hills and woodland pastures of south-east Scotland, a wind of change is blowing through communities where low wages and casual work sit uneasily alongside the popular image of timeless market towns and pretty coastal villages.

Alan Hobbett of Berwickshire Housing Association, left, with Jamie
 Adam of Community Energy Scotland at Hoprigshiels windfarm
near Cockburnspath, Scotland.

High above rich arable land by the North Sea, three tall wind turbines, blades spinning wildly, have started generating electricity for the national grid with two social purposes: to sell energy and use the income to deliver hundreds of new homes in a scattered rural community while, at the same time, providing additional funds for similar schemes elsewhere in Scotland.

The groundbreaking initiative is being hailed as a breakthrough in a distinctly different political climate from that in England. “What is happening here is a ‘first’ – relieving housing pressure by harnessing the wind for the benefit of everyone,” enthuses Scotland’s energy minister, Paul Wheelhouse.

Social housebuilding is actively supported by the Scottish government. Unlike its Westminster counterpart, it has ended the sale of public housing in “right-to-buy” schemes, once seen as the late Margaret Thatcher’s enduring legacy. It is pumping more money into affordable housing. And, unlike in England, Wheelhouse insists that onshore windfarms are similarly supported rather than discouraged, in a drive to ramp up generation from renewable sources.

Read Peter Hetherington’s story on The Guardian - “Scottish wind powers housebuilding in groundbreaking joint venture.”

A Government Website for Kids Scrubbed Its Climate Warnings

A kid dressed up after
Environment Day.

Almost 20 years ago, the U.S. Energy Information Administration had an idea: Make an educational website for children about energy sources and the science behind them.

In short order, the EIA created “Energy Kids,” which now features energy-themed Sudoku and crossword puzzles, colorful pie charts, and a know-it-all mascot called Energy Ant.

Images of a school bus parked between a coal plant and an oil rig adorn the bottom of the web page, along with drawings of wind turbines, solar panels, and an energy-efficient lightbulb.

Read The Atlantic story - “A Government Website for Kids Scrubbed Its Climate Warnings.”

The untruths we're being told about coal and renewable power

Wind farms "kill all the birds", said
 US President-elect Donald Trump.

Who better to ingratiate himself with Donald Trump? Joe Hockey is our man in Washington. Remember his thoughts about wind turbines, back in 2014 when he was Tony Abbott's treasurer?

"If I can be a little indulgent," he asked an extremely eager radio host. "I drive to Canberra to go to parliament and so on, I drive myself, and I must say I find those wind turbines around Lake George to be utterly offensive. I think they are just a blight on the landscape."

Trump thinks they're utterly offensive too.

"I don't know if you've ever been to Palm Springs, California; it looks like a junkyard," he told a US radio host a few days before the election.

"They have all these different companies and each one is made by a different group from, all from China and from Germany, by the way, not from here, and you look at all these windmills, half of them are broken, they're rusting and rotting. It looks like a poor man's version of Disneyland; it's the worst thing you've ever seen."

And worse still, wind power "kills all the birds".

Read Peter Martin’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “The untruths we're being told about coal and renewable power.”

Declan Martin damns wind turbine moratotium

(The Shepparton News today published an opinion piece by reporter Declan Martin which was further evidence of a shift in public opinion that coal belongs in the ground and should not be used of source of energy. Martin also sees the upcoming federal election as an opportunity to rid ourselves of hypocritical members of government members who stand in the way of progress through their endorsement of ideas that held sway last century.)

Let’s hope the upcoming election can clean out some characters that deter progress in this country, such as tin-foil hat-wearing, Senators John Madigan and David Leyonhjelm, who are asking for a moratorium on building wind turbines because of the health concerns to those who live nearby.

These are ridiculous claims that are actually being taken seriously, meanwhile, countries, such as Denmark and Germany, are progressing with renewable technology, while Australia is being blocked from building wind turbines.

Recently it was reported that $3.3 million would be spent on two university studies into the affects of wind turbines, particularly infrasound created by the blades — that’s taxpayers’ money that is better directed elsewhere.

This infrasound is also created by a number of sources, such as the ocean, traffic and refrigerators, but as common sense prevails we aren’t switching our fridges off . . . yet.

One has to wonder what would be the outcome of a similar study on coal mining and coal-power stations and their environmental and health outcomes?

The conservative Senators hearts bleed for a handful of people who claim they are ‘‘affected by infrasound’’, but don’t care about the people who have to live near coal mines where the ground is blown up and heavy machinery works 24 hours, seven days a week.

