South Korea has confirmed it intends to become a major player in the offshore wind sector with an announcement last week that an $8.2 billion (€5.9 bn) wind farm will be built in the Yellow Sea.
With an eye to reducing its dependence on expensive imported fossil fuels, the nation will begin testing 20 5-MW wind turbines from various South Korean manufacturers by 2013. This will be followed by the installation of an additional 180 5-MW machine three years later and 300 more similar sized turbines by 2019.
“The plan is to make South Korea the world’s third-largest country in terms of offshore wind power generation,” Kang Nam-hoon, head of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy’s energy and climate change policy division, was reported as telling a press briefing. continue reading »
The International Energy Agency’s 2010 World Energy Outlook, released today, should finally stamp out the myth that renewable energies are dependent on subsidies.
“Fossil-fuel consumption subsidies amounted to $312 billion in 2009”, says the IEA, while renewable energies in the same year received just $57 billion of “government support” according to the IEA.
In other words, renewables got just $1 for every $5-6 given to fossil fuels last year.
The IEA goes on to forecast that government support for renewables will go up to $205 billion in 2035. That is still – a quarter of a century in the future – less than two-thirds of the sum being doled out to fossil fuels today.
In this time of budgetary constraints, governments would be wise to remove the billions of dollars spent in subsidising fossil fuels as well as nuclear. That in turn would mean less subsidies would be needed to bring in new, smarter and cleaner energy technologies such as wind power.
The latest example of Australia getting serious about developing its vast wind power potential occurred last week at an industry forum in Cairns with an announced plan that construction of a $560 million (€400 million) wind farm and visitor centre could begin by the end of next year.
According to The Cairns Post, Wendy Morris, of property developer Port Bajool, described the planned 220 MW wind farm and its accompanying $12 million (€8.6 mn) energy innovation centre as “one of the bright shining lights” for the Tablelands area, which has been dealing with a sluggish economy.
The newspaper reported that the 80 turbine wind facility, located near Mt. Emerald southwest of Mareeba, could produce enough electricity to power Tablelands and up to 60% of Cairns. continue reading »
By guest blogger Elke Zander
Finland is making huge steps to exploiting the power it has in the air, explained Anni Mikkonen, Executive Director of the Finnish Wind Power Association, at the Energia10 event in Tampere, Finland where EWEA brought its ‘Breath of fresh air’ campaign this week.
Two major obstacles to the development of wind energy have been addressed by the government and are currently in decision process with the Finnish parliament. Firstly, the lack of feed-in tariff to support wind energy. This is due to change from January 2011, the government says. The Finnish Wind Power Association is certain that with a feed-in tariff a major hurdle will be overcome, although Mikkonen stresses that the tariff levels are quite low, making near shore sites the most profitable in terms of wind energy.
Another issue has been spatial planning. Until now, two different plans had to be submitted: a local master plan and a local detailed plan. A new law has been designed now to only require the local master plan. This law proposal is with the parliament for decision as well. continue reading »
A number of prominent members of the Navajo Nation, the largest tribe in the US, are beginning to advocate that economic activity created by wind power and other renewables should begin replacing coal mining on the band’s huge reservation, according to The New York Times.
Carrying the headline “Navajos Hope to Shift From Coal to Wind and Sun”, the NYT story also said that people are increasingly wondering about health and environmental concerns caused by coal mining and coal-fired power plants on the reservation that sprawls across parts of New Mexico, Utah and Arizona.
Published on Monday, the article noted some of the 300,000 people in the Navajo Nation — which covers about 70,000 square kilometers — are now speaking out against the smog, soot, water pollution and health problems long associated with the coal industry. continue reading »
South Korea has confirmed it intends to become a major player in the offshore wind sector with an announcement last week that an $8.2 billion (€5.9 bn) wind farm will be built in the Yellow Sea.
