67% of Brits favour local wind farms

More than two-thirds of UK citizens support building more wind farms in their immediate areas.

Read more at http://www.ewea.org/blog/2013/09/67-of-brits-favour-local-wind-farms

A green energy future

A team of University researchers have found that a large majority of the British public support moves to an efficient, clean, fair, and safe energy system but distrust remains a concern.

Transforming the UK energy system – public values, attitudes and acceptability brings together the findings from two in-depth phases of research carried out over a period of 30 months; a series of six in-depth deliberative workshops with members of the public held across England, Scotland and Wales, and a nationally representative survey of 2,441 members of the public.

Read the full article at http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/articles/a-green-energy-future-11372.html

Power system reserve - No need to build wind back-up

Excellent article at http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1192957/power-system-reserve---no-need-build-wind-back-up

Key Points:

• Back-up is always provided for all power plants on a system, with or without wind
• There is no need to build back-up for wind; existing power plants in any system provide the required back-up for all plants
• Wind generation displaces fossil-fuel generation and some of those plants can be taken out of operation
• As the penetration of wind increases in any power system, the volume of capacity that is operated at part load, ready to ramp up or down according to peaks in demand or unexpected generation shortfalls, increases slightly to maintain a consistent probability of security of supply
• Since the volume of extra reserve when adding wind is modest so is the additional cost. Savings from wind replacing other generation are likely to more than cover that extra cost
• The emissions saved by wind displacing fossil-fuel generation are far greater than any extra emissions from increased spinning reserve.

Have added the info to the ProWA 'variability page' at http://www.prowa.org.uk/variability.html

Poll: UK energy policy is not green enough

BBC survey shows strong support for renewables and that the majority of the public would be willing to pay more for green energy. Read the full article at http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2292854/poll-uk-energy-policy-is-not-green-enough

Fukushima farce reveals nuclear industry's fatal flaw

Excellent article by Damian Carrington in today's Guardian at http://www.theguardian.com/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2013/sep/04/fukushima-farce-nuclear-industry-flaw

Quote:
"As the false nuclear dawn fades, a new brighter horizon may be revealed, where the intrinsically safe and therefore ultimately cheaper technologies of energy efficiency and renewable energy can used to build a power system fit for the 21st century, not one harking back to the 20th".

Hear, hear!

Villagers in push for wind turbine project

For another example of the renewable energy revolution that is underway in Britain see article at http://www.gazetteherald.co.uk/news/10653318.Villagers_in_push_for_wind_turbine_project

Germany in Transition

Interesting article at http://www.downtoearth.org.in/themes/DTE/germany/germany.htm

Quote:

"Will Germany be able to solve all problems and meet challenges that energiewende has thrown up? Can it meet all its targets?
I believe, it can and it will. The exciting thing about energiewende is not how much renewable energy Germany has installed so far, but how the German government, businesses and civil society are thinking about the energy transition. I believe the German society has crossed the hump."