Google’s energy subsidiary has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with NextEra Energy.

Google will begin buying 114 megawatts of electricity from an Iowa wind farm later this year. Google intends to sell this energy on wholesale markets, and simultaneously buy energy where they need it.

By buying the wind energy directly, Google has created a giant hedge against both rising energy prices and the future cost of compliance with emissions reduction mandates

The company also pointed out that "our deal has a greater impact on the renewable industry than simply buying RECs from third parties; our long-term commitment directly frees up capital for the developer to build more wind projects … Through the long term purchase of renewable energy at a predetermined price, we’re partially protecting ourselves against future increases in power prices. This is a case where buying green makes business sense.".

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According to the European Wind Energy Association, the European wind power industry grew 54% in 2009. The Association is projecting 75% market growth in 2010. The UK and Denmark respectively accounted for 44% and 30% of European capacity in 2009.

The Association’s Chief Executive, Christian Kjaer, commented that, “Realistically, wind can provide 50% of power supplies by 2050 if the necessary changes to infrastructure and markets are made. The potential is there and the industry is ready. All we have to do is maintain current growth rates on- and offshore."

One of the keys to expansions in the UK is the agreement by energy companies to pay for a new radar system to allay Ministry of Defence concerns about the threat to national security posed by offshore wind farms which the Royal Air Force believes could cause blind spots in air defences.

The deal paves the way for a £7 billion ($au15 billion) investment in the construction of 924 wind turbines off the east coast which has been held up for years during negotiations about the radar.

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Contrary to expectations in the light of the global economic turndown, wind power installations grew strongly in 2009.

China was the world’s largest market in 2009, more than doubling its wind generation capacity from 12.1 gigawatts to 25.1 gigawatts at the end of 2009.

The US installed nearly 10 GW in 2009, increasing the country’s installed capacity by 39% to 35 gigawatts.

Europe also exceeded expectations inn 2009 with 10.5 gigawatts of new wind generaion capacity installed, bringing the total installed in Europe to 76 gigawatts.

Within Europe, Spain installed the most with 2.5 gigawatts of new wind generating capacity, bringing its total to more than 19 gigawatts. Germany installed 1.9 gigawatts in 2009, bringing its total installled wind generating capacity to 25.7 gigawatts. The UK and France also installed more than a gigawatt of new  capacity each.

Australia installed 0.4 gigawatts of new wind generating capacity bringing its total installed capacity to 1.7 gigawatts, while New Zealand installed 0.17 gigawatts of new capacity for a total of almost 0.5 gigawatts installed.

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Despite continuing difficulties getting funding for large projects, Europe’s offshore wind power generating capacity grew by 54% in 2009.

A total of 199 wind turbines, with a combined capacity of 577 megawatts, were installed at eight new offshore wind farms connected to the European grid in 2009.  

The European Wind Energy Association expects ten more European offshore wind farms to be completed in 2010, adding another 1,000 megawatts - equivalent to market growth of a further 75% compared with 2009. The turnover of the offshore wind industry was approximately €1.5 billion ($au2,3 billion) in 2009 - this is expected to double in 2010.

More than 100 gigawatts (100,000 megawatts) of projects are at various stages of planning. These could provide enough power to meet 10% of Europe’s electricity demand - and would be equivalent to about three times Australia’s total power generating capacity.

Wind Turbines off Copenhagen
(Photo by Less Salty ex Wikimedia)

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Nine European countries have agreed to work together to build an electricity "super-grid" which will allow them to integrate their renewable energy production and storage facilities.

The nine countries - Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland and the UK - are planning a network made up of thousands of kilometres of highly efficient undersea cables that could cost up to €30 billion ($au47 billion).

The network would connect wind turbines off the coast of Scotland, solar panel arrays in Germany and wave power plants off Belgium and Denmark with hydro-electric dams in Norway.

