Two Californian scientists have worked out how to achieve a wind-powered world that provides the entire planet with wind energywithout spoiling the view with turbines on every hilltop. The answer: take wind farming onto the high seas. The force of the winds sweeping across the open ocean would be enough to generate 18 billion kilowatts – which is about the global annual energy demand right now. The scientists report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that although the best that wind farms on land can deliver is electricity at the rate of 1.5 watts per square metre, the mid-latitudes of the North Atlantic could do much better: up to 6 watts per square metre.
Climate News Network 25th Oct 2017 read more »
A subsidy ban for new onshore wind farms could add £1bn onto energy bills over five years by eschewing one of the cheapest forms of clean energy. Generating power from new onshore wind farms would be £100m a year cheaper than doing so from new nuclear reactors or biomass plants, and at least £30m cheaper than under the latest offshore wind-power contracts, according to research by the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, a London-based non-profit group. Savings would reach £1bn over five years if 1 gigawatt of capacity was installed in the first year and another 500 megawatts in following years, said ECIU, which urged Theresa May’s Conservative government to allow wind farms to compete for contracts in the next power auction, due to be held in 2019.
Independent 25th Oct 2017 read more »
The government’s “outdated” ban on developing new onshore wind farms on mainland Britain is blocking access to the cheapest available form of new electricity generation, and having a negative impacts on bills, climate change targets, and businesses. That is the conclusion of new research by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) think tank, which estimates electricity from 1GW of new onshore wind farms would cost £30m a year less than obtaining the same amount of power from new offshore wind farms, even when recent cost reductions from the offshore wind sector are taken into account.
Business Green 25th Oct 2017 read more »
