Top 5 renewable energy technology in UK

Renewable energy may make up only a small proportion of the UK’s overall electricity supply, but it is growing. According to the government’s own figures, renewable energy made up 4.55 per cent of all electricity generated in the UK in 2006, which is 0.32 per cent higher than in 2005, and nearly a whole percentage point ahead of the 2004 figure.

That 4.55 per cent makes up 18,133 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity generated, an increase of 7.5 per cent compared to 2005. It may sound like a lot, but greater London alone consumed around 41,436GWh of electricity in 2005. And the big guns are still coal (which produces 33 per cent of the UK’s electricity), nuclear (20 per cent) and gas (a whopping 40 per cent).

Renewable energy is measured in megawatt-electrical (MWe), the amount of electrical power a plant has the capacity to produce. For renewables, of course, power capacity doesn’t always equate to how much power is actually produced — wind turbines, for example, only produce power when there is wind. Nevertheless, the UK’s current renewables capacity is 5,659MWe. The UK’s entire electricity power capacity — including coal, gas and nuclear power stations — is 83,045MWe.

The UK still lags well behind other countries in renewable energy generation. In Spain over a weekend in March, according to the AEE (Spanish Wind Energy Association), wind power accounted for an average of 28 per cent of Spain’s entire power demand. But renewables are growing and will continue to do so, as necessity dictates. To shed some light on the use of renewable technologies for electricity production, we’ve looked at the UK’s top five renewables — in no particular order — in terms of total installed capacity and future potential.

Photovoltaic solar panels
The final major renewable energy technology in the UK is photovoltaics solar panels (PV), which currently contribute 12MWe of the UK total electricity capacity. Many installations are on schools and office buildings, but some are being offered directly to consumers by house builders, as with the in Reading. Photovoltaics are growing rapidly, with 2.4MWe of this capacity having become operational since January 2007. Much of that growth was driven by a government funding programme that is now complete, which offered grants for small, medium and large-scale implementations. Whether this growth will continue is a moot point as the government’s successor programme has been criticised by Friends of the Earth for failing to offer consumers enough funding.

Wind
Wind power has massive potential in the UK with offshore wind farms alone apparently able to meet all of the UK’s current electricity needs, according to the government’s figures. Onshore facilities, however, are easier to build and 327 wind farms currently make up 1,842MWe of the UK’s electrical power capacity, according to statistics from the RESTATS database. Wind turbines are more difficult and expensive to install at sea and such make up a more modest 394MWe, but offshore wind farms have fewer planning issues and 90MWe of new capacity has become operational since January 2007. There are currently seven operational offshore wind farms in the UK with a further five under construction.

Hydroelectric
These plants can be divided into large (producing over 5MWe) and small (below 5MWe) hydroelectric plants. Most of the large plants are concentrated in Scotland and Wales and draw their water from high-level reservoirs with their own natural catchment areas, and make up 1,369MWe of energy capacity. Opportunities to grow large hydro capacity are very limited as most of the potential sites are already in use. Smaller-scale plants are growing in popularity and are typically used for domestic or small business purposes and make up 156MWe.

Biofuels
There are many different kinds of biofuels in use for electricity generation, such as the oats-powered plant used by Quaker Oats. Landfill gas is one of the fastest-growing areas — it is the methane-rich biogas formed by the decomposition of organic matter in landfill and can be used to fuel electricity turbines or directly in boilers. RESTAT estimates that this makes up some 875MWe of electricity capacity. Another growing area is sewage sludge digestion, which uses the gas produced to maintain the temperature necessary for the process. This makes up 122MWe with the excess energy being sold off onto the grid. The final growth area is municipal solid waste, which is produced in incinerators and makes up 327MWe of energy capacity. At the end of 2006, there were 24 such plants in operation burning municipal solid waste (MSW), refuse derived fuel (RDF) and general industrial waste (GIW). Other biomass generation projects include Lockerbie’s plant powered mainly by forestry waste, and a straw-fired power station near Ely, Cambridgeshire.