In the vast majority of these times these people have to live with it because a state government has rubber stamped the expansion of a mine beyond the original limitations.



Shepparton
News reporter,
Declan Martin.

Huge areas of ground, often farming land, is ripped up for coal mining along with animal habitat, nobody bats an eyelid, but heaven forbid an anecdotal claim about headaches created by renewal energy and all hell breaks loose.

Coal dust particles are small enough to cause serious health impacts and correlate with poor respiratory health in the regions where coal is king, but that’s not a concern to Mr Madigan and Mr Leyonhjelm.

I’m not saying wind power is the answer, but surely there shouldn’t be some campaign against it happening because it’s hypocrisy of the highest order.

The Coalition Government will say to the media and in press releases, ‘‘We’re all about progress and are happy for renewable energy’’, but their actions speak louder than their words.

Expert who likened wind industry tactics to those of Hitler may yet be government advisor

A

n expert who has likened the wind industry's tactics to Hitler and claims the Australian Medical Association's support for wind power is "corrupt" is among those that Senate crossbenchers want appointed as government advisers on wind power.

The office of Environment Minister Greg Hunt has confirmed he still intends to appoint a scientific committee to advise on the alleged impact of wind turbines on human health, despite the government's new embrace of renewable energy under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The government will also soon announce who will fill the role of national wind farm commissioner to investigate complaints about wind turbines, despite refusing to appoint a full-time disability commissioner.

Read The Sydney Morning Herald story - “Scientist who likened wind industry to Hitler floated as potential Turnbull government adviser”.

Germany sets new record for renewable energy

O

n Saturday, July 25, Germany set a new national record for renewable energy by meeting 78 percent of the day’s electricity demand with renewables sources, exceeding the previous record of 74 percent set in May of 2014.

According to an analysis by German energy expert Craig Morris at the Energiewende blog, a stormy day across northern Europe combined with sunny conditions in southern Germany led to the new record, the exact figures of which are still preliminary.

Morris writes that most of Germany’s wind turbines are installed in the north and most of its solar panels are in the south.

Read the ClimateProgress story - “Germany Just Got 78 Percent Of Its Electricity From Renewable Sources”.

Wind commissioner idea, prompts call for coal commissioner

A

ustralia’s present Federal Government seems intent on ensuring that coming generations will not have a climate in which they can thrive.

Wind energy, along with solar is probably the least offensive of all energy sources presently accessed by humans.

Once the wind turbines are constructed, put up and in operation, their environmental costs are virtually nil, unlike coal that is environmentally costly to establish the necessary power stations and is unquestionably the most emission-intensive energy source on earth.

Oddly, and no doubt for ideological political reasons, the Abbott Coalition

Government has proposed a “wind commissioner” to investigate the claimed, and imagined, evils of wind turbines.

Writing on The Conversation a Professor in the Faculty of Business and Law at Deakin University, Samantha Hepburn said investigation of wind power while ignoring the health costs of fossil fuels is “Unfair”.

Read her story - “Wind commissioner? Let’s have a coal commissioner too”.

Wind farms 'ugly and detrimental' to health according to Tony Abbott

T

ony Abbott has declared wind farms “ugly and detrimental” to our health.

The question must asked as to when the Prime Minister last took the time to look at anyone of our fire breathing coal-fired power plants or bothered to truly consider the world-wide damage to human health caused by the fuel they rely on.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Environment Editor, Tom Arup said, “Perhaps energised by one of his famous morning rides, Prime Minister Tony Abbott hit the radio on Thursday morning and emphatically declared wind farms were ugly, noisy and much worse.

“It was a revealing interview in which he laid out his personal views on the renewable energy technology and his desire to stop its rollout.

“In doing so he generated an angry response from renewable energy supporters and set off one of those social media backlashes you hear so much about, Arup wrote.

Read the story - “Prime Minister Tony Abbott blows hot air over wind farms”.

Solar power is democratic, as is wind power

Solar power is democratic in that applied thoughtfully it can break the grip oligarchies have on society.

Wind power is similar and the installation of some 90 turbines in Snowtown in South Australia has been strongly endorsed by the local community.

The project, which started nearly two years ago, will provide power for about 230,000 homes.

The project, described in an ABC story headed: “Snowtown wind farm near completion and enjoying strong local community support” covers about 30 kilometres and involves 24 landowners.