Seven Generational Ruminations

Wind Turbines on the Edge: Small Wind Power Could be Moving in Next Door: Covers a new wind turbine designed by Aerovironment. The turbine is small enough to be mounted on buildings, along the top edge of the wall (the parapet) where the wind is strongest. The turbine is designed to spin slowly, which will help it be safe for wildlife, as well as the screen in front of the turbine.

Green Car Congress has a story about a new catamaran (dual-hulled sailboat): Hybrid Electric Catamaran

Britain has a big dream they're working on, to use wind power to provide electricity to a large portion of the country. I don't remember the percentage but they're going for wind power in a big way. As is Europe in general.

Wind power growth blowing away forecasts discusses the progress. Apparently they are well ahead of their forecast growth, and are on target to supply enough electricity from wind to provide the electricity needs of Glasgow and London.

The cape wind project intends to install dozens of wind towers off Cape Cod. This project has drawn a ridiculous storm of criticism with "Not In My Back Yard" (NIMBY) style protests from people who normally support ecological initiatives, but call this a blight. er... The huge cities are ecological blights, but how are wind towers a blight?

Here's an interesting idea:  Attach a large kite to a cargo vessel, using the kite similarly to a sail.  It will decrease the fuel required to move the ship.  With decreased fuel you have decreased pollution, especially important as ocean ships tend to use the dirtiest of diesel fuel available.

Now, why use a kite?  Why not use a regular sail?  First, this system can be retrofitted onto existing ships very easily.  Second, there's a technical advantage in that a ship using a kite does not "heel" in heavy wind, keeping the ship and crew safer.

James Lovelock is an independant scientist who has been nurturing the Gaia model of understanding the earth. He's published a string of books claiming the planet we call Earth is a living being he names Gaia. e.g. Gaia : A New Look at Life on Earth He began this work as a space scientist advising NASA on how would they determine whether there was "life" on other planets, such as Mars. That is, given the sparse set of instruments we can send to Mars, which ones should be sent to make the measurements required to determine whether "life" exists there.

A problem with wind energy is its variability. Obviously, some days the wind blows, sometimes a lot, and other days it's still. But what if the wind is still on a day you really need it? Wind energy offers a great environmental story, because nothing could be cleaner (so long as you site/design the turbines to avoid birds) ... but if you can't use the wind power on days you need it, then you need a different power source. Or, perhaps you can capture the energy derived from the wind, store that energy somehow, and use the energy later drawing it from wherever it was stored.

It's interesting to look at an investors viewpoint on "energy" and the oil supply issue. The Potential Emerging Energy Crunch (by Sol Palha) He lists several potential energy sources and points out how they all have problems preventing wide use right now. The issue is the high oil prices we saw over the last year, and he is trying to say the energy prices will continue to be high for the forseeable future, and that there is one solution: Uranium and Nuclear Power.

Here's some good news on the energy front. The U.S. Interior Department is announcing a new sped-up process for approving wind energy projects on public lands.

The move sets broad guidelines for the Bureau of Land Management's wind energy development program, and should decrease the time to get approval for a wind energy project from two or more years to less than one year, Norton said.

Floating offshore wind energy and hydrogen fuel-generating company tipping to Europe or Asia

Inventor Tom L. Lee, Ph.D. has developed a floating wind turbine platform concept for accessing the higher winds out at sea, and convert wind energy efficiently to hydrogen and electricity. Would prefer to see its manufacture and distribution licensed to a U.S. party.