Though the U.S. still has highest total capacity for wind power globally, China took the top spot for new installations in 2009 with 13 gigawatts, according to data released this week. Worldwide, wind power capacity grew 31%, up 37.5 gigawatts to 157.9 gigawatts in 2009, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. A third of the increase came from China, which doubled its capacity from 12.1 gigawatts to 25.1 gigawatts. ‘China is hard on our heels,’ said Denise Bode, chief executive of the American Wind Energy Assn. in a statement. But the U.S. is still leading in total capacity, installing nearly 10 gigawatts. That increases its total ability to product wind power by 39%, to 35 gigawatts. Busting past early expectations that the country’s wind development could plunge up to 50%, federal funds from the Recovery Act helped boost the business. Globally, the market for turbine installations was worth $63 billion in 2009, according to the wind energy council, which estimated that half a million people are now employed in the industry. Asia was the largest regional market, with more than 14 gigawatts of new capacity, due to 1.3 gigawatts installed in India and […]
While the BLM is facing a virtual clog of large, desert-based solar project proposals, smaller, distributed solar projects are popping up at an impressive rate. In just the past few weeks, 1,300 MW worth of these projects have been announced or approved, which could equal about the same energy output of a big nuclear power plant. The larger, more ambitious solar power plans have many environmental and land-use hurdles to clear, while these smaller plans, set to occupy commercial and residential rooftops, areas near electrical substations and urban areas, don’t have the same obstacles in their way. Also, the smaller projects are cheaper, meaning more utilities can afford to implement them as they’re scrambling to meet renewable energy mandates. Arno Harris, the CEO of Recurrent Energy, a company that has signed a contract with Southern California Edison for 50 MW of small-scale solar, summed it up like this: ‘Distributed solar is faster on permitting, on environmental issues and interconnection to the grid. It offers a safety valve for utilities who don’t want to put all their eggs in one basket. The projects, anywhere from 50 to 500 MW each, […]
Stem cell experts say they believe a small group of scientists is effectively vetoing high quality science from publication in journals. In some cases they say it might be done to deliberately stifle research that is in competition with their own. It has also emerged that 14 leading stem cell researchers have written an open letter to journal editors in order to highlight their dissatisfaction. Billions of pounds of public money is spent on funding stem cell research. The open letter to the major scientific journals claims that ‘papers that are scientifically flawed or comprise only modest technical increments often attract undue profile. At the same time publication of truly original findings may be delayed or rejected’. Two internationally-renowned researchers have spoken to BBC News about their concerns. They are Robin Lovell-Badge, who is speaking in a personal capacity, and Austin Smith, from the University of Cambridge. Professor Lovell-Badge said: ‘It’s turning things into a clique where only papers that satisfy this select group of a few reviewers who think of themselves as very important people in the field is published. It’s an editor’s responsibility to ensure that delays are minimised, and […]
If changes in the public mood and the party alignment of the U.S. Senate have stalled healthcare legislation, they may have thrown the highly anticipated climate bill under a bus. Even before Republican Scott Brown’s stunning election to the Senate in traditionally Democratic Massachusetts last month, it was proving hard to corral moderate Democrats to support a bill capping greenhouse gas emissions. Now they’re afraid to back anything that could be perceived as harmful to the economy. ‘Realistically, the cap-and-trade bills in the House and the Senate are going nowhere,’ Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told the New York Times. That’s a distressing comment coming from one of the three senators supposedly crafting a compromise climate bill that’s capable of achieving a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. President Obama has backed down too. On Tuesday, he signaled that cap-and-trade could go the way of healthcare reform’s ‘public option,’ saying it could be removed from the climate bill. That would eliminate the market mechanism for pricing greenhouse gas pollution — and without setting such a carbon price, other measures under consideration, such as a national renewable energy standard, won’t go far enough to significantly slow global warming. Global emissions […]
If there is any indicator of the toll that the Great Recession has taken on the public, it would be the statistics beginning to emerge about hunger in the US. According to a study from the nation’s largest food bank operator, the number of Americans in need of food aid has jumped 46 percent in three years, including a 50 percent jump in the number of children needing food assistance, and a 64 percent increase in hunger in senior citizens’ homes. The study, Hunger in America 2010, found that 37 million people, or roughly one in eight US residents, received food aid in 2009. That’s a 46 percent jump from a similar survey carried out in 2006. ‘Clearly, the economic recession, resulting in dramatically increasing unemployment nationwide, has driven unprecedented, sharp increases in the need for emergency food assistance and enrollment in federal nutrition programs,’ said Vicki Escarra, president and CEO of Feeding America, which operates some 200 food banks across the country. Story continues below… The study found a growing number of people having to make difficult choices about what to spend their dwindling dollars on, with the rising cost of health care a […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
