Google and EGS , This press release from Google, Google.org invests more than $10 million in breakthrough geothermal energy technology, describes their participation in fostering a new approach: Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Working with two companies and SMU's Geothermal Lab, they hope to bring EGS into full flower soon.
As I have pointed out before, you don't have to be sitting on top of Yellowstone National Park or the volcanoes in Iceland to use geothermal. There's a landmark geothermal project in downtown Manhattan for instance. I've mentioned geothermal here a number of times, including in this post from March that references the landmark M.I.T. study that puts geothermal in the forefront.
AltaRock is one of the companies with whom Google is working. They're pioneering the approach which utilizes a heat-exchange process to deliver scads of power. Here's a good graphic of their scheme.
British Wind Farm , A new 500-megawatt wind farm is going up offshore of northwest England. See this from Reuters. The article also reports UK government approval for another 150MW farm nearby. The 500MW development is being led by ScottishPower. Their press release notes that they have now " over 600MW in operation and a pipeline of 1,800MW to be developed by 2012."
Hopefully, the US offshore wind outlook will progress soon. It's been terribly slow to date. That's the kind way to put it. (See Cape Wind from June.)
Solar Throughout the World , A new report from Greenpeace and the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) claims "Solar Energy can bring clean energy to over 4 billion people by 2030." According to a Greenpeace analyst, Sven Teske, "Solar electricity could help cut up to 1.6 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions by 2030, equivalent to the emissions of 450 coal-fired power plants." You can find the full report here. See also this article from CarbonFree.
Much of this power can be deployed, because of the nature of the technology, in remote and undeveloped lands. By the way, what do many of the undeveloped countries in the Global South have in abundance? The sun! (No points for getting that right.) See also Black Carbon and Solar Cookers.
Investment , An important information resource, Socially Responsible Investing (SRI), has an article of interest: Renewable Energy Wows World Investors. The story is that "The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) reports a new record in sustainable energy investments in 2007 with more than $148 billion invested globally." More precisely, it is UNEP's Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative (SEFI) that has issued the Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investment 2008 Report. See also "Trillions for Renewables" at my post here from February.
Wind Surpassing Expectations , That's the message in this terrific and comprehensive article from RenewableEnergyWorld.com. The report on which this article was based came out in May, but the article here summarizes much of the startling and hopeful news on wind that's been coming out. See this graphic for instance for just a sense of how pervasive the penetration of the windpower deployments are becoming.