Wave and tidal stream
Being an island at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean makes the UK well-suited for wave and tidal power, but the difficulty in harnessing this means that it so far contributes just 0.5MWe of total energy capacity. The Limpet oscillating water column is the only wave device in the UK. It is located off the isle of Islay in Scotland and is operated by Wavegen. Tidal energy is estimated to have the potential to produce up to 22,000GWh per year, but current deployments are still only prototypes. The government has launched a couple of schemes to encourage wave and tidal plants, but these are not expected to amount to more than around 25MWe of capacity in total, the majority of which will come on stream after 2010.

Original Source: The Smart Planet

Poor nations rich in renewable energy potential

Developing nations have the potential to generate large amounts of energy from renewable sources, according to a US$10 million assessment coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

UNEP hopes to attract support to enable developing countries to transform the assessment's findings into effective energy policies.

The initial results of the Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment (SWERA), which looked at 13 developing countries, were announced last week (14 April).

They show how developing countries could harness thousands of megawatts of electricity from solar and wind energy.

"In developing countries all over the world we have removed some of the uncertainty about the size and intensity of the solar and wind resource," said Klaus Toepfer, executive director of UNEP last week.

"These countries need greatly expanded energy services to help in the fight against poverty and to power sustainable development. SWERA offers them the technical and policy assistance to capture the potential that renewable energy can offer."

The SWERA project used satellites and ground-based instruments to assess the potential for wind and solar-powered renewable energy.

Its findings have generated a range of tools to promote the implementation of policies that promote use of renewable energy sources. These tools include maps of wind and solar resources.

The researchers created the 'geospatial toolkit' to overlay wind and solar maps with electricity distribution grids.

Already, the project has influenced policy in several countries, including Nicaragua and Guatemala.

In Nicaragua, the SWERA assessment showed that there was much more potential for wind energy production than was previously thought.

As a result, the Nicaraguan National Assembly passed a decree in 2004 giving wind energy priority over other forms of energy when feeding into the electricity grid.

In Guatemala, estimates that renewable energies could yield 7,000 megawatts of electricity prompted the Ministry of Energy to create the Centre for Renewable Energy and Investment. The centre will identify sites for wind energy development.

According to previous UNEP estimates, the African continent needs 40,000 megawatts of electricity to power its industrialisation. An initial SWERA assessment in Ghana suggests that the nation has the potential to generate more than 2,000 megawatts from wind energy.

It takes about 1,000 megawatts to power a US city the size of Seattle, whose population is 560,000.

Tom Hamlin, project manager for SWERA, said last week that the project will be seeking support to meet requests from renewable energy development programmes in other developing countries.

The 13 developing nations involved in SWERA are Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Cuba, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sri Lanka.

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China Plans for 30% Renewable Energy by 2050

In the June 2007 issue of the China Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development Report from Lou Schwartz, recent developments in renewable energies in China offer insight into that country's burgeoning challenges between population, energy and the environment.

"Between 2005 and 2030, China will account for 23% of the world's investment in power, spending $1.2 trillion U.S.D. in that period."

-- China Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development Report, June 2007

The report cites that the "Persistent rural poverty in China and periodic power shortages all have impressed upon Beijing that renewable energy must be a large part of China's economy if China is to both complete its economic transformation and achieve energy security."

"Between 2005 and 2030, China will account for 23% of the world's investment in power, spending $1.2 trillion U.S.D. in that period," Schwartz notes. "China's ambitious growth target for renewable energy production will require an investment of approximately 800 billion Yuan (~$100 billion U.S.D.) by 2020. In the long term China has set an objective of having 30% or more of its total energy requirements satisfied by renewable sources by 2050."

Current business opportunities, foreign participation, relevant conferences, and production and consumption are also discussed in this month's China Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development Report.

The in-depth report examines developments across China's renewable energy industry, as seen in these excerpts:

- Solar: "The Chinese government has recently announced that large new buildings will all utilize photovoltaic power generating technology."

- Wind: "Researchers at the Jiangsu Province Macroeconomic Research Institute have advocated that large-scale wind power should be directly used to provide electric power to industries, which are large consumers of power."

- Hydropower: "In 2007 there will be another 500 MW of small to medium sized hydroelectric power generating capacity constructed in Guangxi Province."

- Biomass, Biofuels: "China hasn't yet standardized its macro-economic policies with respect to the bio-diesel industry, but it is now formulating and will soon..."

