Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
For decades the “Holy Grail” of the New Energy Economy has been to find ways to store wind and solar energy. The answers are here, and they are much more plain and simple than we thought. Like Indiana Jones in his Last Crusade, we need to see the Grail that is right before our eyes. The means to enable solar and wind energy to serve as our primary energy supplies are at hand.
A weekly update from a UK perspective.
-Averting a perfect storm of shortages
-The Future of Food
-The Big Question: Should Africa be generating much of Europe’s power?
-Peak Oil and Tourism
-Let There Be Light!
-Bolivians look to ancient farming
-Ambitious Solar Project to Use Recycled City Wastewater
-Another bold move in Portland
-Scientists explore how the humble leaf could power the planet
-Raising Wind Turbine Output With Longer Blades
-How a wind farm could emit more carbon than a coal power station
-India sets out ambitious solar power plan to be paid for by rich nations
-Asian giants put the West’s targets for solar energy in the shade
-Boom in hydropower pits fish against climate
-Are wind farms a health risk? US scientist identifies ‘wind turbine syndrome’
– Matthias Reinig on Desertec Industrial Initiative
– Desertec Solar Project Shows That Green Investors Can’t Afford to be Too Green If They Want to Make $$
– European power from the desert is a Fata Morgana
– Stewart Taggart at Desertec-Australia on clean power from deserts worldwide
More wind than we thought?
On the Brink of a New Era in Energy (interview with Siemens CEO)
Gerry Wolff at TREC-UK updates the Desertec story (video)
Just a year and a half after a breakthrough Solar Grand Plan study was published in the January 2008 Scientific American, the U.S. government has begun plans to implement major elements of such a Plan.
European Farmers Turn to Biogas Plants
Europe Mulls Huge Solar Project
Water for energy: The bad bet for biofuels
“What struck me the most, as a surprise, is the virulence in the downtrend in the world economy. That’s a negative for the peak oil story, but only a temporary negative. By crushing demand, we are in effect gaining two more years, maybe three, in which we in the consuming world have added to our time before the peak, and could take good advantage of, since the peak is right upon us-I have it still at 2015 for all liquids.” (Charlie Maxwell is the life-long oil industry analyst viewed by Barrons’ magazine as their energy guru.)
