Green Power: A Global Goal.Two billion people in the developing world are without electricity, while dirty energy sources force many others to live under some of the most polluted skies in the world. In the developed and developing world alike, climate change threatens social progress and, perhaps, human survival. The key is to enable the developing world to leapfrog over the model of large power stations that still prevails in the industrial world and jump directly to a decentralized de·cen·tral·ize v. de·cen·tral·ized, de·cen·tral·iz·ing, de·cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To distribute the administrative functions or powers of (a central authority) among several local authorities. system based on many micropower plants, such as solar photo-voltaic (PV) panels. "I believe there will be a complete revolution in energy technology, which will enable us to turn around global warming global warming, the gradual increase of the temperature of the earth's lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution. ," President Bill Clinton has stated. But we must act soon. This nation now uses nearly one-quarter of the world's coal, oil and gas, making the US the world's worst global-warming polluter. Nature magazine reports that stabilizing [CO.sub.2] emissions at current levels would require producing two-thirds of the world's energy from non-fossil fuel resources. Here is how it can be done. Fuel Cell Technology Fuel cells create electricity from chemical reactions This is the 18th episode of television drama Men in Trees. It originally aired on June 25, 2007 on the TV2 network in New Zealand as a continuation of season 1. Recap Marin and Cash have a stew cook off, she admits his is better than hers. without combustion or moving parts Moving parts are the components of a device that undergo continuous or frequent motion, most commonly rotation. "Parts" only include the mechanical components which does not include fuel, or any other gas or liquid. . They never need recharging because, like an engine, they run off a fuel source. The fuel source is hydrogen, the most abundant element in the universe. A March 2000 study by the David Suzuki Foundation The David Suzuki Foundation is an environmental organization based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is a non-profit organization that is incorporated in both Canada and the United States, and is funded by over 40,000 donors. found that fuel cells cut natural gas emissions 70 percent, while reducing gasoline emissions 20 percent. Fuel cells can be scaled from postage-stamp size to powerplant size. GE will begin selling $7,500-$10,000 Plug Power home cells in 2001 and aims to bring that below $4,000 by 2003. At 7-8[cts.]/kilowatt hour, fuel-cell electricity would be competitive with grid power in many regions. Fuel cell vehicles
Wind Power's Surprising Growth The wind energy boom is one of today's great, untold stories. Wind power, expanding an average 30 percent annually since 1994, grew even faster in 1999. The American Wind Energy Association The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), which formed in 1974, is the national trade association of the U.S. wind energy industry. The association's membership includes turbine manufacturers, wind project developers, utilities, academicians, and interested individuals. says that global windpower surged from about 10,000 MW to 13,400 MW in 1999 alone. The US added 732 MW in states as geographically diverse as California, Oregon, Wyoming, Minnesota Wyoming is a city in Chisago County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 3,048 at the 2000 census. Interstate Highway 35 serves as a main arterial route for the community. Geography Wyoming is located along the South Branch of the Sunrise River. and Iowa. Denmark now generates ten percent of its electricity from the wind and the Spanish state The Spanish State (Estado Español) was the formal name given to Spain from 1939 to 1978 by the régime of Francisco Franco (d. 1975). When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, the Nationalist forces immediately began using the form the Spanish State of Navarra 20 percent. Even the oil state of Texas aims to develop 2,000 MW of renewable energy Renewable energy utilizes natural resources such as sunlight, wind, tides and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished. Renewable energy technologies range from solar power, wind power, and hydroelectricity to biomass and biofuels for transportation. by 2009, the overwhelming majority from wind. The California Energy Commission The California Energy Commission is California’s primary energy policy and planning agency. Created in 1974 and headquartered in Sacramento, the Commission has responsibility for activities that include forecasting future energy needs, promoting energy efficiency through puts the wholesale cost of gas-fired electricity at 4.2[cts.]/kWh and coal at 5.2[cts.]/kWh. But wind could drop as low as 2.5[cts.]/kWh by 2010. At least 48,000 new megawatts of windpower will be added in the next ten years, increasing world wind capacity nearly fivefold fivefold Adjective 1. having five times as many or as much 2. composed of five parts Adverb by five times as many or as much Adj. 1. . The Wind Energy Council estimates that between 1996-2020, $150-400 billion will be invested in new windpower worldwide. US Energy Secretary Bill Richardson  This article or section contains information about one or more candidates in an upcoming or ongoing election.Content may change as the election approaches. has announced a plan to generate five percent of US electricity (80,000 MW) from wind by 2020. Providing 10 percent of world's electricity by 2020 will take a 1999-2020 investment of $720 billion -- less than 14 percent of the $10 trillion in energy investments expected over that timeframe. The wind industry would create 1.7 million jobs while eliminating 11 billion tons of [CO.sub.2]. Solar Power Tops a Billion Watts Solar energy solar energy, any form of energy radiated by the sun, including light, radio waves, and X rays, although the term usually refers to the visible light of the sun. crossed an important symbolic threshold in 1999, when the worldwide production of electricity from solar photovoltaic The generation of voltage by a material that is exposed to light in the visible and invisible ranges. See photoelectric and photovoltaic cell. (PV) cells surged past a gigawatt gig·a·watt n. Abbr. GW One billion (109) watts. (one billion watts). "The total solar power market is estimated to be approximately $2 billion, growing at 20-25 percent per year," notes the investment firm of Robertson Stevens. In 1972, solar PV electricity cost $500/watt but by 1999, wholesale prices hit $3.50/watt. Allied Business Intelligence projects wholesale costs of $1/watt by 2010. Constructing a 500 MW plant would drop the wholesale price to 90 cents. Building such a plant (along with an installation to supply raw silicon) would cost $660 million -- less than one percent of the annual global expenditures on oil exploration. San Diego-based Schumacher Technology has developed a method to make "green silicon" that does not require the vacuum and intense energy use currently involved. Running cooler, the process reduces energy consumption by 80 percent. The Revolution is Needed NOW! Wind power and solar PV are now the world's fastest-growing energy sources. Even the conservative International Energy Agency admits "the world is in the early stages of an inevitable transition to a sustainable energy system that will be largely dependent on renewable resources." Ushering in this energy transition with the speed required to prevent irreparable climate damage is an enormous challenge. The White House seems prepared to let the fossil fuel industry escape accountability. In order to ensure a rapid transition to clean energy, the government must remove subsidies to the fossil-fuel industry (which Industrial Economics Inc. estimates amounted to between $5.2 billion and $11.9 billion in 1995 alone). Next, the fossil fuel industry must be forced to stop polluting and pay the full cost of the damage it has caused. Finally, governments need to support the fledging clean-energy industry. Solar panels are being integrated into roofing materials, walls, and windows. This country's 105 million buildings represent around ten percent of world energy consumption, providing an enormous potential market for pollution-free power. We are at the portal of the Clean Energy Revolution. Whether it takes off fast enough to stabilize the climate is an issue of global urgency -- with long-term and irreversible implications. The emerging picture is of a Smart-Energy Web that parallels the Internet revolution. It represents the most significant transformation in energy since Thomas A. Edison set up the first powerplant more than a century ago. Patrick Mazza is a researcher at Climate Solutions. Rhys Roth is co-director of Climate Solutions. Dr Iain MacGill is energy solutions analyst with Greenpeace. [Climate Solutions, 610 E. 4th Avenue, Olympia, WA 98501, (360) 352-1763, Fax: 943-4977, info@climatesolutions.org, www.climatesolutions.org] |
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