More than 100 gigawatts of offshore wind projects are under development in Europe, mainly in the North Sea. Norway’s many hydro-electric dams could be used like a giant battery with surplus energy produced when winds are blowing being used to pump water uphill to be released through turbines and generate electricty when the wind and solar power being generated is inadequate.

The North Sea grid could link into grids stretching from the North African desserts across the Mediterranean, proposed for the even larger German-led plan for renewables, called the Desertec Industrial Initiative, which was launched last November. This aims to provide 15% of Europe’s electricity by 2050 (or earlier).

The Desertec project plans to use concentrated solar power plants in Norh Africa and Southern Europe.  In these plants, mirrors concentrate the sun’s rays on a fluid container and the super-heated liquid drives turbines to generate electricity.

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Nine countries have signed up to develop an integrated offshore grid in the North and Irish Seas.

England, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland have agreed to co-operate on the development of offshore wind infrstructure which is intended to make supplies of electricity more secure for the participating countries by making it easier to optimise offshore wind electricity production. It will also help the EU as a whole to meet its renewable energy target for 2020.

Lord Hunt, the UK Minister for Energy and Climate Change said that "We’re already the world leader in offshore wind here in the UK and today’s announcements bring new funding and expert direction to grow this vital new industry. They also mean we can work with other countries in the EU to increase our renewable energy supplies.”

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For a period of five hours on Sunday (8 November, 2009), 53% of Spain’s electricity was produced by its wind turbines.

Spain began installing wind turbines in 1997 and, up to about five years ago, critics claimed that the country could never produce more than 14% of its power needs from wind.

Overall this year, Spain expects to produce 13% of its power from wind, 20% from nuclear, 10% from hydro and 2.5% from solar. The contribution of wind is expected to double by 2020 and Spain’s Prime Minister, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has suggested that the contribution of renewables may soon be suffient to begin phasing out nuclear power.

According to the Spanish Environment Ministry, tn 2007, Spain invested €991 million ($au1,590 million) in wind power and saved €1,000 million  ($au1,610 million) in fossil fuel costs.

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Offshore wind farm developers have announced plans for major development in the outer Forth and Tay areas off the coast of Scotland. The proposed sites have a combined capacity of 2,470 megawatts.

The plan comprises four individual projects locatied at least 10 kilometres from shore and in a total area covering approximately 475 square kilometres.

The plan requires major programmes of studies and surveys including; fisheries, shipping, birds, marine mammals and seabed conditions before approval will be granted by the Scottish Government.  The developers believe that this could be achieved as early as mid-2012 with construction beginning in 2014 and commissioning in 2018.

Agreements to permit development of a further six sites in Scottish waters and two sites outside territorial waters off the Scottish east coast are expected by the end of 2009. These have a potential capacity of a further 3,700 megawatts.

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Stanford civil and environmental engineering Professor Mark Z. Jacobson and University of California-Davis researcher Mark Delucchi.have written an article for Scientific American analysing how the world could achieve 100% clean energy by 2030.

Their analysis concluded that the key factor is eliminating all forms of combustion as a way of generating power. The reason for this is the inefficiency of the use of fossil fuel and biomass combustion.. For example, when petrol is used to power a vehicle, at least 80 percent of the energy produced is wasted as heat.  On the other hand, in electric vehicles roughly 80 percent of the energy supplied to the vehicle is converted into motion, with only 20 percent lost as heat. Similar comparisons apply to other combustion devices compared to electricity or hydrogen produced by electricity.

The researchers concluded that if the world’s current mix of energy sources is maintained, global energy demand in 2030 would be 16.9 million megawatts. If no fossil fuel or biomass is used to generate energy, the demand will be only 11.5 million megawatts.

To achieve this, the world would have to build wind turbines; solar photovoltaic and concentrated solar arrays and geothermal, tidal, wave and hydroelectric power sources to generate electricity. On the other hand, the need for 13,000 coal-fired power stations would be elimated.
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