- Laws and Policies: "These sets of issues include the fact that there are more than 10 million Chinese who do not have access to electric power and the often-spotty access to power among tens of millions of other rural Chinese."

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Renewable energy alone can save India

Dr Prodipto Ghosh, former secretary in the ministry of environment and forests, currently a special energy adviser with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), believes the future lies in developing renewable forms of energy.

Dr Ghosh, who played a key role in penning the recently released PMO report on climate change, believes: "Renewable forms of energy, including solar, wind and tidal, must be mainstreamed in order that they can substantially displace oil, gas and coal. Many renewable forms are already being used in niche applications such as street signalling, remote area power supply and village homes."

This turnaround can be best illustrated by the example of wind power. Thirty-five years ago, when the world began to look at wind power, it needed a great deal of government support. In the late 90s, when the global capacity of wind energy was increased to 65,000 megawatts, it became competitive with coal.

Since India receives a great deal of sunshine, the key question is how to make solar energy commercially viable, especially since only one per cent of India’s landmass would be required by solar PVs to meet our electricity needs. Dr Ghosh agrees but states, "A great deal of R&D is required to bring solar energy costs down. A strong government commitment to R&D, matched by an increasing scale of technology, will help kickstart this change."

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Dell Headquarters Uses 100% Renewable Energy

As of April 2, Round Rock, Texas-based Dell is powering 100 percent of its 2.1 million square-foot global headquarters campus with 100 percent green power.

"It's time for our industry to take a lead role in creating a clean energy future," said Paul Bell, president, Dell Americas. "We are challenging every technology company to work with their suppliers and partners in integrating green power and energy-efficient strategies into their operations."

Dell is using all of the power generated from Waste Management's Austin Community Landfill gas-to-energy plant, meeting 40 percent of Dell headquarters’ campus power needs. The remaining 60 percent comes from existing wind farms and is provided by TXU Energy.

The computer company also announced it is increasing green power use for its Austin Parmer Campus, provided by Austin Energy, from 8 percent to 17 percent. Dell also is powering its Twin Falls, Idaho, facility with 100 percent green power, 97 percent of which is wind power and 3 percent solar.

In September 2007, Dell announced it would make company owned and leased facilities "carbon neutral" in 2008 through a strategy of improving energy-efficiency in its operations and maximizing the purchase of renewable power. This commitment is part of the company's climate strategy which also seeks to minimize carbon impact of supplier operations and customer product use.

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Storage Boosts the Power of Renewable Energy

how to integrate large amounts of renewable energy into the grid was the topic at the recently held Electricity Storage Association's Annual Meeting in California. At the meeting, leading companies, manufacturers, utilities and policy developers gathered under the motto "Electricity Storage: Predictable Power in a Cleantech World."

During the conference experts showed how energy storage can play a variety of roles in firming up renewables at different time scales, i.e. from moment to moment, daily, weekly and seasonally. The presentations showed how storage options are essential for expanding renewable energy sources, stabilizing the grid, ensuring a continuity of supply, increasing energy autonomy and mediating against intermittent power production.

As storage technology advances, decision makers are starting to create a more favorable policy environment for innovators. For example, the U.S. Energy Storage Technology Advancement Act of 2007 recognizes the crucial roles that storage can play.

"This bill is the first official recognition of the importance of energy storage by Congress," said Imre Gyuk, Manager of Energy Storage Systems Research with the Department of Energy. "It is only an authorization bill and thus carries no appropriated funding, but it is a wonderful platform for future requests for storage research, demonstrations and development."

The act establishes an Advisory Committee (the Energy Storage Advisory Council), and authorizes funds for a basic and an applied research program of US $50 million and $80 million, respectively, for each fiscal year from 2009 to 2014. It also provides US $100 million each year for up to four energy storage research centers; US $30 million a year for energy storage demonstration projects and vehicle energy storage demonstration; and US $5 million a year for 10 years for secondary applications of electric drive vehicles.

Reaction to the act has been positive and the storage industry is beginning to take off.

"Grid-scale storage is here now," said Ed Cazalet of MegaWatt Storage Farms. "Storage should be deployed now at the gigawatt (GW) scale...where capacity, ancillary services and energy time-shifting are clearly needed."

