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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Spain has overtaken the US as the biggest solar electricity generator in the world.

The opening of the new La Florida solar plant at Alvarado, Badajoz, in the west of the country, takes Spain’s solar output to 432 megawatts, compared with the US output of 422 megawatts.

The La Florida plant produces 50 megawatts of power with a parabolic trough system covering 550,000 square metres.

Protermosolar, the association that represents Spain’s solar energy sector, says that within a year another 600 megawatts will have come on-stream and that by 2013 solar capacity will have reached 2,500 megawatts..

Spain is also one of the world’s leading producers of wind power, with windfarms producing around 20,000 megawatts of electricity, and the third largest producer of hydro-electricity, after China and the US.

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Green roofs are now required by law on all new buildings with roof slopes of less than 30 degrees in Copenhagen. It is hoped that as much as 5,000 square metres will be covered with new vegetation each year. The initiative is part of the city’s plan to become the world’s first totally carbon neutral city.

Toronto has also made green roofs compulsory but only on residential buildings that are at least six stories high.

A green roof on a building in Toronto

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The world’s worst underground coal fires are in Inner Mongolia. Some have been burning for 50 years. The amount of coal being burned is estimated to be about 20 million tonnes a year.

The Inner Mongolia regional government has now announced plans and financing of 200 million yuan ($au36 million) to begin extinguishing the fires.

According to the plan, half of the fires could be extinguished by 2012 simply by digging coal out of the path of the fires and covering the fires with sand.

The government said that the fires were caused by "improper mining practices" and "dry weather" but did not explain why it has taken 50 years to produce a plan to put them out.

Collapsing coal seam burning in an open pit mine in the Rujigou coalfield in China. 

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The Japan Electric Vehicle Club has exceeded its own Guinness record for longest distance driven without recharging, achieving 1,003.184 km over 27.5 hours.

The club’s Daihatsu Mira EV was powered by a Sanyo battery system containing more than 8,320 lithium-ion batteries and ran at a speed of about 40 km/h at a track in Shimotsuma, in Ibaraki Prefecture.

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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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An international meeting on climate finance has approved plans to mobilise US$40 billion for country-led low-carbon growth. The Clean Technology Fund endorsed investment plans for Colombia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, bringing the number of plans in place around the world to 13. Donors to the Fund, which is managed by the World Bank, are the United States, Britain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway and Japan.

The Clean Technology Fund’s finance is intended to leverage local investment in low carbon technologies. For example, following the Fund’s endorsement ot a $US5.6 billion investment in concentrating solar power for Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, Morocco has announced plans for a $US9 billion solar energy project which will supply 38% of the country’s electricity by 2020.

The Moroccan project consists of five power generation sites to produce 2,000 megawatts of electricity, with a combined surface area of 10,000 hectares.

Indonesia is using Clean Technology Fund money as part of the funding for its plan to double its geothermal energy production capacity.
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Toshiba is in talks Terrapower, a company backed by Bill Gates, to jointly develop traveling wave nuclear reactors which are designed to use depleted uranium as fuel and could run for 60 years or more without refueling. (See http://www.greenbizcafe.com/?p=881 for a description of travelling wave reactors.)

Toshiba owns the Westinghouse Electric Company whose technology is the basis for about half of the world’s commercial nuclear reactors.

Toshiba is already developing its own mini nuclear reactors designed to operate continuously for 30 years and believes that 80 percent of the technologies used in the reactor under development can be applied to traveling-wave reactors.

Toshiba anticipates that commercialisation of traveling wave reactors could take about ten years.

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The Chinese Government has blocked General Motors attempt to sell Hummer to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, a private Chinese company that manufactures heavy vehicles and road-building equipment. As a result, General Motors will now dismantle the brand.

John Smith, General Motors’ Vice President of Corporate Planning and Alliances, said that "GM will now work closely with Hummer employees, dealers and suppliers to wind down the business in an orderly and responsible manner."

The Chinese Government did not give details of its reasons for blocking the purchase but according to Yale Zhang, a China auto-industry market analyst "The purchase of this brand is not a match for China. The Government’s general policies about efficiency and environmental protection …  This purchase does not match those."

 (Public domain photo via Wikimedia)

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In an interview with BBC, Carlos Ghosn, the head of Renault-Nissan, has outlined how he is pinning the future of his company on the electric car.

"I think the trends we’re seeing are all pointing in the same direction," he said. "Oil is a challenge, both price and availability. Regulations about environments are going to get tougher and tougher. I think the new generation is much more demanding about respect for the environment than we have ever imagined."

Mr Ghosn believes that the only technology which could compete with electric cars is the hydrogen fuel cell car but these are currently too expensive. On the other hand, he thinks that the cost of electric cars can eventually be reduced to one third of the present price.

Renault-Nissan is planning to build 500,000 electric cars per year - and will begin mass marketing in 2011. Renault and Nissan will each have a selection of four electric cars meeting different requirements. But he says that Renault-Nissan is the only company investing in that kind of capacity.

He believes that this will result in American, European and Japanese car makers having to merge while at least one Chinese and one Indian company will become a major supplier on the world market within a decade.

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