Storage projects can be sourced close to loads, on the grid or at the generating facility. In his presentation, Cazalet emphasized that the demand-pull from large-scale commercial deployment will encourage manufacturing investment, lower costs through volume production (economies of scale) and lead to the commercialization of advanced technologies.

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Venture Capital Investment in Renewable Energy Soars to $3.4 Billion in 2007

According to newly released data from Greentech Media, Inc.,
venture capital investment in renewable energy reached an
unprecedented level of $3.4 Billion in 2007. Investment in solar power led the VC charge with more than $1.05 Billion invested in more than 70 VC financing rounds. Also winning record amounts of renewable energy funding was investment in battery technology at $433.9 Million and in the energy efficiency/smart grid sector at $419.1 Million. Venture firms continue to invest in biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol and biodiesel, with more than $750 Million directed towards these new feedstocks and technologies.

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Whats good for the environment is good for business

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Every Second Nature customer helps build the demand for green energy, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and strengthen our domestic fuel base. It’s just good business sense Your support of renewable energy allows your business to: Demonstrate a leadership role in your industry Gain a competitive edge Add value to your brand and generate positive publicity Promote socially-responsible business practices and consumer health As a business customer, you have a unique opportunity to join Alliant Energy’s other business green energy buyers. Nationally, you’ll be among the ranks of companies like 3M, Sprint, Lockheed Martin, Good Earth Natural Foods and Starbucks Corporation in supporting the growth and purchase of green power.

Higher Oil Prices Make Renewable Energy Living

Human Beings talk a more about alternative fuels being more Living with oil at such high prices. It also, however, makes other, more exotic, fossil fuel extraction techniques viable. This piece in the UK’s Independent outlines how oil reserves are understated because certain known fields are too expensive to extract at this time - and therefore are excluded from oil reserve projections (an important point that I would wager that many investors don’t understand).

The risk for green investors (and the environment for that matter) is that, if true, tapping oil reserves such as these could grow oil supply over current projections (even if its at these current high prices) - driving out the peak oil scenario longer than anticipated by Wall Street. (This is the kind of stuff investors and analysts miss all the time).

Different Kinds of Renewable Energy

• Solar energy which comes from the sun can be turned as electricity and heat. Solar panels on the roofs of houses, building and other establishment are use to store the solar energy. The sun's energy harnessed by the panels runs generators which provide electricity. There are stand-alone solar panels that you can put in your yard to save the sun's energy in a generator.
• Geothermal energy is an energy that comes from the heat inside the earth. It's simple technology that involves boring a hole into the ground to take the heat from the earth's crust. The heat that comes off is used to heat water and make steam to power generators to make electricity.
• Biomass energy is from the plant and trees. This energy alternative makes use of husks that come off rice after it is harvested and the waste from the corn. This "biomass" can be burned in a power station built for such a purpose. It emits less pollution than if the waste was left to rot, because it would produce a lot of methane.

Sources: Wood (most common source), plants, agricultural waste, industrial waste, even methane gas from community landfills.

Uses: fuel for transportation or to manufacture product that would otherwise use fossil fuels.

• Water Energy - the natural evaporation/precipitation cycle makes water a renewable source of energy. The heat of the sun causes water in lakes and ocean to evaporate and form clouds. The water then falls back to earth as rain or snow, and goes to the rivers and streams that flow back to the ocean. Moving water can be used to power water wheels that drive mechanical processes. Water Wheels are useful for generating mechanical energy to grind grain or saw wood, but are not practical for generating electricity because it is bulky and slow. Water energy emits about 30 times less greenhouse gas than modern natural gas power plants and 60 times less than coal-fired plant, which makes it a clean source of energy.
• Wind Energy is captured by wind turbines and used to generate electricity. The costs of wind energy are going down as mass manufacture of turbines becomes more accepted. It costs the same as setting up a new coal or nuclear power station. More importantly, external cost to health care and the effects of acid rain are 50times less than when using coal.

Renewable Energy - Benefits

The most obvious benefits of renewable energy are that it is far less polluting than conventional energy and will not run out. Renewable energy can also be produced more locally. This means that it can help local and national economies by using local resources and creating jobs. It will also help reduce the country’s dependence on overseas countries that may be politically unstable. This will help ensure supply and avoid price fluctuation.

Renewable energy is also much safer than nuclear energy which some people regard as ‘clean’. Accidents in nuclear plants can be catastrophic and there is the added problem of having to deal with nuclear waste.

One of the most important benefits of renewable energy is the fact that it’s non-polluting. And of course as the name tells us it is renewable and does not use resources that can never be replaced. Renewable energy has a much lower environmental impact than conventional sources of energy. But there are other advantages to using renewable sources of energy.

There are many benefits of renewable energy to the ordinary citizen and business owner. Homeowners will reap rewards from using renewable energy and energy-efficient appliances by saving money in the long run and reducing environmental impacts. It also renders us able to fuel our homes independently in many cases. Using renewable fuels makes us less dependent.

Benefits of Renewable Energy Source:

* Renewable energy sources offer clean alternative to fossil fuels.
* RE produces little or no pollution or greenhouse gases.
* RE will never run out

Benefits of Purchasing Renewable Energy

According to the EIA, renewable energy, including hydropower and other renewables accounted for 8.8% of total U.S. energy generation in 2004. In recent years, however, there has been considerable growth in the use of renewable energy. Many state and local governments, for instance, have turned to renewable energy as a way to reduce local air pollution, reduce generation of greenhouse gases and/or stimulate the local economy. See below for more information.
Meet Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals
In lieu of the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the United States, many public agencies and private businesses have voluntarily set greenhouse gas reduction goals. San Diego, for example, set a 15% GHG reduction goal in 2002 in partnership with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). As of February 2006, 208 mayors have signed onto The US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. These signatories have agreed to meet or exceed the Kyoto Protocol’s 7% GHG reduction goals (in comparison to 1990 levels) by 2012. For more information, go to the Pew Center on Global Change’s State and Local News page. Currently, 27 states have Climate Action Plans to reduce greenhouse gases1.

Industries and private businesses have taken initiative and partnered with the EPA Climate Leaders program to set emissions reduction goals and to monitor progress by reporting to the EPA.
Meet Air Quality Goals
Since 1990, the Federal Government, through the EPA, has set national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) designed to regulate exposure to a list of harmful criteria pollutants. Many jurisdictions are classified as in “non attainment” and have not met these goals. Shifting to renewable energy may significantly reduce sulfur and nitrogen oxides, particularly in areas surrounding or downwind of energy production facilities. For a list of non attainment areas, visit http://www.epa.gov/air/oaqps/greenbk/

In 2004 Montgomery County included its wind purchase as an air pollution reduction strategy in the region's air quality plan, making it the first time the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized wind power as a way of meeting federal air quality requirements2. For more information on this and other examples, see the EPA’s Green Power Partnership site.
Create Exportable Technology and Jobs
In the 1980’s, the US was a technological leader in solar and wind energy technology, but in the intervening years, other countries have taken the lead on many renewable technologies. A national commitment to renewable energy could allow the US to rapidly regain a position at the forefront3. Many believe that the development of domestic renewable resources could reinvigorate the local economy while helping the U.S. become more energy independent.

For example, a report published by faculty in the Energy and Resources Group and the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California Berkeley (Kammen et al. 2004 - http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/renewables.jobs.pdf ) that summarized 13 independent reports on job creation and renewable energy concluded that renewable energy generates more jobs than fossil-fuel energy for each unit of energy produced. Renewable energy operations have the potential to generate three to eleven times the number of jobs created by fossil-fuel operations, with solar and biomass exhibiting the highest potentials.

Rising oil prices makes renewable energy attractive

With fuel prices soaring, renewable energy is being promoted by the state government here.
The West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation Ltd (WBGEDC), a government agency floated for the development of green energy, is likely to come up with "renewable policy energy" framework by the end of this year

The focus areas of the policy would be to formulate certain concessions to be given to those using renewable energy, like rebate in municipal tax among other benefits, said S P Gon Chaudhuri, managing director of WBGEDCL, on the sidelines of a press conference to announce its tie-up with a Kolkata-based real estate developer to transfer green energy techniques, in Kolkata on Wednesday.

The tariff policy on the use of renewable energy was already in place in West Bengal, said Gon Chaudhuri. The policy would be divided into two parts, covering benefits to the people residing in buildings where renewable energy was being used, and independent power producers, he said. This apart, the policy will also promote the use of bio-fuels, by giving certain concessions to farmers undertaking Jatropha cultivation.

The corporation would assist the farmers in procuring Jatropha seeds and selling the end products in the market, he said. The states of Mizoram and Tripura, and union territory of Andaman and Nicobar, have also approached the WBGEDC for framing a similar policies.

"We would act as a consultant for preparing a renewable energy policy for states like like Mizoram and Tripura," he said.

The policy would be formulated with help from Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM), he added. It will be placed before the state cabinet by the end of this year.

Benefits of Renewable Energy

Renewable energy can supply a significant proportion of the United States' energy needs, creating many public benefits for the nation and for states and regions, including environmental improvement, increased fuel diversity and national security, and regional economic development benefits.

Environmental Benefits

Using fossil fuels -- coal, oil and natural gas -- to make electricity dirties the nation's air, consumes and pollutes water, hurts plants and animal life, creates toxic wastes, and causes global warming. Using nuclear fuels poses serious safety risks. Renewable energy resources can provide many immediate environmental benefits by avoiding these impacts and risks and can help conserve fossil resources for future generations. Of course, renewable energy also has environmental impacts. For example, biomass plants produce some emissions, and fuel can be harvested at unsustainable rates. Windfarms change the landscape, and some have harmed birds. Hydro projects, if their impacts are not mitigated, can greatly affect wildlife and ecosystems. However, these impacts -- which are discussed in Appendix A -- are generally much smaller and more localized than those of fossil and nuclear fuels. Care must nevertheless be taken to mitigate them.

Air Pollution

Clean air is essential to life and good health. Air pollution aggravates asthma, the number one children's health problem. Air pollution also causes disease and even premature death among vulnerable populations, including children, the elderly, and people with lung disease. A 1996 analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council of studies by the American Cancer Society and Harvard Medical School suggests that small particles in the air may be responsible for as many as 64,000 deaths each year from heart and lung disease.[1] As the figure below shows, air pollution is responsible for more deaths than motor vehicle accidents, and ranks higher than many other serious health threats.[2] A few of the most important pollutants are discussed below.[3]

Sulfur oxides

Electricity production, primarily from burning coal, is the source of most emissions of sulfur oxides (SOx), as the figure shows. These chemicals are the main cause of acid rain, which can make lakes and rivers too acidic for plant and animal life. Acid rain also damages crops and buildings. National reductions in sulfur oxides required by the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 may not be sufficient to end damage from acid rain in the northeastern United States.[4] SO2 is also a primary source of fine particles in the air.

Nitrogen oxides

Burning fossil fuels either to produce electricity or to power transportation emits nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the air. In the presence of sunlight, nitrogen oxides combine with other chemicals to form ground-level ozone (smog). Both nitrogen oxides and ozone can irritate the lungs, cause bronchitis and pneumonia, and decrease resistance to respiratory infections. In addition, research shows that ozone may be harmful even at levels allowed by federal air standards. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published a new rule reducing nitrogen oxide emissions from 0.12 parts per million to 0.08 parts per million. States have until 2003 to submit plans for meeting the new standard and up to 12 years to achieve it.[5]

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important of the greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming by trapping heat in the earth's atmosphere. Electricity generation is, as the figure shows, the largest industrial source of carbon dioxide emissions and a close second to the transportation sector.

Samples from air bubbles trapped deep in ice from Antarctica show that carbon dioxide and global temperature have been closely linked for 160,000 years. Over the last 150 years, burning fossil fuels has resulted in the highest levels of carbon dioxide ever recorded. In 1995, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- an authoritative international scientific body -- concluded that "the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate."[6] All 10 of the warmest years on record have occurred in the last 15 years. The 1990s have already been warmer than the 1980s -- the warmest previous decade on record, according to the Goddard Institute of Space Studies.[7]

Without action, carbon dioxide levels would double in the next 50 to 100 years, increasing global temperatures by 1.8 to 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat trapped in the atmosphere would cause expansion of the ocean's volume as surface water warms and melt some glaciers. A two-foot rise in sea level could flood 5,000 square miles of dry land in the United States, and another 5,000 square miles of coastal wetlands, as the figure shows. From 17 to 43 percent of coastal wetland-prime fish and bird habitat-could be lost. Building dikes and barriers could reduce flooding of dry land, but would increase wetland loss. Impacts on island nations and low-lying countries, like Egypt and Bangladesh, would be much worse.

Altered weather patterns from changes in climate may result in more extreme weather events. Some areas will suffer more drought and others more flooding, putting crop production under great stress in some regions. The character of our forests could change dramatically. Other expected impacts include an increase in heat-related deaths, increased loss of animal and plant species, and the spread of pests and diseases into new regions with less resistance to them.[8]

In 1997, at a conference in Kyoto, Japan, the developed nations of the world agreed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The United States agreed to 7 percent reductions from 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012. Senate ratification of this agreement remains uncertain, however.

SunPower increasing solar cell capacity by 150 percent in 2008

In announcing financial results for the first quarter of 2008, SunPower Corporation stated that it would be increasing solar cell capacity by 150 percent in 2008, compared to capacity levels in 2007. The company also said that nearly half of its cell production was its ‘Gen2’ solar cell technology that has a minimum conversion efficiency of 22 percent.

“Our proprietary technology delivers the highest output per unit area of any commercially available solar system and we intend to leverage this technology by aggressively expanding our solar cell production by more than 150 percent in 2008 compared to 2007,” commented Tom Werner, SunPower's CEO, in a financial statement. “This scale, combined with lower silicon costs, higher efficiencies, thinner wafers and on-going quality and cost improvements in our factories, will drive unit cost reduction. During the first quarter of 2008, we continued to meet or exceed our manufacturing targets across both of our fabs and our panel manufacturing facility.”

The company also noted that it has secured 100 percent of its required polysilicon supply through 2010 to meet its revised capacity expansion plans. Last year, SunPower projected that production would top 250MW in 2008. However, revised figures revealed by the company show that figure to be 255MW for 2008.

The same is true for 2009. SunPower previously stated that it would produce 430MW in 2009; that figure has been raised to 450MW-plus. For 2010, the company is still expecting production of 650MW-plus, but has not adjusted the baseline figure upwards.

SunPower also reiterated that its capacity ramp at Fab 2 remained on schedule and was expected to be completed by the end of 2009. Its fourth solar panel manufacturing line had also completed its production ramp allowing the company to produce more than half of its PV panels in-house.

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ENERGY FROM WIND

Wind is simple air in motion. It is caused by the uneven heating of the earth’s surface by the sun. Since the earth’s surface is made of very different types of land and water, it absorbs the sun’s heat at different rates.

During the day, the air above the land heats up more quickly than the air over water. The warm air over the land expands and rises, and the heavier, cooler air rushes in to take its place, creating winds. At night, the winds are reversed because the air cools more rapidly over land than over water.

In the same way, the large atmospheric winds that circle the earth are created because the land near the earth's equator is heated more by the sun than the land near the North and South Poles.

Today, wind energy is mainly used to generate electricity. Wind is called a renewable energy source because the wind will blow as long as the sun shines.

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Renewable Energy Resources versus Fossil Fuels

In modern western world the demand for energy has increased dramatically in the past century and it will grow even further and harder in the near future than ever before. The need for energy rises with upcoming markets that also need more energy. Energy is needed for cars, buses, and other means of transportation, but also to run our appliances and provides us light. Energy is also important for our safety. At night or in the dark a lot can be stolen without proper lightning. Energy is therefore needed for our development and safety.

The way we use energy today comes from knowledge that has it's foundations in the past century and before. Great men like Newton and Philips have set the path for us today to make proper use of energy. The sources which we use for our energy demand are known as non-renewable energy resources

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Benefits of Renewable Energy

Renewable energy provides many important benefits including:

• Savings and Efficiency
  

• Reliable Energy
  

• Environmental benefits
  

• Energy for the future
  

• Jobs & the economy
  

• Energy security

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The renewable energy future

Remember rain?

As Los Angeles creaks through its driest year on record and nervously awaits its next explosive wildfire, many wonder if global warming is already taking a toll. Nobody really knows; California has always had intermittent droughts, after all. But climate models predicted this situation. Changes in ocean temperatures and currents driven by things such as the melting of the Greenland ice shelf -- which is happening a lot faster than scientists expected -- will probably produce an even more desert-like climate in L.A.

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